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Dungeons and Dragons Co-Creator Interviewed

Posted by simoniker on from the venger-versus-tiamat dept.

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."

6 of 30 comments (clear)

  1. Re:a letter to pseudo-nerds (i.e. d&d players) by OwlofCreamCheese · · Score: 5, Funny

    okay, this is a troll, so we need either acid or fire!!!

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    -You're wasting your time. Alfador only likes me.
  2. He plays the game himself by sahonen · · Score: 5, Funny

    I wonder what his character stats are like?

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    Make me a friend and I'll mod you up
  3. Name recognition by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    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!

  4. My Hello World by (H)elix1 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

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    +++ UGUCAUCGUAUUUCU
  5. Re:Too much credit here... by iq+in+binary · · Score: 4, Informative

    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).

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    Of all the Universal Constants, here's one I know: Nice guys finish last ;)
  6. Re:a letter to pseudo-nerds (i.e. d&d players) by pyrros · · Score: 4, Funny

    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.