[game_preservation] Arthur C. Clarke dies, aged 90

[Henry Lowood]

I don't have anything to add on Arthur C. Clarke, but I do have some 
thoughts on Gary Gygax. Bottom line: I think he is a shoo-in for a page:

1. He was a game designer.
2. The basic role-playing system in D&D is evident in the majority 
(easily) of digital role-playing games.  Even today in WoW players 
sometimes speak of "rolling" a new character.
3. Any number of digital games were, of course, directly based on D&D 
(mostly licensed), not just the system but also the content.
4. Somebody will need to back up on my memory on this, but wasn't 
Gygax a consultant on some roleplaying games or MMO?  It's not a 
crucial point really; pts. 1-3 easily justify including him among the 
memorials, but I just seem to remember reading something about this 
in Computer Games or another magazine, maybe an interview with Gygax.
5. A piece of indirect evidence for his impact on digital games is 
the vast number of tributes already on-line from developers, writers 
and players, from Raph Koster's blog to TerraNova and the mmo sites.

I hope you all caught the piece in Newsweek, by the way (including 
N'gai Kroal):
http://www.newsweek.com/id/119782/

Henry

At 05:16 AM 3/19/2008, Dyson, Jon-Paul wrote:

>This has been a fascinating discussion and I think an important one 

>to have early on. My vote as well would be not to include Arthur C. 

>Clarke--while clearly influential it does seem like his direct 

>involvement in the gaming industry was tangential. For the sake of 

>keeping the memorials focused I think it would be better to 

>concentrate those with very direct influence on the gaming industry. 

>Gygax invented a game-playing system that in a sense became the 

>game-play engine for a vast number of electronic games so I would 

>make an exception for him. Clarke did not invent science fiction 

>even if he did much to popularize it. On the other hand if this were 

>an encyclopedia project (similar to John Clute's Encyclopedia of 

>Fantasy and Encyclopedia of Science Fiction) I would include Clarke 

>in an entry on science fiction and its influence on video games.

>

>Thanks to all who are working on these memorials--they're very important.

>

>Best,

>J.P.

>

>

>

>Jon-Paul C. Dyson, Ph.D.

>Vice President for Exhibit Research and Development and

>Associate Curator for Electronic Games

>Strong National Museum of Play

>One Manhattan Square

>Rochester, NY 14607

>Direct line: 585-410-6341

>Fax: 585-263-2493

>Email: jpdyson at museumofplay.org

>Website: http://museumofplay.org

>

>

>

>-----Original Message-----

>From: game_preservation-bounces at igda.org 

>[mailto:game_preservation-bounces at igda.org] On Behalf Of Alan Au

>Sent: Wednesday, March 19, 2008 1:43 AM

>To: game_preservation at igda.org

>Subject: Re: [game_preservation] Arthur C. Clarke dies, aged 90

>

>Arthur Clarke did indeed do quite a bit of work on the Rama game, 

>but I would suggest that (to my knowledge) he isn't famous because 

>of game-related work or advocacy.  Therefore, I think it's kind of a 

>stretch to include him as a well-known games industry insider.  That 

>is, if I had to draw a line somewhere, he would fall below it.  Just my $.02.

>

>- Alan

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Henry Lowood, Ph.D.
Curator for History of Science & Technology Collections;
  Film & Media Collections
HRG, Green Library, 557 Escondido Mall
Stanford University Libraries
Stanford CA 94305-6004
650-723-4602; lowood at stanford.edu; http://www.stanford.edu/~lowood 
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