Games

Grandfather of Dungeons & Dragons Dead at 69

His creation was a huge influence on the development of computer games

By Andrei Dumitrescu, Games Editor

5th of March 2008, 10:42 GMT

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Gary Gygax, the man who, together with Dave Arneson, designed the first Dungenons & Dragons game somewhere in 1974, has died. He was 69 years of age and had been ill for some time now. He will be missed.

Dungeons & Dragons was and still is hugely important to videogames as we know them today. Let's look at some ramifications. When personal computers became available for the

first time, enthusiasts of D&D began to create text adventures based on the rules of the board game. Things long forgotten like Colossal Cave or Zork. Endless variants using text, called MUD from Multi User Dungeon, then appeared. One MUD player and D&D fanatic was a young Richard Garriott, also known widely as Lord British. He then proceeded to create Ultima I, a game clearly based on D&D. A game that spawned no less than 8 other games in the series and then Ultima Online. Garriott released Tabula Rasa last year. Parallel to Ultima, Everquest grew out of the same passion for Dungenons & Dragons. And without Everquest we probably wouldn't have World of Warcraft and other MMOGs.

Later in the '90s, BioWare used not only the new Advanced D&D principles, but also the Forgotten Realms D&D setting to create a number of very successful and now legendary games, like the Baldur's Gate and the Icewind Dale series. Nowadays, we have Neverwinter Nights, which works on the latest AD&D rules. There's even A Dungeons & Dragons MMO in development from Turbine.

Tons of other games are based on intellectual property that comes from board games. Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 games are out now and based on the table top games that involves hand painting miniature soldiers. Numerous RPG games available have mechanics, like dice rolls and character creation, that are lifted right out of pen-and-paper games.

And none of this would be the same if it wasn't for Gary Gygax in his basement creating the base for Dungeons & Dragons with a friend, somewhere in 1974.

TAGS:

Gary Gygax | Dungeons | Dragons | MMO | World of Warcraft

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