It’s safe to say that without Gary Gygax and his partner-in-fantasy-crime, Dave Arneson, many of the video games you know and love would either not exist or would be wildly different experiences. D&D was, is and forever shall be a seminal gamer experience, something that I would guess the vast majority of us has experienced on more than a few occasions. Pizza, a few friends, some oddly-shaped dice, the latest hot module (Queen of the Demonweb Pits, anyone?) and reams of graph paper were the only ingredients necessary to turn an average, ordinary night into a epic journey of eldritch sorcery, swinging (and, occasionally, singing) swords and the type of wanton orc-slaughtering that Tolkien could have only dreamed of.

Psionics were for cheaters and Third Edition was dumbed down for (and by) people who collect Pokemon cards; gimme the 1st Edition Player’s Handbook and Keep on the Borderlands any day. You can take your FFs and your WoWs and stick ‘em in a paper wizard hat; Gygax helped write the rules that all of them stole. Gary G. passed on March 4 at age 69 — this news isn’t exactly timely, but I’ve been caught up in lotsa work stuff (you’ll see the results on Thursday at 8 AM PST when digital Day info hits the webz) and it’s been on my mind. Plus, I had Spanish II class in high school with one of his kids, Luke, and I totally geeked out when I figured out who his dad was.

LARPers, put down your cardboard-and-tinfoil tubes; MMOers, let rest your weary macros and endless guild griefing. Grab a can of Jolt and pour one out for our dearly departed homie.

For a great feature on the man and the legacy of his game, check out Dave Kushner’s piece over at Wired.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 11th, 2008 at 6:31 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.