Ernest Gary Gygax, the person most responsible for the creation and disemination of the Dungeons & Dragons game passed away yesterday. He was just shy of 70 years old, had been in poor health for the last few years (especially after suffering a stroke) and is survived by several children and grandchildren.
Although I do take the odd moment to bash the conventions of D&D itself, and I strongly dislike the "Gygaxian" paradigm of how a game should be run, without Gary, there wouldn't even be a hobby at all. I can't fault him for coming up with a game that isn't exactly to my tastes; he came from a wargaming background, and the game did too, and his love of early pulp writers of science fiction and fantasy is very obviously an influence on the game. Gaming as a hobby has evolved---often in many competing directions at once---so that D&D and the D&D ingrained paradigm is never my first choice anymore.
That said, everything I've ever heard about Gary paints him in a good light. He was a nice guy, patient and attentive, well-read and literate, pious and devout, firm and unmoving in his opinions while still respecting those who differed with him... all in all a true gentleman in every sense of the word.
While I did not know him or interact with him personally, I know plenty of people who did and I feel saddened by his passing.
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