These Game Developers Have Forever Shaped the RPG World
I don’t know about you but my favorite part about role playing games is the ability to temporarily assume a different persona. Life troubles suck of course and it’s refreshing to escape these realities sometimes. A lot of people play videogames for this very reason. Simply put, if you want to leave the shitty real world, you’re in luck.
This escape and assumption of new roles would not be possible without the rulers and goddesses of RPGS. These are the people that have brought you some of the most incomparable role playing games in history, such as World of Warcraft and Fallout. They don’t only stop there, they continue spitting out expansions and sequels like wildfires.
These developers and producers are some of the greatest RPG makers in the world. The most reputable and praise-worthy are Bethesda, CD Projekt Red, BioWare, Blizzard, and Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. These guys are basically our heroes. They bring in billions of dollars every year to give us gamers what we want: the adventure of a lifetime. Repeatedly. As if it were our birthday every time a new game were released. Now I’ll get into why we should kiss the dusty ground these guys walk on.
Bethesda
Bethesda was founded by a man named Christopher Weaver in Maryland. He wanted to test the PC gaming market to see if it was a practical field to invest in. This was back in 1986 and apparently it was indeed a profitable business move. This notion was proven when they were approached by Electronic Arts to develop some games for them: most notably the John Madden football game.
The most well-known games by this developer are the critically-acclaimed Elder Scrolls series and the Fallout sequels. Not only are these games badass, they have true character. A notable example is when the developers placed a sentimental Easter egg within the wastelands of the Nuka World expansion. A character was featured to commemorate a man that had passed away in real life. His brother was a huge fan of Fallout and wanted to immortalize him within the game.
CD Projekt Red
CD Projekt Red is another noteworthy role-playing game publishing company. The company was founded by Marcin Iwinski and Michael Kicinski in Warsaw, Poland in the 1994. These guys were just two video game-loving dudes and wanted to do more than just sell said video games.
The most notable creation from CD Projekt Red are the Witcher Series. They also had quite the luck with bringing Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance to Poland. They localized it with the help of Interplay and BioWare. There were difficult obstacles to overcome with piracy but eventually they got through and brought great revenue to their name. This is exactly what they needed though because the company teetered on the edge of bankruptcy for years. The company showed great success and even won the “Game Publisher of the Year” award in December of 2015.
BioWare
BioWare got its start from a trio of doctors fresh out of med school in Canada. Their names were Ray Muzyka, Greg Zeschuk, and Augustine Yip. The three guys dabbled with programming during their studies and simply loved playing video games. In 1995, they decided they wanted to start creating their own video games. Currently, the company is owned by Electronic Arts and only two of the doctors proceeded to pursue the gaming journey.
BioWare is more known for its production and release of Baldur’s Gate, Star Wars: Knight of the Old Republic, Mass Effect, and Dragon Age. Each of these titles have critical acclaim and are well known in the RPG community.
Blizzard
Blizzard got its start because of three UCLA graduates, Michael Morhaime, Frank Pearce, and Allen Adham in 1991. Originally, the company was Silicon and Synapse. They stayed S&S for about four years before it became the Blizzard Entertainment that we know today. These guys started off as building ports for games and ended as one of the most successful RPG makers of all time.
Blizzard dipped their toes into the shimmering pool of success with the first Warcraft: Orcs & Humans game. It is safe to assume they enjoyed that sweet, savory taste of success. Thus World of Warcraft, Starcraft, Diablo, and Overwatch many years later were born. Many more were birthed in the mix of these best known games and a multitude of expansions were to follow.
Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson
Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson are the dynamic duo that first set the groundwork that would forever shape the RPG world. They teamed up to develop the first published role playing game together. Dungeons and Dragons was born in the 1970s thanks to Gary and Dave.
It’s not like they grew up together and had a lifelong childhood vision with each other though. In fact, they didn’t meet until later in life at a gaming convention in Wisconsin. Dave Arneson befriended Gary Gygax at Gen Con, which was a convention Gary established in the first place.
Dave Arneson initially showed him the rules and structure of a different game called Blackmoor. Once he presented it to Gary Gygax within the next year, the two took the ideals of Blackmoor and molded the rules into what is now D&D. The game was ready for publishing. So Gary Gygax founded Tactical Studies Rules with a friend he grew up with, or better known as TSR, to get its name out there in 1974. TSR in turn produced a magazine also founded by Gygax dedicated to D&D.
Neither ended up staying at TSR ultimately. A couple of years later, Arneson left and ended up in the midst of a lawsuit with them. Although he ended up coming back briefly, he left again shortly after giving it another go. Many years later, Gygax left because of the new owner.
They both pursued their love of video games and making rules after. Arneson taught a PC design class at Full Sail University in Orlando, Florida. Gygax carried on with the production of other worthy RPG and pursued temporary voice acting.
Both gaming masters died within a year of each other due to different causes. Gary Gygax passed away from an abdominal aortic aneurysm. Dave Arneson passed a year later in 2009 after battling cancer for two years.
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