Blog of Monica Valentinelli, Writer & Content Consultant

Posted on March 6, 2008 - by Monica Valentinelli

Gary Gygax, the Passing of a Legend

If you haven’t heard by now, Gary Gygax passed away. Gygax’s obituary gives a brief overview of his career in the gaming industry. The father of GenCon, of modern gaming, of the industry I’ve been working with, his passing does not go quietly into the night.

A host of gaming sites and communities offered online memoriams like this one from Wizards of the Coast. An Order of the Stick edition featured a personal thank you, as well as a slew of other webcomics including Questionable Content (check out the chalkboard), Penny Arcade and others. Affecting artists, gamers, industry folk, and fans, our community has even agreed to roll the die and game in honor of his memory. GaryCon across the Globe encourages us to dust off our old D&D sets and play.

In an industry where stigmas abound, I’m unsure how many folk that are not familiar with the hobby understand just how much of an impact this one man left on the entertainment industry. Without his influence all forms of modern gaming as we know it would not be the same. MMORPGs, video games, card games, board games and RPGs are evolutions of the classic dungeon crawl that he and Dave Arneson co-created.

By far, though, the biggest impact on me is the people I’ve met over the years. No other creative industry has been as welcoming and as encouraging as the gaming industry, perhaps because deep down inside we all have a gamer geek inside of us that simply loves to play. In my opinion, trying to get from Point A to Point B to reach Goal X has inhibited our ability to be kind to one another simply because we are that busy. Not so at the conventions and events I’ve attended, and definitely not so at GenCon.

Every year of GenCon has its ups and downs, but I have some amazing stories to tell of people reaching out to other people to simply do “good things.” Gary Gygax enabled all of that to happen, and I’m a better person for being part of this community. I think Bill Walton, who runs The Escapist, a gaming advocacy site, summed up his feelings best by writing about the Gygaxian Butterfly Effect listing the slew of people he never would have met if it wasn’t for Gary. I can definitely add my voice to that choir.

So this Saturday, I’ll be rolling the die along with the rest of them and counting my blessings. May all your rolls be successes, and may you slay your dragons well. Rest in peace, Gary. Your memory will live on in every character we generate.