In Memoriam: Ernest Gary Gygax, 1938-2008
Mar. 4th, 2008 05:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thatcrazycajunLess than four months shy of what would have been his 70th birthday, the founder of the massive multimedia empire that is Dungeons & Dragons, E. Gary Gygax, has died after years of chronic health problems. Thanks to fleetfootmike for the news and this link to further reportage.
I never met Mr. Gygax, but I owe him a tremendous debt. The role-playing game he devised not only gave me an outlet for my own creativity, but made it possible for a shy, bookish, awkward teenager with no friends in school to find some...and have a way to spend Friday and Saturday nights other than sitting home wishing he could find a girl to date. This continued even after I went to college and found a much better supply of actual women who were willing to be seen in public with me.
That D&D helped accelerate my developing fannishness is beyond dispute. Even though the gameplay itself at times was tedious (I usually enjoyed creating and drawing the characters more than the game itself), it left me with some fond memories and some really good people in my life. So from the bottom of this aging fanboy's heart, Mr. Gygax, thank you very much and sleep sweet.
fleetfootmike for the news and this link to further reportage.I never met Mr. Gygax, but I owe him a tremendous debt. The role-playing game he devised not only gave me an outlet for my own creativity, but made it possible for a shy, bookish, awkward teenager with no friends in school to find some...and have a way to spend Friday and Saturday nights other than sitting home wishing he could find a girl to date. This continued even after I went to college and found a much better supply of actual women who were willing to be seen in public with me.
That D&D helped accelerate my developing fannishness is beyond dispute. Even though the gameplay itself at times was tedious (I usually enjoyed creating and drawing the characters more than the game itself), it left me with some fond memories and some really good people in my life. So from the bottom of this aging fanboy's heart, Mr. Gygax, thank you very much and sleep sweet.
