Today with KJ!

Dungeons and Dragons has taken a big turn in history today after losing one of the creators after a long battle with cancer.  David Arneson , co-creator - died at the age of 61 in St. Paul.  Dungeons and Dragons was created in the early 70’s by he and founding partner Gary Gygax who passed in March 2008 at the age of 69. Together they created one of the most popular games in history - winning several awards and accolades even after all these years since developing the game.

The Minnesota native was a well accomplished war-gamer during his developing days and it sparked his commitment to delivering a role-playing game, that eventually became a household name fast.  D&D was one of my favorite games and now most of the online mmorpg’s have a similar game play that people enjoy to this day.  Arneson is  definitely a pioneer in the gaming industry who kept a very small profile, but he had a very big impact on video gaming entertainment.

I have to say that in my younger days my mom use to make us go outside just to get off of the game.  But we beat the system just like most kids  -and we created our dungeons & dragons game outside in the community using select houses as base and running around bashing each other - good vs. evil.  Those were the good ole days.  And when you think of Arneson,  he has put a little bit of himself in all of us.  He was able to bring out the inner imagination of gamers and make it a reality on the screen.  Not many people new that when he was developing games in the early 70’s, he used rock, paper, scissors as the decided factor as to who won the combat - it was from there that he implemented hit points and gear items to determine strength and combatibility along with his partner Gary Gygax, that he met during a war-game convention in August of 1969.  And together they soon created the award winning title, Dungeons and Dragons - after developing naval battle games as well.

So when you log into your mmorpg today, give respect to the late David Arneson and Gary Gygax for their contributions to the gaming industry and giving the present developers something to build on.  I would like to personally thank Mr. Arneson and Mr. Gygax - by dedicating the comments to them and show our utmost respect to great pioneers in the gaming industry.  Together we can respond to this blog and show our respect to a men that made it possible for us to talk and blog about so many games.

R.I.P. - David L. Arneson  (October 1, 1947 - April 7, 2009  - Age 61)

R.I.P. - Ernest Gary Gygax  (July 27, 1938 - March 4, 2008 - Age 69)

You heard it Today with KJ!

KJ