One thing I can definitely thank the influence of D&D, especially your 1st edition, is for making me realize how thinking outside the box is a very good skill to have, and in turn is why I own this stuff:
Collection/business and
Homes
Plus what your game taught me helped me to help a lot of people in this world. Pehaps the most dramatic being getting a bunch of joint replacement parts to doctors and patients over in Russia about 6 years ago (Apatite/Murmanske region). It is a warm fuzzy feeling to know people are walking again.
So those are a couple of the indirect effects your work has had on the world. Not to mention my family and I.
So you are definitely right about the continued indirect effect your D&D is having on this world, whether those people realize it came from them playing D&D or not. I know it is from D&D, but I also know I am much more "self aware" than many.
I also see how playing is helping me to help my children to prepare for the world at large with the moral dilemma's I throw at them during the course of our games. I bet you did the same when you DMed your kids.
So yes, the creation you made available to the world is doing a lot of good. Not to mention a whole bunch of confessions I have heard about it keeping people from getting too deep into drugs and suicidal thoughts and just helping out enough that their lives aren't as bad as they otherwise would have been.
You definitely have a creation to be immensely proud of. Very few people have that "honor". Must be tough to put in a perspective you can comfortably deal with.
I will try to make the L. Geneva Convention next year. In fact I will be there if a certain power is willing to let me make it happen. Considering how good he has been to me so far, I'm confident. I'll hopefully be able to bring my whole family. Its hard to say. The Army really messed up my wifes health a couple of years ago. I'll bring who I can.
