poukledden

Why did I know that Rich Burlew would make me cry?

A thought I had earlier, by the by -- one of the wonderful things that Gygax and Dave Arneson did was, perhaps, simply this: they said, essentially, it was okay for adults to play make believe. If that's not a wonderful gift to the world, I don't know what is.

I find myself rather saddened by the fact that Gary Gygax, the creator of Dungeons and Dragons and thus, by extension, the creator of role-playing games, has passed away. One of the first fanboy letters I ever sent was to him, back when I was a kid getting into the fun of D&D.

The thing that strikes me is that you'd really have to include him on any list of hugely influential cultural icons in the past half century. Sure, most people have never played D&D, but many did, and most know of it. And role-playing games entered into wider popular consciousness with the advent of computer games. Without Gygax, there would be no Final Fantasy, no World of Warcraft. Nada. Zilch. He and his cohorts created a whole new way to play. And that, when you think about it, is a pretty damn cool thing. Sure, he was an odd duck -- a Jehovah's Witness, cranky and opinionated, dismissive of other role-playing games and ideas. But he brought something new into the world, and that's not to be dismissed lightly.

So the next time you're hacking an orc to pieces, or blasting an elf with fireballs -- do it for Gary.