OT: Passing of Gary Gygax
Posted by Redman II
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Stepping back in for a moment, but you beat me to it.
This is actually very relevent, because TSR is the company he founded. That company is the one that brought us Classic MSH, the game that we all know and love--no matter our disagreements over it or our mods to it. To say the least, it is the end of an era... Gary Gygax journies to the Outer Planes... Regards, Niniri 
Oh my god... a piece of gaming history is gone. He was truly a legend. I really hope there's a dedication piece put into D&D 4th ed in his honor and memory.
 
I didn not actually know Gygax. In fact, I can't recall ever talking to him in any regard. By the time I was hired as a freelancer, Gygax was long departed for LA and Lorraine Williams had already completed her coup d'etat.
I had been reading his two Dragon columns for years and had a good time reading between the lines for clues into his personality. One got the impression of a man who was fiercely resentful of the way "his" game and the gaming world in general were rapidly growing past his control. Perhaps he saw himself as a George Lucas or a Stan Lee, the sole authority on a specific fantasy/media realm, the sole focus of all publicity and public awareness. To go from poverty-stricken cobbler to proprietor one of THE pop culture events of the 70s-80s, with all the attendant riches and ego-boosting...... It was a very tasty apple. Then there was that article in the local paper on Gygax's first wife, left along with their kids in Lake Geneva. That was the first time I'd learned Gygax had abandoned the Midwest in his Quixotic quest to turn his Dungeons & Dragons into a media empire. Again, the Stan Lee influence, as Lee had long abandoned NYC publishing for life as an LA TV producer. Basically here was a guy, a member of the Working Poor, who had lucked onto a Golden Ticket. He was on his way to Fame And Fortune. Too bad it is often a short stay..... Perhaps one can consider Gygax a middle-aged Icarus, riding the wings Dave Arneson and unnamed others had designed for him. That first Gencon I attended on the company dollar was right after Lorraine's coup...... I was standing in the Milwaukee Hyatt lobby with my then-wife Karen and some TSR staffers. We looked over and there was Gygax pushing the baby stroller with his newest child, a child born of his LA dalliance. None of the TSR folk were willing to go talk to him, not even to say "Hi." Maybe they were afraid of being seeing by their new boss in the company of the old boss and thereby be marked as potential traitors. Maybe they were resentful of how Gygax had abandoned them and the company in his quest for his own amusement. Or maybe everyone had just grown so far apart there really was no point in saying anything. 
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