His Last Words Were "HUZZAH!"

[bloodyrosemccoy]

Okay, I never actually have roleplayed, and don’t consider myself much of a gamer.* I have too much control freak in me for that—and anyway, I wrestle enough with my NPCs characters without having other people complicate it.

But I am a geek.

And as a proud geek, identifying with all the assorted geeks, gamers, nerds, comic book guys, and dorks out there in our little world, I must salute Gary Gygax. My only actual impression may have come from his guest star role on Futurama (“Either put the dice away, or I take them away!”), but by god the man influenced the hell out of me through so many indirect sources it’s rather alarming.

Thanks, Gary. You have aided geeks everywhere in embracing their geekdom. Well done.


*What with the peril to my immortal soul and all, you know.**

**Sorry. I can never resist that one, even in a eulogy. It's just so weird.

Comments

[tiryn.livejournal.com]

I guess I should never play D&D for fear of offending Jesus. =P (Where the hell did you find that thing??)

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

*grin* Try some of the others! You feel dirty after reading a few.

[wyndfire.livejournal.com]

The world lost a little bit of its fantasy.... RIP Mr. Gygax.

[shadesofmauve]

*reads about peril*

That...

it...

D'you know, I read all the way to the bottom thinking "This is totally wacky!" and waiting for the punchline?

It's probably good that those people don't know that in one D&D game we played we totally pwned the baby jebus (we didn't have monster figures and made do with a small nativity set).

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I read ALL of Jack Chick's tracts waiting for the punchline. It just doesn't compute that he could be serious.

Can you imagine how exciting it must be to be a born-again Christian? The world would be filled with battles between good and evil and you'd have to be on the lookout for Satanic influence in your board games, your grocery stores, your movies, your schools, your breakfast cereals ... Hell, I'd be a nervous wreck.

My absolute favorite part is how people argue that evil fantasy stuff will destroy kids by making them think magically and be unable to distinguish fantasy from reality--and then they tell you that the BIBLE expressly forbids such tomfoolery.

[shadesofmauve]

Hell, I'd be a nervous wreck.

So many of them are! Hence, terror alert level chartreuse, tell everyone to panic and send in the marines!

As for the bible versus fantasy...I've come up against that exact same logical fallacy, and it just makes my brain hurt.* Perhaps they're actually worried that if kids discover the idea of 'Fantasy', they'll realize that people can and have made this stuff up.

*SRSLY. It's enough to make me pack up my secular humanism and go home!

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

I suppose that could be the threat. As a child I loved fantasy and myth and categorized (still DO categorize) the Bible in there with the other old myths--in the firmly Not Real section of my head.

Honestly, if I were a Bible-thumper, I'd worry about the OPPOSITE problem. "What if kids start distinguishing fantasy from reality? We'd be screwed!"

[shadesofmauve]

Kids are really, really good at telling make-believe from real - they just don't choose to acknowledge it all the time. There've even been serious studies about kids who spend a lot of time in fantasy worlds, or exposed to myths, and it shows they keep the two separate no-problem. That's what play is all about!

Perhaps this relationship just needs to be extended -
"C'mon, honey. It's time to put the bible away now and come in for dinner."

[http://users.livejournal.com/_wastrel/]

When I'm in my more spiritually ambivalent moments, I've considered throwing myself into paganism and joining a coven just so I can say "I did it because I played D&D!"

There goes the man who bespelled generations of gamers.