# Gary Gygax

Ernest Gary Gygax (27 July 1938 – 4 March 2008) was an American writer and game designer famous for designing the fantasy role playing game, Dungeons & Dragons, with co-creator Dave Arneson.

## Quotes

* The most immediate influences upon AD&D were probably de Camp & Pratt, R. E. Howard, Fritz Leiber, Jack Vance, H. P. Lovecraft, and A. Merritt.
** Writing in Appendix N, AD&D Dungeon Masters Guide (1979), p. 224
* While it is possible to play a single game, unrelated to any other game events past or future, it is the campaign for which these rules are designed. It is relatively simple to set up a fantasy campaign, and better still, it will cost almost nothing. In fact you will not even need miniature figures, although their occasional employment is recommended for real spectacle when battles are fought. A quick glance at the Equipment section of this booklet will reveal just how little is required. The most extensive requirement is time. The campaign referee will have to have sufficient time to meet the demands of his players, he will have to devote a number of hours to laying out the maps of his "dungeons" and upper terrain before the affair begins.
** Preface of the Original Dungeons & Dragons, (1 November 1973)
* One of the things stressed in the original game of D&D was the importance of recording game time with respect to each and every player character in a campaign. In AD&D it is emphasized even more: YOU CAN NOT HAVE A MEANINGFUL CAMPAIGN IF STRICT TIME RECORDS ARE NOT KEPT.
** "Time in the Campaign", AD&D Dungeon Masters Guide (1979), p. 38
* Hello Fry, it's a ... *[stops mid-sentence, throws a D20 and a D6]* pleasure to meet you.
** Voicing himself in "Anthology of Interest I" on Futurama (21 May 2000)
* One more thing: don’t spend too much time merely reading. The best part of this work is the play, so play and enjoy!
** Preface to the Oriental Adventures (1985)
* Games give you a chance to excel, and if you're playing in good company you don't even mind if you lose because you had the enjoyment of the company during the course of the game.
** GameSpy interview by Allen Rausch, Pt. 1 (15 August 2004)
* The idea that a game is anything more than a game… You know, there are people who are basically unbalanced who are going to misuse a game and have bad results. If a golfer who insists on playing during a lightning storm gets hit by a stroke of lightning and is killed nobody says, 'There's golfers dying by the droves being hit by lightning!' You can overdo what you really like, and if you're unbalanced you go overboard.
** GameSpy interview, Pt. 1 (15 August 2004)
* In many ways I still resent the wretched yellow journalism that was clearly evident in (the media's) treatment of the game — 60 Minutes in particular. I've never watched that show after Ed Bradley's interview with me because they rearranged my answers. When I sent some copies of letters from mothers of those two children who had committed suicide who said the game had nothing to do with it, they refused to do a retraction or even mention it on air. What bothered me is that I was getting death threats, telephone calls, and letters. I was a little nervous. I had a bodyguard for a while.
** GameSpy interview, Pt. I (15 August 2004)
* The new D&D is too rule intensive. It's relegated the Dungeon Master to being an entertainer rather than master of the game. It's done away with the archetypes, focused on nothing but combat and character power, lost the group cooperative aspect, bastardized the class-based system, and resembles a comic-book superheroes game more than a fantasy RPG where a player can play any alignment desired, not just lawful good.
** GameSpy interview, Pt. 2 (16 August 2004)
* The books I write because I want to read them, the games because I want to play them, and stories I tell because I find them exciting personally.
** GameSpy interview, Pt. 2 (16 August 2004)
* I would like the world to remember me as the guy who really enjoyed playing games and sharing his knowledge and his fun pastimes with everybody else.
** GameSpy interview, Pt. 2 (16 August 2004)
* Pen-and-paper role-playing is live theater and computer games are television. People want the convenience and instant gratification of turning on the TV rather than getting dressed up and going out to see a live play. In the same way, the computer is a more immediately accessible way to play games.
** As quoted in "Dungeon Masters in Cyberspace" in The New York Times (27 February 2006)
* The essence of a role-playing game is that it is a group, cooperative experience. There is no winning or losing, but rather the value is in the experience of imagining yourself as a character in whatever genre you’re involved in, whether it’s a fantasy game, the Wild West, secret agents or whatever else. You get to sort of vicariously experience those things.
** Interview in 2006, as quoted in "Gary Gygax, Game Pioneer, Dies at 69" in The New York Times (5 March 2008)
* There is no intimacy; it’s not live. [he said of online games] It’s being translated through a computer, and your imagination is not there the same way it is when you’re actually together with a group of people. It reminds me of one time where I saw some children talking about whether they liked radio or television, and I asked one little boy why he preferred radio, and he said, "Because the pictures are so much better."
** Interview in 2006, as quoted in "Gary Gygax, Game Pioneer, Dies at 69" in The New York Times (5 March 2008)
* I think a lot of what I was taught, gathered, and learned is worth keeping. Heritage and "wisdom" and simply personal family and local history enrich the one able to tap such information. As it is I wish I had garnered more from my grandparents and parents.
** "An Interview with Gary Gygax" by Christopher Smith at Lejendary Adventure

## Quotes about Gygax

* It really meant a lot to him to hear from people from over the years about how he helped them become a doctor, a lawyer, a policeman, what he gave them ... He really enjoyed that.
** Gail Gygax, his widow, as quoted in "Dungeons & Dragons Co-Creator Dies at 69" The Associated Press (AP)

## External links

* Encyclopedic article on Gary Gygax on Wikipedia