The History of Gaming (and so forth...)

[Mark]

With the turn of the calendar to a new year I was feeling a bit nostalgic and dug up a couple of bookmarked articles. Please add links to other articles on the same subject, if you please.

A Short History of Wargames

Here There Be Dragons: The into the past and future of the king of role-playing games

Feel free to also comment on the content of the articles and point out any discrepancies you might note. Best to provide links to places that support any of those objections, if they can be proffered.

Thanks!

 

[Mark]

No comments...?

 

[Mistwell]

I find it very interesting...a bit much to digest in a short period of time perhaps. I'm sure there will be comments, once people slowly work their way through the material.

 

[johnsemlak]

The article "Here There Be Dragons" is a great article. I actually got back into gaming partially because I came upon that article via a google search

I've read some slightly different accounts about when miniature wargaming actually turned into fantasy roleplaying with Gygax, Arneson, and the gang. That article says the key moment was when Arneson created and played that senario involving characters breaking into a fortress. Can anyone comment further on that?

Looking at it again, I've often wondered really how well researched that article is. It quotes extensively from Gygax and Arneson, and doesn't seem to refer to many other sources. It'd be a little more balenced if it had more from other influential people in D&D's history, like Zeb Cook for example.

 

[Dark Jezter]

Hey, I just posted that "Here there be Dragons" article in the D&D 30th Anniversary thread.

Great article.

 

[Mark]

Yup. It is a fair amount of material and information. I wonder if someone good be convinced (Hey Ghostwind!) to do a similar artcle with a focus on filling in the gaps and catching up with everyone who was anyone back then for some insight on the times...

 

[Dark Jezter]

Oh, here's another article related to D&D history, although it focuses mostly on the AD&D computer games that came out in the late 1980s and the span of the 1990s. Despite the focus on computer games, however, this article still contains info on D&D's pen and paper incarnations.

Gamespot's History of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons

Reading this article sure brought back memories. I remember playing some of these games on my Commodore 64.

 

[Mark]

Good one, DJ! Thanks!

Here's an interesting site with some very extensive descriptions of early games -

The Museum of Role Playing Games

 

[diaglo]

can you really write a history about something that is still ongoing?

 

[johnsemlak]

can you really write a history about something that is still ongoing?

If we can't, that would eliminate the following generic history book titles:

The History of the World
The History of the Universe
The History of the United States
The History of Europe
etc.