11 Responses to “Gary Gygax (1938-2008)”

1. Jay Says:
   March 4th, 2008 at 3:52 pm

   The great DM in the sky has decided to retire one of the most celebrated players in the game. Gary, your creation has fired the imaginations of 0-level humans the world over, myself one of them. No doubt the games around Heaven’s table will be the greatest of all.

   Thanks for everything, Gary. You will not be forgotten.

2. Mike Says:
   March 4th, 2008 at 4:25 pm

   I got into D&D back in 1980 – always glad I got into the game before it became a comic-book parody of itself. I was in awe at the imagination and thought that went into the game, as well as the great fun you could have. I got to meet Gary several years later (1987, I think) at ICON in Stony Brook, N.Y. He talked with my friend Jeff and I before heading to his next event, even pointing out to us that he rushed so much to get to the convention he threw on two different shoes! People don’t get much more real than that…

3. Layne Says:
   March 5th, 2008 at 8:21 am

   Easily one of the most important figured in geek/nerd culture. 1st edition is still the best. Within the span of a single year I got into both computers (Commodore 64) and role playing (Red and Blue Basic/Expert sets, followed closely by the AD&D books). My favorite games to this day are a mix of the two.

   Layne

4. Jim McBride Says:
   March 5th, 2008 at 10:49 am

   I, like Layne, got into both classics (C64 and 1st edition D&D) at about the same time. My mom bought the Basic Edition box for my dad back in about 1979 or so. It wasnt really his cuppa tea, so I permanently borrowed it. My first program that I wrote for the C64 was a character generator based on 1st edition.

   Thanks for the great times, Gary!

5. Benj Edwards Says:
   March 5th, 2008 at 11:17 am

   Oh yeah, I forgot about character generator programs, Jim! Though I wasn’t really into pen-and-paper RPGs, I wrote a character generator program for AD&D in BASIC on the Apple II. My brother did some more complicated ones on the PC. It was like a programmer’s rite of passage. I guess it was one step up from the “dice rolling” example program.

6. Kitsunexus Says:
   March 5th, 2008 at 2:14 pm

   He should have cast Magic Missle.

7. Geoff V. Says:
   March 5th, 2008 at 2:32 pm

   What can you say? Throughout school, college, and beyond I have always found great people playing D&D. There is a group of us that still gets together once or twice ayear to defeat a bunch of dire rats or kabolds.
   RIP Gary.

8. D finky Says:
   March 5th, 2008 at 7:17 pm

   I played it a bunch. Made it through many a rainy day rolling those dice.
   Before Vid-games were worth anything, and well we all didn’t have rolls
   and rolls of quarters for the Arcade. I still have my lead figures!! Fun days.

9. Geoff V. Says:
   March 8th, 2008 at 6:42 pm

   Frito-Lay and Pepsi owe Gygax millions. Think about how many metric tons of Cheetos and Olympic sized swimming pools of Mountain Dew have been consumed playing D&D.

10. TK Says:
    March 13th, 2008 at 7:48 am

    After a busy few days, I was going through my newsreader and came across this story only now. Stupid news broadcasters. It’s more interesting to send me 4 articles apiece about the d@mn Mississippi primary and NY Governor scandal than to point this out? Normally you could trust Wisconsin to cover it given the Lake Geneva connection, but they were too obsessed about Favre.

11. effzehn Says:
    March 17th, 2008 at 6:02 am

    BTW. I’ve missed a word or two about Weizenbaum’s death a few days ago.

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