It’s not often I dork out on my blog. Well, at least I personally don’t think I dork out too much. But today, an icon in gaming died. Gary Gygax, a man who sparked the imagination of gamers, industry leaders and aspiring developers like myself, passed away in his Lake Geneva home.
Gary created the pen-and-paper game Dungeons & Dragons with co-author Dave Arneson back in 1974. New editions of the rule sets are still being developed and published today.
Gary and Dave built a game system on the premise that there are no limits to the imagination even when the imagination operates under a detailed set of rules.
One of the best things about Gary’s work is the ever-present notion that rules were meant to be broken.
Dungeons and Dragons was more than just a hack-and-slash game played with odd shaped die. It was a creative engine. A way to expand your mind. A way to learn. To harness that inner child. To grow. Here are several lessons one may have learned while playing Gary’s game:
1. Racial unity. In D&D there were humans, elves, dwarves, halflings and numerous other character types for players to be. While each race had its differences with the others, a group always came together to complete a common goal.
2. Sense of self. Your character had specific strengths and weaknesses. Alone, a character didn’t mean much. With a group of different characters, you filled a niche and had purpose.
3. Problem solving. Many adventures in Dungeons and Dragons were rarely impossible to complete. There was always a solution. You just had to keep searching for it.
4. Societies have structure, even the most chaotic.
5. Societies have flaws, even the most lawful.
6. The art and tradition of story-telling. Dungeons and Dragons was one way to keep story-telling traditions alive in our century. Our entire culture is based on story-telling. Think about it. Television, music, books, the nightly news. Almost every waking moment of our lives is bound in story-telling. The only things that have changed about human story-telling in the past million years are the mediums through which those stories are told.
7. Interaction. But these were interactive stories. The choices each player made for their character impacted and changed the story. There was a way to participate and not just have your entertainment spoon fed to you.
8. There is nothing a good old +26 weapon and natural roll of 20 can’t solve.
The best thing Gary did was bring millions of gamers together under a cutting edge and engaging system. I know without his game, I probably wouldn’t have some of the friends I do today. I probably wouldn’t be playing new generations of games. I wouldn’t be creating games either. Many of us wouldn’t.
Here’s to the imagination! Jot at you later.