Gary Gygax, one of the co-creators of the world famous Dungeons & Dragons game and one of the original members of D&D publishing company TSR, has passed away at the age of 69. According to his wife, Gail Gygax, he had been suffering from health problems for several years, including an abdominal aneurysm, some previous strokes and a near-heart attack, but no specific cause of death was given.

Gygax (whose full name was Ernest Gary Gygax), along with Dave Arneson, helped create one of the fastest growing game genres in the world when they developed Dungeons and Dragons back in 1974, a roleplaying game that uses medieval characters, mythical creatures and oddly shaped dice to calculate moves and the odds of surviving them. Tired of playing the basic war-game based board games available in the 60’s, Gygax & Arneson injected major fantasy elements into the mix and D&D was born. The game quickly became a hit, particularly among teenage boys, and spawned multiple video games, books and even movies. (Wonder if he had a piece of World of Warcraft, currently the world’s biggest fantasy/role-playing game? Would only be right given what WoW owes to his and Arneson’s imaginations, don’t you think??)

Besides his main claim to fame, Dungeons & Dragons, Gygax was also a prolific writer, having written dozens of fantasy books, including the Greyhawk series of adventure novels.

Here’s hoping he’s now having the adventure of his next life…

Technorati Tags: Dungeons & Dragons, GAMING

It appears that in the battle of the formats, Toshiba America has finally thrown in the towel, and announced that they will be discontinuing their HD DVD format players/recorders, giving the Blu-Ray format backed by Sony the match by default.

Quite a few people are upset given that they purchased player/recorders and XBox’s with HD DVD heavily last year and for Christmas in anticipation of many more titles to come, and now the big retailers such as Wal-Mart, Amazon, Best Buy, and movie studios like Universal and Paramount have said they will follow Toshiba’s lead, and drop providing new stuff in HD DVD in favor of Blu-ray. Owners of the pretty much now-defunct format are saying they would have gone PS3 instead if Toshiba could have admitted they lost the format wars way back when instead of making sure they were able to sell of existing inventory at full price for the holidays.

However, Toshiba has stated that no refunds will be in the offing. (Just as in the fight game, you don’t get your money back just because your boxer lost the match, eh?) Since the machines still work as intended and there are programs around, and Toshiba will provide ongoing support for existing hardware, purchasers will just have to be happy with what they got. (Sure, right, we know how well THAT works!)

I figured Blu-ray would probably win out in the long run since it holds 25GB in the single layer format and HD DVD holds only 15GB. Remember Beta and VHS tapes? Beta had higher quality recording, but because VHS could tape 6-8 hours instead of only 5, it eventually won out…

So what does this mean for movie and game-lovers? Well, for the moment, HD DVD titles are being blown out of inventories to make room for Blu-ray ones, so if you want to keep your HD DVD player fed, now’s the time to get the stuff you’ve been waiting on. (Amazon’s got HD-DVD stuff on sale for 50% or more off right now!) However, if you hadn’t purchased either type of player yet, you can now either get a really great bargain on an HD DVD player that will only have a limited amount of product for it or finally take the plunge and pick up a Blu-ray device. (That is, unless you want to wait and see what takes its place in the next 2-3 years. LOL)

Technorati Tags: Blu-Ray, DVD, GAMING, HD DVD, MOVIES, Technology

In August 1977, Orson Scott Card’s novelette ENDER’S GAME was published in ANALOG SCIENCE FICTION AND FACT and it amazed the sci fi world with its tale of very young, extremely smart, children trained to play war games for an upcoming battle with an alien species called the Formics, a group who had already beaten Earth forces 70 years before, and who are now back to finish the job.

Now, finally, more than 30 years after the story was released and a host of expanded and sequel novels were published (XENOCIDE, SPEAKER FOR THE DEAD, CHILDREN OF THE MIND, FIRST MEETINGS IN THE ENDERVERSE), director Wolfgang Petersen (TROY) is currently working on a film version of the book series with Card writing the screenplay. (Of course, the whole project has been in “development hell” for years, and no list of actors is attached yet, so no guarantees that it will make it for the 2008-2009 movie season, especially since Warner Brothers put it into “turnaround” but I’m keeping my fingers crossed…)

Orson Scott Card has also given Chair Entertainment Group the exclusive license to create games based on the Ender books. They plan to offer the games on all next-generation console, hand-held and PC platforms. With Card’s help, Chair Entertainment will begin development later this year on a game inspired by the Battle Room, the mainstay of ENDER’S GAME. The first version is expected for release via downloadable platforms.

In the meantime, we wait for a chance to train at Battle School to see for ourselves how we’d stack up against a bunch of precocious kids. (Can you say movie “tie-ins”?)

Technorati Tags: Books, Ender's Game, GAMING, MOVIES, Orson Scott Card, Sci Fi

The Burning Legion’s renewed assault on Azeroth begins Midnight, January 16th and the Blizzard development team will be on hand to celebrate the event while signing copies of the game at four California area retailers. For Orange County residents, the Fountain Valley Fry’s will open up at midnight for signings, with a second location available in Anaheim. If you are in Los Angeles, you can check out a midnight opening at the Hollywood Citywalk Gamestop/EB Games retail store. Finally, for those in the San Francisco area, the Sunnyvale Fry’s will open its doors to those interested in meeting the developers.

Here are the details for each event:

At each location, line-up begins at 6:00 AM PCT on January 15th. There are limited quantities available on a first-come, first-served basis. Wristbands will be issued at each event to guarantee signed copies, so make sure you are there in time to receive one.

If you don’t live in California or can’t make it to one of these four events, don’t worry: There are a legion of retail locations across the country opening early to sell copies of The Burning Crusade. Best Buy and Gamestop/EB Games will have select locations open at Midnight, January 16th. For a full list of participating retail stores, check out the Web sites listed below:

• http://GameStop.com
• http://www.bestbuy.com
• http://www.ebgames.com

(Info from the Blizzard.com World of Warcraft Newsletter)

Technorati Tags: Azeroth, Blizzard, Burning Legion, World of Warcraft