Role-playing games have a fascinating history - one that stretches back much further than you might at first suppose. It’s a genre of videogame much beloved by its fans, and I daresay that few other genres have created as rabid or divided a fan base (with the possible exception of first-person shooter games, but that’s a history lesson for another day).

To best understand where RPGs are today and where they’re going, it’s best to take a look at where they’ve come from. The RPG equivalent of cro-magnon man and the eventual devolution to the ape, one might say.

Continue reading El33tonline’s editorial by guest writer Fayyaad, A complete history of role-playing videogames: Part 1.