Gary Gygax, co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons game
GARY GYGAX
(family photo via ap)
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By
Emily Fredrix
Associated Press
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March 5, 2008
MILWAUKEE - Gary Gygax, who co-created the fantasy
game Dungeons & Dragons and helped start the role-playing
phenomenon, died yesterday at his home in Lake Geneva. He was 69.
He had been suffering from health problems for several years, said his wife, Gail.
Mr.
Gygax and Dave Arneson developed Dungeons & Dragons in 1974 using
medieval characters and mythical creatures. The game known for its
oddly shaped dice became a hit, particularly among teenage boys, and
eventually was turned into video games, books and movies.
Mr.
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.
"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 said.
Dungeons & Dragons players create
fictional characters and carry out their adventures with the help of
complicated rules. It spawned several copycat games and later inspired
a whole genre of computer games that is still growing in popularity.
Born
Ernest Gary Gygax, he grew up in Chicago and moved to Lake Geneva at
the age of 8. Mr. Gygax's father, a Swiss immigrant who played violin
in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, read fantasy books to his only son
and hooked him on the genre, Gail Gygax said.
Mr. Gygax dropped
out of high school but took anthropology classes at the University of
Chicago, she said. He was working as an insurance underwriter when he
began playing war-themed board games.
But Mr. Gygax wanted to
create a game that involved more fantasy. To free up time to work on
that, he left his job and became a shoe repairman, she said.
Mr. Gygax also wrote dozens of fantasy books, including the Greyhawk series of adventure novels.
© Copyright 2008 Globe Newspaper Company.
"Perhaps what the average member of a group is capable of doesn't limit what a given individual can accomplish." -- Boston Globe, letter to the editor
March's Member of the Month!
What? No one cares? LOL
What? No one cares? LOL
"Perhaps what the average member of a group is capable of doesn't limit what a given individual can accomplish." -- Boston Globe, letter to the editor
March's Member of the Month!
Not that I don't care ......
my condolences go out to the family and to the fans
I'm not much into the gaming scene ... D & D is not of any particular interest to me .....I've never known who the creator was .... nor did I know he wrote novels
for me it's a case of .... .who???? ... over not caring
~~ KatherineT ~~ I'm a Harlequin Addict, and I'm proud of it!
~~ Quiet Canadians ~ 2008 Book Challenge Blog
Well, that was sort of what
Well, that was sort of what I meant by "no one cares". I'm sure you are all saddened by anyone's death, but no one here seems to know who the creator of the original D&D was, even less that he has died. *sigh* I used to game 4 nights a week in Grad School. And I still managed to get my MA. I once wrote a paper that D&D was interactive literature.
"Perhaps what the average member of a group is capable of doesn't limit what a given individual can accomplish." -- Boston Globe, letter to the editor
March's Member of the Month!
I use to play a thousand
I use to play a thousand years ago in college, it was a lot of fun. I saw that he died, but I was getting ready to leave for vacation and didn't have a chance to comment.
Cady
TBR--The Born Readers