March 5, 2008 at 12:32 am
For those of you who may have grown up in the late 70's and up, Dungeons & Dragons may have been a big part of your life. I just received an electronic newsletter from CodeProject. In it was a short headline that caught my eye.
Gary Gygax, co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons passed away Tuesday morning at his home in Lake Geneva, he was 69.
Here is a link from CodeProject:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080304/ap_en_ot/obit_gygax
May Dragons Cry at his passing!
March 5, 2008 at 1:01 am
Oh my. That's unexpected and very unfortunate
D&D's still a big part of my life. Got a game this weekend that I'm running.
Gail Shaw
Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability
March 5, 2008 at 5:12 am
The man was a legend. I was never a huge fan of D&D, preferring Call of Cthulhu & war games. While I didn't spend lots of time with his game specifically, I played games inspired by his great work. I owe him a debt for all the great times I've had.
"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood"
- Theodore Roosevelt
Author of:
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March 5, 2008 at 6:56 am
And another of the great ones falls....Wow. I owe him a lot as well - much in terms of imagination, and good times, too.
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Your lack of planning does not constitute an emergency on my part...unless you're my manager...or a director and above...or a really loud-spoken end-user..All right - what was my emergency again?
March 5, 2008 at 7:11 am
I played a lot in middle school /high school, even on some early computer games that were similar. I really enjoyed the game and he will be missed.
Thoughts and prayers to his family.
March 6, 2008 at 8:23 am
I can't count the hours I spent "off the streets" playing Pen and Paper as well as computer based Role Playing Games. I began playing with the Dungeons and Dragons basic set (The Red Box) at age 10. 24 years later, I am still an avid gamer. (Yes, Quick/Simple math will derive my age!) The creativity, imagination, what-if scenarios I use when playing these games, in my opinion, makes me better at how I work and do my job. My successes in troubleshooting, workarounds and decision making were all a part of all of those fun times.
Mr. Gygax's passing is very unfortunate, he will be "critically missed".
I read an article about his passing last night, and it stated that he had DM'ed games in his home in January 2008. (Work has the article blocked as "Entertainment".) It warmed my heart to know that he was still doing the thing that he had a passion for.
"Key"
MCITP: DBA, MCSE, MCTS: SQL 2005, OCP
March 7, 2008 at 7:13 am
I came across this from what is currently one of my favorite comic strips....I kind of hope this is true for Gary - I think he'd enjoy it this way....
http://www.xkcd.com/393/[/url]
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Your lack of planning does not constitute an emergency on my part...unless you're my manager...or a director and above...or a really loud-spoken end-user..All right - what was my emergency again?
March 7, 2008 at 11:09 am
I played a lot of AD&D in the 80s, and though most of what we played was only loosely based on Gary's TSR materials, I am thankful of his pioneering and feel sadness of his passing away at such an early age.
I now play Neverwinter Nights, an electronic spawn of Gary's inventiveness. It is highly programmable*, and the servers where people play are free to play on.
*I saw one sever in development recently that is the closest thing to PnP AD&D (3.5) that I expect I'll see. It even blacked the screen out if a player character drank too much: leaving the character "vulnerable" to other player characters nearby.
Thank you, Gary
}:=3)
March 7, 2008 at 5:11 pm
It is indeed a sad day.
I started playing D&D in 1978, was a charter member of the RPGA and actually met Gary a couple of times.
He will be missed.
[font="Times New Roman"]-- RBarryYoung[/font], [font="Times New Roman"] (302)375-0451[/font] blog: MovingSQL.com, Twitter: @RBarryYoung[font="Arial Black"]
Proactive Performance Solutions, Inc. [/font][font="Verdana"] "Performance is our middle name."[/font]
March 7, 2008 at 10:27 pm
Perhaps we can change the thread title to:
Dungeons Howl and Dragons Cry!
For those who may not be aware, Mr. Gygax is immortalized in Futurama Episode 220 (Action Rangers), as one of Al Gore's Vice Presidential Action Rangers.
http://ccinsider.comedycentral.com/cc_insider/2008/03/rip-gary-gygax.html
There is an embedded 1 minute 56 seconds clip, where the entire Action Ranger team is introduced, and I am quite pleased to say that all Rangers are of the actual people! I won't spoil the other members of the team, it is worth watching.
Stephen Colbert paid a tribute as well as he closed his March 6, 2008 broadcast:
"Before we go Nation, I have some sad news. Yesterday, Gary Gygax, creator of Dungeons and dragons, passed away at age 69. Gary, you'll be missed. How much will you be missed? [drops d20 on desk] 20. May your prismatic spray always bypass your target's reflex saving throw. Good night."
(Thank my Mom and Tivo!)
http://www.comedycentral.com/motherload/?ml_video=156302
Respectfully,
Edit: Found a URL to the Colbert Tribute!
"Key"
MCITP: DBA, MCSE, MCTS: SQL 2005, OCP
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