by Royce Radcliffe

Created on: May 07, 2008

Dungeons and Dragons long ago laid the groundwork for the Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing games of today. Were it not for the D&D games many grew up with things would be so different. You could call D&D the ultimate consumer marketing test for MMORPGs, were the games themselves not still so popular today.

The first way Dungeons and Dragons opened the door for MMORPGs is by showing just how avid interest is in fantasy gaming to begin with. It showed how addictive fantasy games can be for people. Many developers of the earliest MMORPGs often quoted their inspiration as being the original Dungeons and Dragons. That game showed people are hungry to escape into a fantasy realm so why wouldn't they want to escape with one complete with graphics to supplement imagination?

The second way Dungeons and Dragons enabled MMORPGs to come into existence is by setting the framework for play in a fantasy universe. MMORPGs are not action games, but that was the setup for any console or computer fantasy game before Dungeons and Dragons came out. This is the game that basically set up everything we take for granted in MMORPGs today.

Melee attacks, gaining levels due to experience, having certain classes of characters with a certain skill set... this all originated in Dungeons and Dragons.

One way that Dungeons and Dragons have also influenced the MMORPGs is by compelling them to be superior in terms of gameplay. The greatest criticism of D&D has always been that it takes up so much time. You have to set up the board, maneuver the twelve sided dice, keep track of all levels and experience points on paper and in general deal with a huge mess.

With MMORPGs everything that slowed down the D&D games are now automated. This streamlines the process and allows one to focus on the enjoyment of the game rather than the minutia of having to keep track of all the details. It allows one to really dive into the experience and this streamlining of the process is why MMORPGs exceed even D&D games when it comes to being addictive.

Dungeons and Dragons was a great game for its time. It allowed people to truly imagine themselves as part of a world where magic was real. Nowadays people put the imagination they spent before on coloring the world inside the games themselves, using their minds to enrich the worlds beyond graphics and sound bytes to something at least close to real. And it is all thanks to the absolutely perfect template set up all those years ago by Dungeons and Dragons. Never forget!

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