Wednesday, March 5, 2008

GENERAL STUFF: Nerds everywhere mourn

Gary Gygax, co-creator of Dungeons and Dragons, died today after several health problems. Per the MSNBC story:

Gygax always enjoyed hearing from the game's legion of devoted fans, many of whom would stop by the family's home in Lake Geneva, about 55 miles southwest of Milwaukee, his wife said. Despite his declining health, he hosted weekly games of Dungeons & Dragons as recently as January, she said.

"It really meant a lot to him to hear from people from over the years about how he helped them become a doctor, a lawyer, a policeman, what he gave them," Gail Gygax [his wife] said. "He really enjoyed that."


RIP, Gary Gygax
As a nerd, I, too, will mourn you.
(And, of course, as a former D&D player)
Picture via the AP

PS --> Doesn't the name Gygax alone reek of the fantasy world?

From the blogs:

Wired: "I don't think I've really grokked it yet," said Mike Mearls, the lead developer of the upcoming 4th edition of Dungeons and Dragons. "He was like the cool uncle that every gamer had. He shaped an entire generation of gamers."

From the Kotaku blog: The rattling of dice across tabletops around the word falls silent today...Rest in peace, Dungeon Master.

From the BoingBoing blog: Tiamat consume you fully, Gary. You brought untold amount of fun and joy into my life.

From Salon.com: In the deep structure of ancient Internet culture, where the same computer programmers who helped build the Net often spent their leisure time pretending to be online wizards and warlocks, there's no underestimating the genetic influence of Dungeons & Dragons. Gygax's legacy is built into the infrastructure. I hope he took pleasure in that as the years went by, and I hope Gygax always knew how much millions of gamers and fantasy-dwellers, whiling away their hours on online quests, owe to him and his co-author Dave Arneson.

From Wil Wheaton (yes, Wesley Crusher from Star Trek -- he has a really good blog and this is a really good post): Of all the things I do that make me a geek, nothing brings me as much joy as gaming. It all started with the D&D Basic Set, and today it takes an entire room in my house to contain all of my books, boxes, and dice...Thank you for giving us endless worlds to explore, Gary Gygax. Rest in peace.

From the icanhascheezburger blog:DnD kitteh morns loss of Gary Gygax (1938 - 2008)
without whom the world would never aspire to live in fantasy.



There are just SO MANY. Well done, Mr. Gygax. I think you touched more people than you thought.

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