John Smedley, president of Sony Online Entertainment

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. First up: Sony Online Entertainment president John Smedley, whose company publishes such games as EverQuest, Untold Legends and Pirates of the Burning Sea. Here's what he had to say.

What do you remember about your first experience with Dungeons & Dragons?

There are few experiences in my childhood that impacted me as much as my first time playing D&D. One of my good friends growing up had a copy of the old basic set and taught me how to play. It was like being transported to another world. I remember staying up all night that same night and reading that book cover to cover.

How did your parents feel about you playing D&D?

They were fine with it--in fact they bought me some of the AD&D [Advanced Dungeons & Dragons] rule books for my birthday. They never freaked out about any of the stupid stuff people spread about D&D. However, I think it's fair to say they were less than pleased about Iron Maiden blaring in the background while we played.

Were you primarily a dungeon master or a player?

I always preferred playing, but mostly because our group had an awesome DM who really loved doing it.

How has D&D influenced you as a game developer?

When I first learned to program it was with the idea of writing D&D on a computer. Of course it was an Apple II+ and I didn't realize that wasn't something that was going to be possible. We settled for making  dice rolling program first.. and then gradually wrote programs to spit out the data that the old DM Screen had on it.

What was gained and what has been lost over the years as videogames have supplanted pen-and-paper RPGs?

I think the biggest thing that got lost was the emotion of playing with your friends. To this day I still use my old AD&D character's name as my name in just about every MMO I play. I was always very impressed with the Gold Box series and other games that were developed. But it wasn't until the evolution of MMOs that I started to feel like I did with my friends when we sat around a table at 3am on a Saturday morning, powered up from way too much caffeine.

The other thing that's been lost is the DM rooting for you. We never saw the dice rolls behind the DM screen, but every now and again you could see the DM giving you that extra +1 when you needed it. The world always revolved around just our little group. To this day I still miss that feeling and I hope the concept of your character being the center of the universe is something we can do a better job of capturing.

Thanks for all the good times with D&D Gary. You will be missed!

Next: Independent game designer Harvey Smith.