RIP Gary Gygax (1938-2008) .... without whom, western RPGs or even most MMORPGs nowadays would be totally (icewind) poles apart ... here's to the faithful departed, though he might've failed the final saving throw in this passing plane/life, may he always roll a full d20 in the next.

If one analyze (too much free time), eastern-created MMORPGs namely MapleStory, Lineage, etc., still borrow from the D&D and AD&D systems e.g. rolling dice to create character stats, party-dungeon crawling, combat system, experience points, leveling, etc. ... in addition to obvious western MMORPGs:- WoW, Everquest, etc. .... in further addition to CRPGs:- Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, Neverwinter Nights, Planescape Torment, Fallout, The Elder Scroll series, Wizardry, Ultima, KotOR, The Witcher, Diablo, Dungeon Siege, Titan Quest, among numerous others. Even some JRPGs e.g. the early Final Fantasy & Dragon Quest are kinda influenced by D&D style (not in the character creation dept. though), IMO.

One could say, if J.R.R. Tolkien popularize the western fantasy-myth world, Mr. Gygax & his co-creator Dave Arneson enabled us to play in it (by taking the settings and materialize them into adventurable & playable system anyone with imagination could partake in).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Gygax
http://blogs.forbes.com/digitaldownload/20...tes-to-gar.html
http://pc.gamespy.com/articles/856/856893p1.html (include tributes from Blizzard's CEO & Bioware's GM)
http://www.simplytl.1up.com/do/blogEntry?b...cUserId=5380367
http://www.roleplay.org/articles/rpg-intro/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_role-playing_game
http://www.freeyabb.com/phpbb/viewtopic.ph...=trolllordgames (1st breaking of the news)


This post has been edited by r2t2: Mar 7 2008, 02:23 PM