There are unlikely to be many people who have influenced the culture of today’s gamers as much as Gary Gygax. His creation has become synonymous with role-playing games since it hacked and slashed its way into existence in 1974. An entire generation owes much to the imagination and creativity of Gary and the game known to many simply as DnD.
Dungeons and Dragons has been a fairly large part of my life since an early age. My father had the original basic set of rules (which I still have) and I was fascinated by the oddly shaped dice and fantastic creatures. I ran a game for a few months in my early teens with some friends, and it became a time when us misfits could be part of something bigger than ourselves and beat back at a world which seemed to have ganged up on us. I have since moved on from pen and paper RPG’s to the digital vaiety but I owe alot of my love for these games to DnD.
Unfortunately, DnD hasn’t had as auspicious an online career as it deserves, with Neverwinter Nights (1 and 2) beingthe best of the bunch. DDO failed to capture the essence of DnD in my opinion and was simply a clone of more successful pure online games such as Everquest and WoW. The PnP version is still going strong however and the release of the 4th edition is imminent, though they will undoubtedly receive as mixed a reception as all the previous iterations. I have to admit that I haven’t really kept up with the rules since 2nd ed ADnD. and so am not up on all the controversies. That there are worldwide controversies at all says alot for how DnD’s staying power and logevity.
So RIP E. Gary Gygax, your work will live on and you will be remembered with fondness by an entire generation.
