He became heavily involved in tabletop role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons, which would later give him the ideas for EverQuest.

In the early 1990s Smedley started a development company called Knight Technologies that produced contract games.

[4] On August 24, 2014, a hacking group called Lizard Squad claimed that the plane on which John Smedley was flying (American Airlines Flight 362 from Dallas, Texas to San Diego, California) had explosives on board.

[5][6] On July 22, 2015, after threatening a member of the hacker group Lizard Squad on Twitter,[7] Smedley stepped down from his position as president and CEO of Daybreak Games Company.

In an email to staff, Smedley wrote that "after a lot of thought, I’ve decided it’s time for me to try my hand at something new."