BeardedOne
03-05-2008, 04:31 AM
D&D Co-Creator Gary Gygax Dies at 69
By EMILY FREDRIX,
AP
Posted: 2008-03-04 17:45:29
Filed Under: Nation News
MILWAUKEE (March 4) - Gary Gygax, who co-created the fantasy game Dungeons & Dragons and helped start the role-playing phenomenon, died Tuesday morning at his home in Lake Geneva. He was 69.
Gary Gygax
Co-creator of the role-playing game 'Dungeons & Dragons'
July 27, 1938 to March 4, 2008
He had been suffering from health problems for several years, including an abdominal aneurysm, said his wife, Gail Gygax.
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.
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.
Tell Us
"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. "He really enjoyed that."
Dungeons & Dragons players create fictional characters and carry out their adventures with the help of complicated rules. The quintessential geek pastime, it spawned a wealth of copycat games and later inspired a whole genre of computer games that's still growing in popularity.
Born Ernest Gary Gygax, he grew up in Chicago and moved to Lake Geneva at the age of 8. 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.
Gygax dropped out of high school but took anthropology classes at the University of Chicago for a while, she said. He was working as an insurance underwriter in the 1960s, when he began playing war-themed board games.
But Gygax wanted to create a game that involved more fantasy. To free up time to work on that, he left the insurance business and became a shoe repairman, she said.
He met Arneson, who lived in Minnesota, while playing war games, and the two struck up a correspondence that developed into Dungeons & Dragons, Gail Gygax said.
Gygax also started the gaming convention Gen Con. The event began as a tiny show in Lake Geneva in 1968, moved to Milwaukee and is now held in Indianapolis. Last year's event attracted 26,000 people, including Gygax, according to the Gen Con Web site.
The gamer was also a prolific writer, who produced dozens of "Gygaxian" fantasy books, including the Greyhawk series of adventure novels.
Gary Sandelin, 32, a Manhattan attorney, said his weekly Dungeons & Dragons game will be a bit sadder on Wednesday night because of Gygax's passing. The beauty of the game is that it's never quite the same, he said.
"It grows as you grow. When you're playing as a little kid it's all about killing the monsters," Sandelin said. "But when you play it as an adult, it's about developing a role, developing a character and more about telling a story, rather than just a game."
Funeral arrangements are pending. Besides his wife, Gygax is survived by six children.
By EMILY FREDRIX,
AP
Posted: 2008-03-04 17:45:29
Filed Under: Nation News
MILWAUKEE (March 4) - Gary Gygax, who co-created the fantasy game Dungeons & Dragons and helped start the role-playing phenomenon, died Tuesday morning at his home in Lake Geneva. He was 69.
Gary Gygax
Co-creator of the role-playing game 'Dungeons & Dragons'
July 27, 1938 to March 4, 2008
He had been suffering from health problems for several years, including an abdominal aneurysm, said his wife, Gail Gygax.
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.
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.
Tell Us
"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. "He really enjoyed that."
Dungeons & Dragons players create fictional characters and carry out their adventures with the help of complicated rules. The quintessential geek pastime, it spawned a wealth of copycat games and later inspired a whole genre of computer games that's still growing in popularity.
Born Ernest Gary Gygax, he grew up in Chicago and moved to Lake Geneva at the age of 8. 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.
Gygax dropped out of high school but took anthropology classes at the University of Chicago for a while, she said. He was working as an insurance underwriter in the 1960s, when he began playing war-themed board games.
But Gygax wanted to create a game that involved more fantasy. To free up time to work on that, he left the insurance business and became a shoe repairman, she said.
He met Arneson, who lived in Minnesota, while playing war games, and the two struck up a correspondence that developed into Dungeons & Dragons, Gail Gygax said.
Gygax also started the gaming convention Gen Con. The event began as a tiny show in Lake Geneva in 1968, moved to Milwaukee and is now held in Indianapolis. Last year's event attracted 26,000 people, including Gygax, according to the Gen Con Web site.
The gamer was also a prolific writer, who produced dozens of "Gygaxian" fantasy books, including the Greyhawk series of adventure novels.
Gary Sandelin, 32, a Manhattan attorney, said his weekly Dungeons & Dragons game will be a bit sadder on Wednesday night because of Gygax's passing. The beauty of the game is that it's never quite the same, he said.
"It grows as you grow. When you're playing as a little kid it's all about killing the monsters," Sandelin said. "But when you play it as an adult, it's about developing a role, developing a character and more about telling a story, rather than just a game."
Funeral arrangements are pending. Besides his wife, Gygax is survived by six children.