Audiobook13 hours
Game Wizards: The Epic Battle for Dungeons & Dragons
Written by Jon Peterson
Narrated by Chris Andrew Ciulla
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
()
About this audiobook
When Dungeons Dragons was first released to a small hobby community, it hardly seemed destined for mainstream success-and yet this arcane tabletop role-playing game became an unlikely pop culture phenomenon. In Game Wizards, Jon Peterson chronicles the rise of Dungeons Dragons from hobbyist pastime to mass market sensation, from the initial collaboration to the later feud of its creators, Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. As the game's fiftieth anniversary approaches, Peterson-a noted authority on role-playing games-explains how DD and its creators navigated their successes, setbacks, and controversies.
Peterson describes Gygax and Arneson's first meeting and their work toward the 1974 release of the game; the founding of TSR and its growth as a company; and Arneson's acrimonious departure and subsequent challenges to TSR. He recounts the "Satanic Panic" accusations that DD was sacrilegious and dangerous, and how they made the game famous.
With Game Wizards, Peterson restores historical particulars long obscured by competing narratives spun by the one-time partners. That record amply demonstrates how the turbulent experience of creating something as momentous as Dungeons Dragons can make people remember things a bit differently from the way they actually happened.
Peterson describes Gygax and Arneson's first meeting and their work toward the 1974 release of the game; the founding of TSR and its growth as a company; and Arneson's acrimonious departure and subsequent challenges to TSR. He recounts the "Satanic Panic" accusations that DD was sacrilegious and dangerous, and how they made the game famous.
With Game Wizards, Peterson restores historical particulars long obscured by competing narratives spun by the one-time partners. That record amply demonstrates how the turbulent experience of creating something as momentous as Dungeons Dragons can make people remember things a bit differently from the way they actually happened.
Related to Game Wizards
Related audiobooks
Slaying the Dragon: A Secret History of Dungeons & Dragons Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Sid Meier's Memoir!: A Life in Computer Games Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Control Freak: My Epic Adventure Making Video Games Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Lost in a Good Game: Why we play video games and what they can do for us Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Replay: The History of Video Games Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A History of Video Games in 64 Objects Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Moral Combat: Why the War on Violent Video Games Is Wrong Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Getting Gamers: The Psychology of Video Games and Their Impact on the People who Play Them Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/58-Bit Apocalypse: The Untold Story of Atari's Missile Command Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Blood, Sweat, and Pixels: The Triumphant, Turbulent Stories Behind How Video Games Are Made Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fight, Magic, Items: The History of Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, and the Rise of Japanese RPGs in the West Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEverybody Wins: Four Decades of the Greatest Board Games Ever Made Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRed Dead Redemption: History, Myth, and Violence in the Video Game West Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPlay at Work: How Games Inspire Breakthrough Thinking Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsStar Wars and Philosophy Strikes Back: This Is the Way Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOne Little Spark!: Mickey's Ten Commandments and The Road to Imagineering Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Seven Games: A Human History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Of Dice and Men: The Story of Dungeons & Dragons and The People Who Play It Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The No-Prep Gamemaster: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Random Tables Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5MOAR! Monsters Know What They're Doing Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Monsters Know What They're Doing: Combat Tactics for Dungeon Masters Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5My Guide to RPG Storytelling Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Walkthrough: Insider Tales from a Life in Strategy Guides Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Prepare to Meet Thy Doom: And More True Gaming Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How To Play Pathfinder: The Unofficial Guide to Playing Pathfinder for Beginners Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Stay Awhile and Listen: How Two Blizzards Unleashed Diablo and Forged a Video-Game Empire - Book I Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dungeons & Dragons: Escape the Underdark: An Endless Quest Book Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Corporate & Business History For You
Pharma: Greed, Lies, and the Poisoning of America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Good to Great Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Toyota Way (Second Edition): 14 Management Principles from the World's Greatest Manufacturer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nazi Billionaires: The Dark History of Germany's Wealthiest Dynasties Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Digital Gold: Bitcoin and the Inside Story of the Misfits and Millionaires Trying to Reinvent Money Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Grinding It Out: The Making of McDonald's Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Secret History of Brands: The Dark and Twisted Beginnings of the Brand Names We Know and Love Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Becoming Trader Joe: How I Did Business My Way and Still Beat the Big Guys Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Lead Like Walt: Discover Walt Disney's Magical Approach to Building Successful Organizations Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5More Money Than God: Hedge Funds and the Making of a New Elite Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Wealth Hoarders: How Billionaires Pay Millions to Hide Trillions Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOnly the Paranoid Survive: How to Exploit the Crisis Points That Challenge Every Company Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Amazon Unbound: Jeff Bezos and the Invention of a Global Empire Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Hidden History of Monopolies: How Big Business Destroyed the American Dream Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hit Refresh: The Quest to Rediscover Microsoft's Soul and Imagine a Better Future for Everyone Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5House of Cards: A Tale of Hubris and Wretched Excess on Wall Street Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Pixar Touch: The Making of a Company Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Secret Formula: The Inside Story of How Coca-Cola Became the Best-Known Brand in the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5American Icon: Alan Mulally and the Fight to Save Ford Motor Company Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Barbarians at the Gate Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Team Rodent: How Disney Devours the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Fund: Ray Dalio, Bridgewater Associates, and the Unraveling of a Wall Street Legend Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5No Filter: The Inside Story of Instagram Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Game Wizards
Rating: 4.714285714285714 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
7 ratings1 review
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Loved it. Great storytelling with a very good narrator. Recommended.