George R.R. Martin Reveals 3 Video Games He Used to Play a Lot

In what is probably a bit of polite PR coordination, A Song of Ice and Fire author George R.R. Martin has written briefly at his blog about collaborating with FromSoftware and game creator Hidetaka Miyazaki in the creation of Elden Ring. He said he was excited by their “groundbreaking stuff with gorgeous art,” and so he contributed the world-building they desired: “a deep, dark, resonant world to serve as a foundation for the game they planned to create.” However, Martin said he did all of that years ago already, reflecting the increasingly lengthy development times of video games. The Game of Thrones creator unfortunately didn’t go into any further detail than that, but in a fun moment, George R.R. Martin did reveal some of the video games he used to play most often:

Now, video games are not really my thing — oh, I played a few back in the dawn of time, mainly strategy games like RAILROAD TYCOON, ROMANCE OF THE THREE KINGDOMS, and MASTER OF ORION — but this (Elden Ring) offer was too exciting to refuse.

Yep, George R.R. Martin used to play a lot of Railroad Tycoon, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and Master of Orion. And while he may downplay his interest in video games now, Martin said to The Verge back in 2013 that he liked playing video games too much in the ’80s. He even said he “probably lost a novel or two” to playing games instead of writing, though he hadn’t specified back then which games he had been hooked on. It’s a good thing Martin isn’t playing games these days, or else the likelihood of his ever finishing A Song of Ice and Fire would shrink even further.