|
Post by Xaa on Mar 4, 2008 22:28:58 GMT -5
-------------------------------
The morning had been warm and pleasant, yet I had not been able to coax Eddas outside. "I'm busy, Joy, quite busy," he had replied, his nose deep in yet another tome. I decided to humor him - his research was usually quite important, though often quite esoteric. Besides, I had work of my own to do. The tower needed cleaning, and there was my garden to tend to. So, I'd decided to let him sit until about lunchtime, then lure him out with the smell of a pleasant soup. If that failed, I reasoned I'd drag him by one of his pointed little ears.
Now, however, it was noon, he wasn't coming out, so it was time to do just that.
I stepped into our room from the parapet, already glowering in his direction - but, I then paused. Eddas was not reading. He was standing, his gaze distant, his chin lifted a bit, as though listening. "Eddas? What's the matter?"
He was silent for a moment before he spoke. "You can't hear it, I know. But I can. It's there. Somewhere, on another world, a great storyteller has died. And countless millions who heard his stories as children now weep."
-------------------------------
|
|
|
Post by Xaa on Mar 4, 2008 22:32:35 GMT -5
Gary Gygax was the largest single influence on my life as a teenager outside of my family.
When all the other kids in high school were getting drunk or getting high and getting tossed in jail, my friends and I were playing 48-hour weekend marathon games of D&D. I think I turned out better for it, really.
Years later, I met the woman I'd eventually marry through a D&D game.
None of the books I have written would ever have been written had I not been inspired as a storyteller by being one, as the referee for countless roleplaying games played with friends.
Gygax was literally the largest single influence on my entire life.
Quite sad to know he's gone.
|
|
|
Post by Kilarin on Mar 5, 2008 12:39:39 GMT -5
Yep. The world would be very different today without Gygax and D&D. He was one of the primary pioneers in the very concept of role playing games, and many of todays biggest fancy schmancy high intensity graphics games are direct descendants of his work.
|
|
|
Post by Xaa on Mar 5, 2008 12:43:43 GMT -5
Yep. The world would be very different today without Gygax and D&D. He was one of the primary pioneers in the very concept of role playing games, and many of todays biggest fancy schmancy high intensity graphics games are direct descendants of his work. Not only did he invent the whole concept of "roleplaying game", the number of computer roleplaying games that AREN'T based on the old D&D "Race/Class/Level/Hit Points" system can be counted on the fingers of one hand.
|
|
|
Post by Liantedan on Mar 5, 2008 14:08:28 GMT -5
I'm probably too young to know what I'm speaking about, since I never really had the chance to play a classic tabletop rpg, but I do believe it can be said Gygax will never really be truly dead, as his creation lives on, and probably will for a long time to come. At least, I'll remember him for however long my life may be, and I'm sure I'll mention his name to those who play rpg's every once in a while. If they listen, he shouldn't be completely forgotten.
|
|
|
Post by charietto on Mar 5, 2008 23:01:27 GMT -5
Mr Gigax had a great influence on my life too.
I got started with tabletop RPGs with D&D too, a long while ago when I was a kid (playing "The keep on the Borderlands").
Gaming, and most of all R.P.Gs, has been a part of my life for a quarter of a century. I met lot of people through gaming clubs - most of my current "real life" friends. And I get into computer games with Baldur's Gate - so to say I would not be writing here if Gary Gygax has not created D&D to start with. Like Xaa, it's quite possible that sometime in the future, my first meeting with R.P.Gs finally comes to influence my professional life too.
In an interview, back in 2005, Gary Gigax said: "I would like the world to remember me as the guy who really enjoyed playing games and sharing his knowledge and his fun pastimes with everybody else."
... What he did for most of his life.
R.I.P Mr Gigax and thanks for everything.
|
|
|
Post by Kilarin on Mar 7, 2008 8:14:23 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by Liantedan on Mar 7, 2008 14:05:08 GMT -5
|
|