Who do you respect the most in the industry ?

This isnt just about devs, its about anyone and everyone. 
 
I must say that the company that has always amazed me is Nintendo .. their never-ending innovations and inventions for the last 2-3 decades and the way they just keep pushing forward and creating fun stuff and making people explode with pure entertainment, is really fucking super. 
I'm no fanboy. ive never played a Nintendo game or touched a Nintendo platform in my life (and its too late and too expensive to get my nintendo on).. My appreciation comes from seeing footage, hearing what people have to say, and reading articles and other pieces about the company. (oh and, watching AVGN videos ofcourse) 
And so, I salute Nintendo for being an incredible video game giant that dazzles me from afar, without even having to try their products! 
 
                                                                                                                                         How i envy Nintendo nerds... Ya im lookin at you JJOR64 
 
P.S. my favorite developer is Rockstar Games, but Nintendo still takes the cake for ultimate respect. 
 
 
Do you have anyone special in the industry that you respect the most? or anyone you respect/appreciate for a special reason ? 
(inb4 Bioware / Valve :P )

definitely rockstar

Cliffy B, guys at Gearbox, Valve, Rockstar, Bioware, and Blizzard if Diablo 3 ever comes out.

Jeff Gerstmann. Leslie Benzies. Pete Hines.

Johnny V.

Frank Lantz and Area/Code

Jeff Gerstmann

Nintendo and the guys at Clover Studio/Platinum Games.

i used to love rare , but now they make junk

thatgamecompany and fumito ueda. I heavily endorse what they are doing and their innovations

If I had to pick one, I'd say Valve and Gabe Newell. He really believes in games as a service and supporting games far past their release. I mean, just look at CS:S and Team Fortress 2. Plus, he just seems like a really down-to-Earth kind of guy who has stains on all of his t-shirts.

Valve, Blizzard, BioWare. 99% of their games are fantastic exoeriences. Also, the staff here at GiantBomb, I've followed them since they all worked at Gamespot, and I doubt I'll stop any time soon.

Blizzard, Valve. Their ability to keep things secret until the very last moment, when it is most opportune to go public, tells of a solid and tightly knit team who knows what the hell they're doing. Their takes on gaming humor (Valve's in particular) are just superior to anything ever produced by another game company.
 
That their games are great just adds to it.
 
They're followed, closely, by Relic Entertainment, who have a knack of following the communities built around their games with interest, and actually answering to sensible feedback in the form of patches and content updates.

Kevin Butler..

" Kevin Butler.. "

Bioware and Rockstar because these developers keep pushing the edge and are fighting on the front lines to safeguard our freedom of speech. 
 
Also, they make great games with excellent money / value ratios.

Kojima and his crew at Kojima Productions.

" Jeff Gerstmann "

Sega.  My childhood wouldn't have been the same without arcade gaming and my Mega Drive.  Then the advance to Saturn and Dreamcast just blew me away.  They aren't having the best time these days but Sega helped shape modern gaming for me and I have so much respect for that.

CD Projekt Red

Atlus for bringing quality niche titles that we would never get to play otherwise to the West with the best localization team in the business. I respect them for not being the condescending bastards that most publishers are and for knowing their audience well. I'm happy to see that they are being rewarded for it with huge profits.

Spiderman.

Nintendo. Say what you like about how shit the Wii is, in the end, in 50 odd years time, people will forget about GTAs and Modern Warfares (or there'll be sequels) but everyone will remember Mario, Link and the gang.

Kevin Butler.

The fine folks at Blizzard, Naughty Dog and Valve.
 
...and hype-man extraordinaire, Paul Barnett.

Twisted Pixel and Atlus, off the top of my head.

John Carmack. Dude knows his shit.

Valve. Their next bad game will be their first.

Development Side - Paul Barnett 
Journalism Side - John Davison 
 
Before you ask, it has nothing to do with them being British...

not the one i respect the most but really deserves praise are the boys at Penny Arcade for childsplay pretty amazing stuff there.

Tim Schafer, easily.

The people who do all the hard work, but no one knows their name...even in their favourite pub. 
otherwise Atlus

Valve, Blizzard and Bioware. Why? Well, first off, these three companies have been around for a long time and they are still holding the PC true (Valve and Blizzard more thatn Bioware)
 
All three make excellent games (even though I usually don't play Blizzard games) and have strong connections with the community and gamers. Extra props to Valve for their "we don't give a shit when you want the game, we release it when we want" attitude. And Steam sales of course!

Small time developers like RedLynx and Johathan Blow. Taking chances on good ideas and raising the bar.

David Cage, Valve.
 
That's it. :(

Fire Emblem. Yes, that was predictable, but so what?

Valve, Atlus,  Chris Avellone,

Rockstar, Remedy, BioWare and Epic Games above every one else.

Valve and Masahiro Sakurai; People that seem to really enjoy what they do. That and they have a great sense of humor :D

Is it a bad thing I can not think of one person. I mean I respect anyone who works hard.

" Kojima and his crew at Kojima Productions. "

Bioware, Blizzard, Rockstar, and Valve. They are true craftsmen.

 Naughty Dog and Bungie, simply for the fact that both developers transcended petty console fanboyism that us consumers believe in and helped each other in some nondescript way that caused Naughty Dog put in a "Special Thanks" mention to Bungie in the end credits of Uncharted 2.