GARY GYGAX died last week and the universe did not collapse. This surprises me a little bit, because he built it.Gycax was the creator of Dungeons and Dragons, a game that still lurks in boxes in our house. Rogers credits D&D as the model for the digital world of today
Gycax co-created Dungeons and Dragons in 1974. I don't know whether I would have been attracted to the game if it had been around when I was a boy and teen, but I know that my son became a big D&D fan. Whenever he had gathered enough money, he was off to Bosco's to get another hard cover volume of the the D&D series.
I'm not qualified to judge Rogers' assessment of Gycax's impact on the content of our world today.
Today millions of people are slaves to Gary Gygax. They play EverQuest and World of Warcraft, and someone must still be hanging out in Second Life. (That “massively multiplayer” computer traffic, by the way, also helped drive the development of the sort of huge server clouds that power Google.)
But that’s just gaming culture, more pervasive than it was in 1974 when Dungeons & Dragons was created and certainly more profitable — today it’s estimated to be a $40 billion-a-year business — but still a little bit nerdy. Delete the dragon-slaying, though, and you’re left with something much more mainstream: Facebook, a vast, interconnected universe populated by avatars.
The idea that we all play roles in life is not something that Gycax created - it's been around in literature and psychology and anthropology and even management for a long, long time. And slaves just doesn't seem like the right word. As Americans, are we slaves to the crafters of the US Constitution?
But I can attest to the impact of D&D on the life of at least one geek. My son got totally wrapped into D&D but there weren't enough others he knew he could play with. So I got recruited, very reluctantly (on my part.) I had a lot of things I was doing and interested in and playing D&D just wasn't one of them. But J was so insistent. And the media had all sorts of hype linking D&D with Satanic rituals and other bizarre and sometimes deadly activities. I needed to know what my son was involved with. But there were about 12 volumes he wanted me to read so I would know how to play. Another big obstacle. I finally told him to make me reading assignments - no more than one hour a day - so I could learn enough to play. Focus on the essentials. He did, and I did my assignments.
And I was amazed at the sophisticated world that was there. Particularly, I was intrigued by the attributes of the various characters. Essentially, Gacyx created a model of human beings (well, he included other vaguely human like characters such as wizards,haflings, and gnomes) that were similar in structure (if not quite in content) to similar models of humans in the field of management. Essentially he identified key traits such as
Strength
Dexterity
Constitution
Charisma
I don't remember how many there were altogether. You had to roll the strange dice (were they 12 sided? I don't remember) to fill in points for each trait. High points in certain traits worked best with certain 'races' of characters. It was an analytical tool that I'm sure taught many people about such modeling, even if they didn't know that was what they were doing.
And we did play some, but I'm afraid I never became an enthusiastic a player.
My son also used the computer - we're talking Vic-20 and Commodore 64 if I recall right - to create tables to keep track of the points of his characters and those of his imaginary opponents.
It also gave him refuge from a world that he didn't seem to fit into very well at that time. As he moved on to other games, I used to ask him why all the games he played had as their goal to kill and maim as many people as possible. Why didn't they have games to find ways to feed the poor or find ways to overcome cancer?
All the skills he developed to support his gaming have come in handy as he grew up - the point that Rogers is making. And I suspect that his one time passion for Buffy may also have been linked to the supernatural world of D&D.
So, thanks Gary. You were at the right place at the right time and millions have learned a lot and had great fun from your creation. Sorry you had to leave us so soon. And perhaps you didn't have to.
In an interview with Gamespy after his stroke in 2004, Gycaz said, when asked about his health:
Gary Gygax: I feel pretty good now. I just can't exert myself too much. I'm still too overweight, though. I shouldn't even be smoking these cigars. I also quit smoking a pack of camels a day.
I know that George Burns was still smoking cigars when he died at 102 or 103, but he was a statistical outlier
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My baby brother played DnD as well-- he had his sports friends and his DnD friends, his band friends, etc. It was a great game. My husband used to play, too.
ReplyDeleteMy bodyguard is a major WoW addict. He plays two or three computers at once. He might be level 320 or somthing.
ReplyDeleteI feel partially responsible. I introduced him to adult games back in 1977, when we began playing the board game "Panzerblitz."