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Dungeons and Dragons Co-Creator Interviewed
spongebob writes "The great Dave Arneson was interviewed on his current work and upcoming releases at EnWorld. Arneson is one of the most important figures in gaming, because he was co-author of Dungeons & Dragons, that little game who spawned an entire industry (or two, if we count videogames). Despite this, he doesn't enjoy the immense recognition given to Gary Gygax, the other author of Dungeons & Dragons. This is perhaps explainable with the fact that Gary Gygax had a long and high profile career as game designer and manager of TSR Hobbies (then TSR) for many years and for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons' creation. Anyway, Dave remains a sort of 'unsung legend' of the gaming world."
okay, this is a troll, so we need either acid or fire!!!
-You're wasting your time. Alfador only likes me.
you give real geeks a bad name.
THEY give geeks a bad name? They're not the contrived, egotistic, homophobe douchebags you seem to be. Why do you bother posting negative stuff when all it accomplished is making you look retarded?
Soooo. what do you do when your GF plays along with you in a campaign?
We play a monthly campaign with a few (7) friends. Even my GF has got worked up into it more than I have sometimes. And even though it's RP, you're with friends. That's the real reason it's fun.
That's why single player Diablo 2, NWN, and any other RPG is really not fun.
And as a last not, taking RP too far is quite scary. Hell, taking anything too far is scary to deal with. Though, RP is a great way to get with friends for a fun game.
And yes, I know you're a troll.
I wonder what his character stats are like?
Make me a friend and I'll mod you up
I graduated from Full Sail, and have met Mr. Arneson in passing and he's a nice fellow. My former room-mates are both associate course directors in the same program he's a course director in, though they teach different classes, and it's my understanding that he gives out autographed copies of a D&D starter kit to his students.
In fact, my former supervisor's cubicle is right across from his!
(I can already hear the paparazzi!)
-1, Flamebait.
Free Java games for your phone: Tontie, Sokoban
Mr. Arneson doesn't receive the kind of recognition Gary Gygax does, because he doesn't have an equally wacky name. Being named something like "Gygax" or "Ransom Love" really helps you in becoming famous!
I'm sure I'm not the only one who used the *D&D framework as their training ground for programming languages and architectures. I know I've build character toolkits, etc, in Pascal, C, C++, VB, Java, and a few other oddball platforms (like the pocket PC and my HP 48). It has been years since I actually played, but modeling some of the game mechanics, learning how to have multiple people working on a project, discovering how stupid/ungrateful/correct users can actually be all started from personal projects based on the game. If for nothing else, it was nice to have such a tangible target - even if it was just to play a game.
+++ UGUCAUCGUAUUUCU
It's a sad day on slashdot when an article about D&D gets so few posts that it doesn't rise above the 2 level.
"The times, they be a'changin'" -Dylan
SB
It's old. The more humans I meet, the more I like my cats. At least they are honest.
Videogames? Um, no. Dumbass.
You are wrong, plain and simple. Among the most popular of the first videogames to hit the market were based off of D&D. To this day we still see analogs of the D20 system fostered by Gygax and Arneson, such games still happen to be a staple of the industry.
And BTW, editors, D&D spawned 3 industries. The first CCG to go mainstream (M:tG) was heavily influenced by D&D itself (spoke the creator).
Of all the Universal Constants, here's one I know: Nice guys finish last
I cast "Magic Missile"!
(First Magic Missile Post)
RPG games defined PC game quality in the beginning and to some still do if you count depth ;)
An Education is the Font of All Liberty
Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
and not resort to diverting my sexual urges into a game where i pretend to be a wizard.
You are completely wrong. I play a cleric.
Roll the dice to see if any /.ers RTFA!
What are you smoking? The most popular videogames were Asteroids, Space Duel, Pac-Man, Space Invaders and a bunch of other things which are totally unrelated to D&D. In fact, they were mostly space-related. I suppose you could point to the Atari 2600 Adventure game, but that hardly qualifies as evidence of one industry spawning another. It wasn't until LATE in the videogame craze that games like Gauntlet and Dragon's Lair started showing up, and by then the videogame industry was already well on it's way to losing it's creativity and cranking out tried-and-true formula games (ten thousand variations of Street Fighter).
And if none of those references mean anything to you, you simply aren't old enough to comment on "the first videogames to hit the market".
Slashdot quality declines as the number of hot grits posts decreases. - Provolt's Law, Apr-09-2005
So, he's like the Woz of DnD?
I have a lot of opinions about Cyborgs and Architects
Video games existed *BEFORE* arcades. Try checking out some of the games that were written for mainframe systems.
Putting a wig on your boyfriend and calling him a "woman" doesnt count. Come out of your repressed closet and enjoy life!!
So we should leave our good name in the hands of the email-spammers, virus-writers, and evil CEOs?
-Jeff
Please learn the difference between a dissenting opinion and a troll before you moderate.
Second, you're probably talking about games like spacewar or the endless variations on the Trek game, and once again I think you'll find most of those games were also space-related.
Third, there is no shortage of D&D predecessors (Chainmail comes to mind...) which are more likely candidates as inspiration for the dungeon-adventure games that were being written back then.
Finally, it's really a stretch to call those video games. Most of them would have worked equally well on teletypes (and of course, quite a few of them were actually played that way).
Consequently, I have to agree with the original parent, it's extremely silly to credit D&D with spawning the videogame industry -- and that IS the claim the article made.
Slashdot quality declines as the number of hot grits posts decreases. - Provolt's Law, Apr-09-2005
Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.
"Back in the good old days of gaming, there were no rules - only a referee with a gun and a chair." - David L. Arneson