With the news of Gary Gygax’s death last week, it caused me to sit down and think about the way D&D has impacted pretty much every aspect of gaming we see today and my life in general. Now, I’ll admit that I’ve played a little bit of Dungeons and Dragons in my younger years, but it never sparked my interest as much as video games. Games inspired by rules laid down decades before their release.
Shooters and sports games are the least partially affected by the rules set forth in D&D. You may not get a saving throw from that grenade, but the way a computer calculates trajectory and impact is influenced by D & D rules. While there’s no D6 roll to see if your reciever catches the ball, however, most action games and pretty much every RPG on the market follow the rules set down by Mr. Gygax back in ‘74. Without that foundation, I don’t think Final Fantasy would exist, meaning Square as we know it would have ceased to be a long time ago. Think about the impact of that scenario for a moment.
In my opinion, MMORPGs have been influenced more by the D&D ruleset than any other game to date. Every time your character in WoW attacks or is attacked, the computer calculates in the background much like players would do in a D&D campaign. Critical Strikes, resistances, hits, misses, parries, dodges - all of them are triggered in the background by basically the computer throwing a die and coming up with a number.
So I salute Gary Gygax, even if this article is a bit late. I salute Gary Gygax and the huge impact he and Dave Arneson has made on the world of video gaming. You have given me countless hours of fun, sir, and I hope wherever you are now that every roll is a Perfect 20.
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8 responses so far ↓
1 Bono Hit My Car // Mar 11, 2008 at 11:40 am
Amen… I just played D&D last Sunday and I forgot how much fun it was.
2 thesenderof8 // Mar 11, 2008 at 1:54 pm
cool. even though i never really played d and d
3 Minbad // Mar 11, 2008 at 3:49 pm
1938 or 1974?
4 Animathias // Mar 11, 2008 at 3:59 pm
He was born in 1938, and co-created Dungeons & Dragons in 1974.
5 Saccia // Mar 11, 2008 at 6:12 pm
I gotta love XKCD’s spin on the sad news of his death. It gives you a little smile: http://xkcd.com/393/
6 Mr Scavenge // Mar 11, 2008 at 7:51 pm
hear hear i totally agree and that is why D&D is still the best game around even though like 2nd edition is probably better then third
cheers Gary Gygax for all those fun times
7 Keith K // Mar 11, 2008 at 10:29 pm
Think of all the friendships and bonds forged through such games. Truly a life well lived.
8 keeton52 // Mar 12, 2008 at 8:50 am
he will be missed…and yep wher he is there is only a 20
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