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Interview with Gary Gygax

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the stuff-to-read dept.

the_bahua writes "Have a look at this one-on-one with Gary Gygax, over at KCGeek.com. It's a tell-all, see-all, look into the mind of the man behind the second-best thing to do at four in the morning. Responsible for one of the cornerstones of geekdom, he is largely unknown to many, including many RPG fans."

7 of 295 comments (clear)

  1. Ooh! by freeze128 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Just give me 5 minutes in a room With Gary Gygax and a D20....

  2. Insurance underwriter by perdida · · Score: 5, Funny
    I was an insurance underwriter. I took the job rather than going on with schooling at the University of Chicago to become an anthropologist. I did fairly well in insurance, was a supervising underwriter for individual, group, and association group, health, life, long term disability, and unusual risk policies.


    I smiled when I saw this. I couldn't help but think that this is where D&D, and so many of its descendants on boards and on chips, got their obsession with tracking numbers for so many unquantifiable characteristics.


    Risk assessors have to put a number on health, wit, and daring; they classify you by background, skills, and lifestyle, in dollars and cents.


    Only recently have more plot-driven games broadened out of this focus - like the Final Fantasy series, which puts interesting, structured plots ahead of arduous level-building.

    --
    Goat sex free since 2001
    1. Re:Insurance underwriter by Scaba · · Score: 5, Funny

      I was wondering why my medical insurance form asked me for my constitution, how many hit points I have, and what my saving throws vs. disease are.

  3. The Second Best Thing by fobbman · · Score: 5, Funny

    "...the second-best thing to do at four in the morning"

    Second-best thing to do, but sadly the first most likely of the two to be happening to those who know his name well. *sigh*

    1. Re:The Second Best Thing by Keith+Russell · · Score: 5, Funny
      Second-best thing to do, but sadly the first most likely of the two to be happening to those who know his name well. *sigh*

      What, you mean you've never whipped up some wonderfully elegant Perl code at four in the morning?

      Oh, um... uh.... Neither have I! Yeah, that's it. Of course not. Neither have... I. [whimper] I hate my life.

      --
      This sig intentionally left blank.
  4. Re:Am I Still a Geek? by daeley · · Score: 5, Funny

    I've never played an RPG. Can I still call myself a geek?

    Let's see...

    [roll roll roll]

    Hmm...

    [paper shuffling]

    [roll roll roll]

    The shop owner says No.

    --
    I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.
  5. gary by zephc · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Hi, I'm Gary Gygax, and it's a..." *Rolls dice* " pleasure to meet you!" (Futurama)

    --
    "I would say that 99 per cent of what my father has written about his own life is false." - L. Ron Hubbard Jr.