First Person:Time Honors Lara Croft

The October-November edition of Time Digital has just hit the streets and with it Time's ranking of the Cyber Elite.

On the list of the "digital world's top 50 shakers," you find the usual subjects - Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, AOL CEO Steve Case, Intel's Andy Grove, Oracle's Larry Ellison, etc. etc.

You'll also find some names from the gaming world - John Romero, Nintendo President Hiroshi Yamauchi, video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto...and Lara Croft. The main character in Eidos' Tomb Raider and its upcoming sequel Tomb Raider II came in at number 47 on Time's list - ahead of a handful of people who actually do such things as eat and sleep.

Why Time chose to bestow such an honor upon a game character instead of a living, breathing human is unknown, but the magazine states in its write-up of Croft, "(She) has broken the glass ceiling for video-game women but also created a sensation everywhere from Sony's PlayStation to PCs." Which is true of course.

One can't help but think, however, that Time might best be served restricting its list of movers and shakers to people who actually exist.