Video Game Innovation Day: Turbine launches free Dungeons & Dragons, The Beatles: Rock Band released

By Rodney Brown

Coincidence that on the same day that Turbine Inc. officially launched the free-to-play version of its MMO Dungeons & Dragons Online the Bay State declared today to be Video Game Innovation Day? Probably, but still good timing on somebody’s part.

On the Mass Innovation blog, Gov. Patrick declared today Video Game Innovation Day in the commonwealth:

Whereas In 1961, MIT students Martin Graetz, Steve Russell and Wayne Wiitanen invented the game Spacewar!, one of the first video games ever created; and …

Whereas On this day, Harmonix Music Systems, the Cambridge-based inventors of Rock Band and developer of the original Guitar Hero games, is releasing The Beatles: Rock Band, a game that will not only bring the creativity and joy of The Beatles music to countless people, but will introduce the Fab Four to new generations of fans,

Now, Therefore, I, Deval L. Patrick, Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, do hereby proclaim September 9th, 2009 to be, Video Game Innovation Day and urge all the ctizens of the Commonwealth to take cognizance of this event and participate fittingly in its observance.

You heard the man, get innovating.

Not to be overshadowed by the governor’s declaration, Westwood-based Turbine today opened up to all comers a free version of its game based on the long-standing virginity-enhancement tool known as Dungeons & Dragons. Turbine has had the “freemium” — that is, you can play for free but the really good stuff is gonna cost you “Turbine Points” which conveniently can be bought with “real cash” — version of DDO open for beta testing over much of the summer.

For perspective on how far we have and have not come, watch video after the jump of The Beatles: Rock Band, a video game released today featuring music made around the time Spacewar! was released.

Posted by Brendan Lynch

Tags: Deval Patrick, Dungeons & Dragons, Harmonix, Martin Graetz, MIT, Rock Band, Spacewar!, Steve Russell, The Beatles, Turbine Inc., Video Game Innovation Day, Wayne Wiitanen

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 9th, 2009 at 12:37 pm and is filed under Hardware, Internet, Massachusetts, Public Policy, Software. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.