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Gary Gygax (1938 - 2008)

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Posted 05 March 2008 - 07:55 AM

I'm amazed that no one posted this here when the news first broke.

New York Times:
QUOTE
Gary Gygax, a pioneer of the imagination who transported a fantasy realm of wizards, goblins and elves onto millions of kitchen tables around the world through the game he helped create, Dungeons & Dragons, died Tuesday at his home in Lake Geneva, Wis. He was 69.
His death was confirmed by his wife, Gail Gygax, who said he had been ailing and had recently suffered an abdominal aneurysm, The Associated Press reported.

As co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons, the seminal role-playing game introduced in 1974, Mr. Gygax wielded a cultural influence far broader than his relatively narrow fame among hard-core game enthusiasts.

Before Dungeons & Dragons, a fantasy world was something to be merely read about in the works of authors like J. R. R. Tolkien and Robert Howard. But with Dungeons & Dragons, Mr. Gygax and his collaborator, Dave Arneson, created the first fantasy universe that could actually be inhabited. In that sense, Dungeons & Dragons formed a bridge between the noninteractive world of books and films and the exploding interactive video game industry. It also became a commercial phenomenon, selling an estimated $1 billion in books and equipment. More than 20 million people are estimated to have played the game.

While Dungeons & Dragons became famous for its voluminous rules, Mr. Gygax was always adamant that the game’s most important rule was to have fun and to enjoy the social experience of creating collaborative entertainment. In Dungeons & Dragons, players create an alternate persona, like a dwarven thief or a noble paladin, and go off on imagined adventures under the adjudication of another player called the Dungeon Master.

“The essence of a role-playing game is that it is a group, cooperative experience,” Mr. Gygax said in a telephone interview in 2006. “There is no winning or losing, but rather the value is in the experience of imagining yourself as a character in whatever genre you’re involved in, whether it’s a fantasy game, the Wild West, secret agents or whatever else. You get to sort of vicariously experience those things.”

When Mr. Gygax (pronounced GUY-gax) first published Dungeons & Dragons under the banner of his company, Tactical Studies Rules, the game appealed mostly to college-age players. But many of those early adopters continued to play into middle age, even as the game also trickled down to a younger audience.

“It initially went to the college-age group, and then it worked its way backward into the high schools and junior high schools as the college-age siblings brought the game home and the younger ones picked it up,” Mr. Gygax said.

Mr. Gygax’s company, renamed TSR, was acquired in 1997 by Wizards of the Coast, which was later acquired by Hasbro, which now publishes the game.

In addition to his wife, Mr. Gygax is survived by six children: three sons, Ernest G. Jr., Lucion Paul and Alexander; and three daughters, Mary Elise, Heidi Jo and Cindy Lee.

These days, pen-and-paper role-playing games have largely been supplanted by online computer games. Dungeons & Dragons itself has been translated into electronic games, including Dungeons & Dragons Online. Mr. Gygax recognized the shift, but he never fully approved. To him, all of the graphics of a computer dulled what he considered one of the major human faculties: the imagination.

“There is no intimacy; it’s not live,” he said of online games. “It’s being translated through a computer, and your imagination is not there the same way it is when you’re actually together with a group of people. It reminds me of one time where I saw some children talking about whether they liked radio or television, and I asked one little boy why he preferred radio, and he said, ‘Because the pictures are so much better.’ ”

Does this mean he's....rolling in his grave?


(As I typed that, I was pointed toward today's Penny Arcade strip, which uses the same joke. Whatever, I stand by it and claim it as my own regardless.)
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Posted 05 March 2008 - 08:52 AM

Yes, this is sad news. Such an influential man who wrote such terrible books. Still, without him and Tolkien would any of the Fantasy around today even exist?
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Posted 05 March 2008 - 11:59 AM

Alas, poor Gary, we knew him well... And, alas, no number of clerics can cast a succesful resurrection spell. *sniff*
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Posted 05 March 2008 - 12:39 PM

And so Gary ascends to the heavens above, free of the mortal coil. Drifting blissfully through the clouds, he comes to an endless flight of marble steps where a kind-faced man waits to usher him through the great gates; and as the gates swing wide to welcome him home, he sees...

... a gazebo.


Rest in peace, Gary.
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Posted 05 March 2008 - 01:16 PM

Rest in peace, Gary Gygax. You made me an alcoholic. God bless.
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Posted 06 March 2008 - 12:26 AM

QUOTE (Chefelf @ Mar 5 2008, 08:52 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Yes, this is sad news. Such an influential man who wrote such terrible books. Still, without him and Tolkien would any of the Fantasy around today even exist?

Don't forget Robert E Howard. The monsters and such in D&D were all Tolkien, but the worlds Gygax imagined were all Howard.
"I had a lot of different ideas. At one point, Luke, Leia and Ben were all going to be little people, and we did screen tests to see if we could do that." -George Lucas, in STAR WARS: the Annotated Screenplays (p197).
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Posted 06 March 2008 - 09:01 PM

Gotta respect him for influencing so many games I play today, but that's it.
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Posted 09 March 2008 - 11:48 AM

Alas, but I dunno if I can forgive him (if he's responsible) for the 2.0 rules. *shakes fist at THAC0*

No, seriously, it's a shame. And shouldn't heaven be gazebo free, S' Fool?
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Posted 09 March 2008 - 12:01 PM

Slade, I think 2.0 was after they threw him out of the company (which was kinda messed up). And nobody likes those rules. It's all about the classic rules even if they're often very, very stupid (e.g. you gain experience for each gold piece you collect).

Civ2, thanks for the info. I was not familiar with this Robert E. Howard chap. He looks like a gangster!
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Posted 09 March 2008 - 12:10 PM

I advocate 3.5, thank you very much. But Bill Gates + death by axe does equal huzzah.
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Posted 09 March 2008 - 02:19 PM

QUOTE (Slade @ Mar 9 2008, 12:48 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Alas, but I dunno if I can forgive him (if he's responsible) for the 2.0 rules. *shakes fist at THAC0*


My biggest gripe with 2E is that for the first few levels wizards are totally useless.

QUOTE (Slade @ Mar 9 2008, 12:48 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
No, seriously, it's a shame. And shouldn't heaven be gazebo free, S' Fool?


Gazebos have souls, too. Eric was the instigator, remember; that poor thing was just minding its own business.
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