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Interview with Gary Gygax
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."
I've never played an RPG. Can I still call myself a geek?
Knowledge is like ignorance.. too much can be just as bad as not enough.
Just give me 5 minutes in a room With Gary Gygax and a D20....
I wandered across his website once while browsing and he had his email address available if you wanted to contact him...
On a whim, I emailed him to ask him a few questions and thank him for some of his early work, DnD, Gord the Rogue books, Greyhawk, you name it.
To my surprise, he actually took the time to respond to my questions and bring me up to date with what he has been doing in the post TSR days.
It always amazes me when someone that has made it big at one point will take the time to answer someone they don't know. Kudos to him. (or at least his staff)
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
One thing about the old AD&D, was that if there was a rule that didn't make sense, instead of creating an errata, there was some sort of official apology for the rule. What motivated that? Some kind of inertia or commitment to what has already been printed?
Also, AD&D become very unweildy with rules - distinct and unusual rules - for everything from pummelling to jumping to what-have-you. Once, as a sort of thought experiment, we tried to run a game in which we actually followed all the rules. It was unplayable, we returned quickly to the faster/looser style (in which the mechanics are more abstracted) that has now become part of most RPG's. Did you ever see or play a game that actually used all the systems published as AD&D? Did you recognize this as a problem? Do you see the Wizards of the Coast edition as an improvement in this regard?
the second-best thing to do at four in the morning
What could be better than sitting in the basement with for unbathed geeks, rolling dice and pretending to be dwarv.......
Ahhhh... Sex! That's what your talking about.. Hrm... Judging by my sex life, I disagree. Ill take the smell geeks..
It's an age thing.
If you played with the 1st edition D&D books, Gary Gygax's name was on them. Not sure if he's on the later editions, because I haven't played D&D in probably 10 years.
I don't have an anger problem, I have an idiot problem
This guy reminds me quite a bit of Steve Wozniak, from Apple.
Subtle, quiet, approachable, and doing something for the love of the field. These are the type of people who do more for a field without thinking about it than most people even think possible.
That and he seems to be a huge Mac fan!
He even mentions Lemonaid Stand! I remember playing that game when I was about seven!
- (c) 2018 Hank Zimmerman
Gary Gygax invented the infomercial?
Surely he's not responsible for feeding one's infant daughter.
It depends on who you're RPG'ing with.
If it's someone you're upclose and personal to, you don't even have to stop role-playing to enjoy it. In fact, if you're role-playing in a large group, you might even get some good creative criticism on your technique or even... if you're the adventurous sort... outside help.
The next Slashdot story will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and slashdot the links early!
Let's face it, the first time most people used dice for other than shooting craps was when rolling up characters and playing D&D and like games. Eventually the same or highly similar probability systems were implemented by other game companies and many computer games. Some time in the past TSR voiced their displeasure at other games using 3D6 for stats, how armor class is calculated, etc. Hence many games used their own varied methods of valuation of stats, etc., making it a bit of a trick to determine where characters of various genres stood. Is it still a concern for RPG game developers, to create their own systems of statistics, or is those methods and values as detailed by TSR pretty much an open standard?
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
I wonder if Gary has gotten around to admitting that just about every single creative idea he incorporated into D&D was first stolen from Dave Arneson? And later, the guy who wrote "Metamorphosis: Alpha", Jim Ward?
Of course, y'all are probably so young these names mean nothing to you. Young geeks these days, they have no culture....
Max
My god carries a hammer. Your god died nailed to a tree. Any questions?
"...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*
Wizards of the Coast (who is owned by Hasbro) is laying off 100 employees... for those that do not know Wizards of the Coast is the current owner of D&D
read about it here
Thanks to file sharing, I purchase more CDs
Thanks to the RIAA, I buy them used...
"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.
13 years ago (*gak*) we invited him to speak at our dorm at Stanford; it became a campus-wide event and was quite well-attended by some 100+ people.
:)
As I recall, he was witty, self-effacing, yet very respectful of the community he helped create (in sharp contrast to some other cult figures, esp. amongst the Trek cast). This was in the midst of his fall-out with TSR, so he didn't exactly have glowing words for the company that booted him.
Afterwards there was a long line of Ur-geeks with Monster Manuals and Players Handbooks in-hand for him to sign. I'm glad I brought my DM Guide...
He's a great public speaker; consider him if you are involved in any kind of college / geek community.
Yeah, Gary left Dave's name off AD&D, and honestly there wasn't enough of a difference to merit that. Gary just put his spin on the D&D rules he and Dave made, and called it a new game.
Jim Ward wrote some of the best stuff that TSR put out, even though Metamorphisis Alpha was basically a rip off of that Heinlein story, whose name I can't remember. MA and Gamma World were a blast to play.
I haven't looked at his new stuff yet, but if it's anything like the last game he wrote (Dangerous Dimensions?), I'll pass. Way too much renaming things, just for the sake of being named different. Far too much die rolling for my tastes.
The other interviews that I remember (the BIG article in Dragon slamming people for using house rules and still calling it AD&D), he came off sounding a lot like RMS does now, when he's bitching about the whole GNU/Linux thing. Gary seems to have mellowed with age, but calling the GM the Lejend Master??? Come on Gary, get over the names.
Wu-Tang Name: Half-Cut Skeleton Get your own Wu-Na
I was hopelessly addicted to this for a few months last year-- if you don't want to muck about with emulators, just click here.
~Philly
And in the interest of full disclosure, I come out with:
Str: 11
Int: 15
Wis: 15
Dex: 9
Con: 11
Chr: 15
A nice waste of a few minutes. Obviously flawed, though - assigning a 15 INT simply for a Masters Degree indicates you've never actually dealt with people in graduate school (*GRIN*).
"Prepare for the worst - hope for the best."
Dude! Those sigs are great for fame rubs.
Remember, left-to-right for high numbers, right-to-left for low numbers.
;)
1. Most of the original ideas for D&D came from Dave Arneson and others. Mr. Gygax simply put them together into a book.
2. Dave Arneson and E. Gary Gygax had a grave difference in opinion about how to run TSR and so Mr. Arneson left. However, he made sure his lawyers made it clear that he would continue to receive benefits (such as money) from his previous work. The Monster Manual in particular.
2a. Years later TSR came out with Monster Manual 2 and several other hardback books. They also stopped paying Dave Arneson his royalties. Mr. Arneson did not like this and so he sued. Unlike M.A. Barker though, Mr. Arneson was rich enough to force TSR to begin paying him again. Eventually thought, TSR bought Mr. Arneson out completely. To read about this go to D&D History or do a google search or go to the newsgroup on D&D (D&D FAQ).
3. TSR, over the years, ripped off many ideas et al from people. One story in particular stands out. M.A. Barker's "Empire of the Petal Throne" was released by TSR minus it's copyright notice. Mr. Barker did not notice this right off and by the time it was brought to his attention TSR used an obscure copyright technical issue (since modified by Congress) to assume total control over Mr. Barker's work. Mr. Barker (of course) filed suit and went bankrupt trying to get his work back. Years later, a Mr. Lou Zaukie (spelling?) - the inventor of the high impact die and friend of Mr. Barker - convinced TSR to sell the rights to him and Mr. Zaukie returned the rights to Mr. Barker. Who has since gone on to print the rules again as well as to produce other tomes.
4. The heires to the Flash Gordon fortune, who happened to be nuts over D&D, was the person who bought up most of TSR's outstanding stock and kicked Mr. Gygax out of TSR. (This is mainly what I read and heard about many years ago so take it with a grain of salt.) From what I heard, Mr. Gygax kicked out several of the people this lady liked from TSR and in a fit of revenge she did this.
5. Then came several years of nothing new from TSR and, according to accounting records, TSR went heavily in debt as the heiress sucked all of the money out of TSR in order to build some sort of an amusement park dedicated to Flash Gordon. The amusement park deal went sour and she went shopping for someone to buy TSR. Especially since most of the creative people either were not allowed to finish works and/or left when Mr. Gygax left. (Some to other companies and some with Mr. Gygax - according to other reports.)
6. Then, from left field we have Wizards of the Coast. WotC originally was another company. TSR put them out of business. So they had to re-invent their company and did so using a novel idea - playing cards like you would D&D. WotC's revenge was that they bought TSR from the heiress (who, from some accounts had doctored the books so TSR looked like it was a great thing to buy but subsequently WotC found out that all of this inventory TSR had was rotting in various warehouses because no one was buying it anymore since it was so outdated.).
7. So now we come to the latest chapter in TSR's history. Hasbro bought WotC recently. Just when WotC was beginning to breath new life into TSR; Hasbro and WotC's owner had a falling out. As of today, Hasbro has sold off most (if not all) of the electronic/computer software related to both WotC and TSR games. Only the board/book rights are left and Hasbro has let it be known that they are not looking exactly - but would not be against having offers made to buy WotC/TSR.
But that's just some of the past history of Mr. Gygax and TSR. :-)
I don't know about you, but a little role-playing at 4 AM can be a lot of fun...nudge nudge, nod nod, wink wink:
You've been a BAD little dungeon master, haven't you? You must be punished...
"she says i'm lousy conversation. as if that's supposed to help."
His corporation was thoroughly and soundly thrashed on the front page of Wall Street Journal well over a decade ago.
Why?
The Wall street Journal wanted potential unwitting investers to be aware of his corporations highest ratios of family members in a listed public company in history.
He hired every relative, near relative, friend, etc and let them bicker and fight the company into utter chaos and floundering.
Rule #1 dont hire relatives and friends just for the sake of it to give them jobs.
He blew it.
Wall Street Journal spelled it out quit clearly to me... Gary Gygax is a terrible business man.
I did play AD&D all though high school and College though, and many other RPGs, and do think fondly of of the standardization of the game so that I could easily merge into other peoples games.... I respect him for that (being successful) But he destoryed the integrity of the game with bad decisions to capture children market. It should never been brought below adult level gaming.
Lou Zocchi helped MAR Barker with the EPT copyright issues, but he was also known for whipping out not-too-good "clones" of popular games in short order.
TSR was known for pulling nasty crap on a regular basis, and while they'd sue at the drop of a hat for copyright infringement, they'd use "inspirations" from other games and sources quite freely. All of the smart gamers made sure to never show any works in progress to TSR employees, because those works would be the next TSR "invention." For example, Steve Jackson Games was working on a vampire-hunting game called, of course, "Vampire," and after some TSR employees got wind of it, TSR announced a game with that exact same title (and no game to sell with that title - that came later. Shades of Microsoft, there).
Sorry, but I think the statement that Gary Gygax is unknown, is sorta unfounded. Hell, Homer even met him on the Simpsons.
Hello, I am Gary Gygax, I am.........(rolls D20)....... happy to meet you.
When I was in 8th grade, I was an avid D&D player, along with some others in the neighboorhood.
During that time, we travelled to Ohio to visit some high-school friends of my mom and some old friends of my grandmother.
I remember sitting in my grandmothers friends house and my grandmother asking the other ladys grandson if he played Dungeons and Dragons.
The other lady started blabbing on and on about how it was an evil game made by the devil and it was not allowed in her daughters house and so on.
I think about the most evil thing D&D has ever made me do is spend a lot of time on ebay trying to obtain an original version of Dieties and Demigods to complete my collection.
Now, if you will excuse me, I must go crawl around some steam tunnels and put curses on people