Although I, personally, have never read any of Tom Clancy’s novels, I was affected by his work in a different way.

I spent a fair portion of my teenage years playing video games that were based on Clancy’s fictional universes. A big favourite of mine and my friends was Ubisoft’s Rainbow Six: Vegas 2. We’d get in from school, all get in a game on Xbox Live and play the same map of Terrorist Hunt over and over again. It was so much fun and it never seemed to get old.

With earlier games such as Splinter Cell and Ghost Recon, Clancy’s work helped define a generation and beyond of stealth-action games. Blending realism with Clancy’s grandeur storytelling scale made for amazing, playable experiences.

Although he’s no longer directly involved, Clancy’s influence on the military and espionage genres of entertainment continues beyond his passing with recent releases such as Rainbow Six: Siege and The Division.