EA Mythic general manager Mark Jacobs
When we got the report that Dungeons & Dragons co-creator Gary Gygax had passed away, we first shared our own reminiscences on The Pen-and-Paper Game That Started It All. Then we reached out to some of the top computer and videogame developers--those who either work in the role-playing game genre or whose titles are clearly inspired by RPGs--to find out how D&D influenced them both personally and professionally. Our next respondent is EA Mythic general manager Mark Jacobs, best known for his work on massively multiplayer online games like Dark Age of Camelot and Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. Here's what he told us.
What do you remember about your first experience with Dungeons & Dragons?
In 1977, I was in college at Syracuse University. One evening I was sitting in the basement of my girlfriend’s house, and I saw a magazine article about gifts for Christmas. The article singled out Dungeons & Dragons as a particularly incomprehensible game. Well, that was all I needed to hear, and the next day I went searching for the game. I found it at a local gaming store in Syracuse--I believe it was called Nebulous Books--and from the moment I bought the white-boxed set, I was hooked.
How did your parents feel about you playing D&D?
They both hated it with a passion and thought that, quite frankly, I was wasting my time and losing track of reality by playing the game. Of course, they said the same thing about my desire to make computer games two years later in 1979, so you can see how well I listened to them.
Were you primarily a dungeon master or a player?
In college, I was primarily a player, but by the time I reached law school and afterward, I was primarily a DM. In high school, I wasn’t as into fantasy books and the whole genre in general. It was D&D that really piqued my interest and, much to the chagrin of my parents, I made up for that hole in my education by pretty much buying every fantasy book that the Syracuse University bookstore stocked. My bills were quite outrageous, but between keeping my grades up while holding down a part-time job (and paying off the bills), I managed to keep my folks somewhat mollified.
How has D&D influenced you as a game developer?
It was D&D that really brought me into the worlds of fantasy and gaming. I had almost no experience with gaming in high school, and it wasn’t until I learned about D&D that I really dove headfirst into fantasy. I started out running strict D&D worlds and then, as I learned more about gaming, game design, fantasy, etc., I began to create my own systems and worlds that were very different from D&D. There was a common thread among the DMs that went like, “We like D&D but...” and then we would create our own systems.
What was gained and what has been lost over the years as videogames have supplanted pen-and-paper RPGs?
As far as what has been gained, well, a lot larger audience and a lot more social acceptance--that’s for sure. Back in 1978, trying to find a space to play D&D at Syracuse University was really difficult. Nobody took the whole gaming thing seriously, and as the parents' protests and urban legends about D&D gained a foothold, gamers weren’t very popular. There certainly was a heck of a social stigma attached to being known as someone who played D&D.
As far as what has been lost, I think we’ve lost some creativity, challenge and true social interaction. If you go back to the heyday of table-top gaming, you had an amazing variety of games, worlds, etc. to explore. You also had to match wits with a DM, which could be a whole lot more challenging than a computer game’s AI. It was also fun to sit around the table playing, joking and interacting with your friends. And while games like EverQuest, Dark Age of Camelot, World of Warcraft, etc. have their own magic and wonder, some of the pen-and-paper gaming sessions that I participated in were a lot more fun, intense and immersive than anything I’ve played on a computer.
Next: NCsoft's Richard Garriott.
