On Wed, 5 Mar 2008, Nick Lamicela wrote:
I heard the news about Gygax. I recently checked the Order of the Stick, and
Rich Burlew (the comic's author) took a break from the current plotline to
do a commemorative episode <http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0536.html>,
especially relevant since the OOTS is heavily based off D&D. He says in his
news post this week that although he's sure Gary was told it a lot, he
wished he could have been there to say how much Gary revolutionized and
inspired gaming.
Computer gaming as well as tabletop. Wizardry, Ultima, Nethack, Colossal
Cave, and Zork would not have been conceived in a world without D&D.
That's just in the first couple of years of the home-computer era; the
ripplepoints cascade rapidly from there. 2008: World of Oregon-Trail-
Craft?
(Nitpickers will point out that Colossal Cave might have been *conceived*.
But it wouldn't have developed into a craze among late-1970s mainframe
users. See my longer post at
<http://jmac.org/gameshelf/mt4/2008/03/e-gary-gygax-and-computer-gami.html>)
--Z
--
"And Aholibamah bare Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah: these were the borogoves..."
*
Making a saint out of Reagan is sad. Making an idol out of Nixon ("If the
President does it then it's legal") is contemptible.