Perhaps Gary will be best remembered for Dungeons and Dragons (1974). I fondly remember the colorful 1977 Monster Manual (1st Edition), I believe I may still have it in a box in the attic. I also can look to my bookshelves and see the first version of Dungeons & Dragons (D&D), 1974 soft copy plus Greyhawk and Blackmoor supplements winking at me from behind a mountain of paper, "it has been a long time." Indeed.
How many other books do I still keep from the 1970's? You?
A story I like is from the Wikipedia: "The game Gettysburg from the Avalon Hill company captured Gygax's attention. It was from Avalon Hill that he ordered the first blank hexagon mapping sheets that were available. He began looking for innovative ways to generate random numbers, and used not only common dice (with six sides), but dice of all five platonic solid shapes."
A generation of kids learned probability from those dice, and a whole lot more.
This quote also illustrates how imagination and genres of game are cross-fertilized. A theme we've discussed many times on Terra Nova in the past is the legacy of table-top Role Playing Games (RPG) to modern video-game RPGs and indeed through MUDs to the massively-multiplayer MMORPGs. Yet, I think this technical lineage is too confining. Perhaps the clearer statement of legacy is from Anton I., from comment here:
May he rest in peace proudly as one of the very few people whose creations will outlive them.
Of not many people will this ever be said.
Yet, Gary sounded humbler than his legacy, "I would like the world to remember me as the guy who really enjoyed playing games and sharing his knowledge and his fun pastimes with everybody else."
Gamers everywhere, whatever your genre, salute. One of your kin has passed.
/me salutes
Fare well, G(reat) M(onster). It was your work that inspired so many people and fueled the flames of their imagination. It was your work that led to many hours fun, spent together with friends.
Go back and roll up a new character !
Have fun
Posted by: Erillion | Mar 05, 2008 at 03:20
Why wasn't he wearing his amulet of protection +10?
Posted by: Jim Purbrick | Mar 05, 2008 at 07:04
On a slightly less flippant note, my all time favourite source book was the Manual of the Planes, by Jeff Grubb (1987, ISBN 0-88038-399-2). I remember being enthralled by the idea of exploring pockets of the elemental plane of water floating in the plane of air and similar. It's a shame that MMOs seem to have got stuck in wilderness wandering and dungeon crawls and haven't explored similar flights of fancy.
Posted by: Jim Purbrick | Mar 05, 2008 at 07:14
As a regular reader of Terra Nova, I was glad to see this article here and the acknowledgment of the pen and paper game format in the timeline of MMOs. None of the work we do in MMO research would be possible without the original contribution of Gary Gygax to the world of gaming.
Posted by: Christopher Reynolds | Mar 05, 2008 at 12:30
I still have the old books, quite close at hand....
If you re-read them, you realize that Gary Gygax really did have a unique voice and a unique approach to his craft. He was, like Tolkien, an inveterate world-builder with his own inimitable aesthetic. But the worlds he built were special. As he constantly stressed, all he put out there was just a draft, always open to revisions by co-authors, transformers, and would-be usurpers.
He was a true grognard at one level, but I'd say his greatest contribution was in fomenting a tsunami of tabletop remix culture. :-)
Posted by: greglas | Mar 05, 2008 at 12:57
May he be remembered as a pioneer whose passion for gaming created a cultural phenomenon. A toast to man who made gamers of us all.
Posted by: Limsk | Mar 05, 2008 at 13:57
@greglas
James Poniewozik (Time) makes a similar point:
How D&D Changed the Culture
Posted by: nate_combs | Mar 05, 2008 at 19:01
Its interesting to think that only lately has his contribution really flourished.
The WOW genre really is the digital manifestation of the old Pen and paper games. But its also rescued it from its geeky reputation as a 'dorky library kid game'.
Man did we have good times in my student days, sitting around the University tavern, drinking too many beers and rolling the dice. Sure it was geeky, but we didn't care at all.
RIP big fella.
Posted by: dmx | Mar 06, 2008 at 11:44
Nate>the legacy of table-top Role Playing Games (RPG) to modern video-game RPGs and indeed through MUDs to the massively-multiplayer MMORPGs.
Roy Trubshaw had never played D&D (although I had), and the influence on early MUDs was nowhere near as strong as many people seem to believe (the D=Dungeon in the MUD acronym was not a reference to Dungeons & Dragons, for example).
Where D&D did come in was with DikuMUD, which was far more influenced by it, at least in its AD&D form. It is therefore fair to say that most of today's MMORPGs owe a debt to (A)D&D, as they're directly descended from DikuMUD.
Richard
Posted by: Richard Bartle | Mar 08, 2008 at 08:28
The Economist:
Ernest Gary Gygax, a dungeon master, died on March 4th, aged 69
Posted by: nate_combs | Mar 16, 2008 at 17:32