Fighting Fantasy creator and Eidos founder made Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire

The creator of the Fighting Fantasy choose-your-own-adventure series and life president of Eidos, Ian Livingstone, has been honored by being made Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE).

The Order of the British Empire recognizes "distinguished service to the arts and sciences, public services outside the Civil Service and work with charitable and welfare organizations of all kinds." Livingstone is being recognized for his contribution to technology and the arts for founding Eidos Interactive (the studio behind Tomb Raider and Deus Ex), creating the Fighting Fantasy series, and co-authoring a report highlighting the "poor quality of computer teaching" in U.K. schools, which led to an overhaul of information and technology classes in England.

Livingstone told the BBC:

I'm genuinely humbled to get something. My life has been all about games, and I think we learn an awful lot through play.

Writing Fighting Fantasy books with Steve Jackson in the 1980s seemed to have got a whole generation of children reading again. And I'm delighted that what we created not just manifested itself in interactive books but it's actually inspired people to join the computer games industry.

News of Livingstone's CBE coincides with his 63rd birthday.