[GrimGriz]

Of course, the only reason I think you didn't is because the search I ran for gygax didn't bring up any results

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/05/ar....html?ref=arts

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.’ ”

[Jump]

That was days ago. What kind of nerd are you for not knowing. Get your lazy but in TKD.

[Lordopic]

phew in not a nerd as I have never heard of this chap, or played D&D.

Did play Warhammer 40K for a bit though and did loads of banners and art for a Chaos chapter called the, Octavian Order (which was some years before Jumpgate had even come out, once went out with a girl called Octavia and it sort of stuck) emm do’s that make me a nerd?

[Teeleton]

I was going to say, any self described nerd is sufficiently plugged in to have heard about this already on their own. pfftt. No need to re-post it around everywhere and get the typical "well, duh" treatment.

Teeleton

[Jump]

It cracks me up how many 20 year old nerds on the internet are now pretending to have known who this person was before he died.

STAMPEDE!!!!

[Teeleton]

<-- 30+

Teeleton

[Tim]

I never heard of the fellow, tho I had obviously heard of his brainchild. I would have guessed that the whole D&D empire was a conglomerate work.. I wonder how much of it was singlehandedly spawned by that one mind. I guess I would have to nominate the dude for one of the top 25 most influential folks of the 1900's. Who hasn't played Eye of the Beholder or Baldurs Gate at least a dozen times? Anybody know if he get rich off the whole thing?

[Jump]

Well, how much of that was based on LOTR and it's popularity?

[Tim]

fair point.. but LOTR has never enjoyed the popularity it has now. Even when it was written it was more or less a niche effort. Beowolf (for instance) was much more contemporarily successful (if i might invent a word) in terms of 'quest' novels.

But creating the whole concept of the role playing game.. that's impressive stuff. Just look at all the spinoffs.. from GURPS to PokeMon.

Certainly he had some help from early greats, and no thought or idea is created in a vacuum. But .. damn.. if I had just an ounce of that kind of creative brilliance..

[Jump]

Your not comparing book sales from an age with 2 billion people to an age with 6 billion are you? LOTR was a big hit in it's time and all time since.

[Tim]

not so much book sales, but critical ... regard. Granted, a dense population makes information exchange easier, and we have a lot more money in America than 1945 Europe did, so we have more free time to do such things.

Back in the 80's, there were all sorts of rumors about college kids fighting alligators in sewers because of D&D and devil worship and OMG stuff. Like it or hate it, everybody knew about it and it had a solid reputation. Tolkien's stuff took decades to really catch on and draw that sort of attention.

Tolkien and Company were excellent, but this Gygax fella found a sweet spot in american culture and really worked it over. Sure, he may have accidentally stumbled on it, but once he was on it, he made it work.

Maybe Tolkien, with 6 billion friends, could have changed a culture that fast. We'll never really know. But Gygax.. no debate there. He changed our national mindset in just a few short years.

[Jump]

Um you do know that Gygax got sued for using the word Hobbit and had to change it to halfling right? To say that LOTR was not a big influence is asinine. LOTR influenced and molded the entire fantasy Genre. Plus, Gygax wasn't really the first, he just made it popular.