D&D General Game Wizards: The Epic Battle for Dungeons & Dragons

[mserabian]

Not sure if anyone else has had a chance to read through this yet...

I found it to be an interesting read, but also very sad. The picture it painted of both Gygax and Arnesun makes both of them look quite bad. They both come off as petty, vindictive, angry and sad men (at least during the years covered) in my reading of the book.

Wondering what others think of the book and its presentation of the players at TSR...

 

[Henadic Theologian]

Not sure if anyone else has had a chance to read through this yet...

I found it to be an interesting read, but also very sad. The picture it painted of both Gygax and Arnesun makes both of them look quite bad. They both come off as petty, vindictive, angry and sad men (at least during the years covered) in my reading of the book.

Wondering what others think of the book and its presentation of the players at TSR...

Neither man is alive to defend themselves, so look at anything not backed up by hard evidence with a grain of salt.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Neither man is alive to defend themselves, so look at anything not backed up by hard evidence with a grain of salt.

The book is scrupulous (perhaps overly so) in backing things up.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I've yet to read The Game Wizards, but knowing Jon Peterson's attention to detail and the astonishing level of research that went into his previous two books, I would suspect that if he writes something, he has the receipts. While he clearly has a passion for RPG history, he also is a true scholar.

Neither man is alive to defend themselves, so look at anything not backed up by hard evidence with a grain of salt.

 

[Alzrius]

Darn, Amazon says that my copy won't arrive for at least another week.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

The book is scrupulous (perhaps overly so) in backing things up.

Look, its good to know he backs it up with evidence, all I'm saying is the two men in question are dead and can't defend themselves or give their 2 cents so that should be taken into account.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Look, its good to know he backs it up with evidence, all I'm saying is the two men in question are dead and can't defend themselves or give their 2 cents so that should be taken into account.

I think that they were, sadly, human. As we all are. (Well, most of us. I'm beginning to worry that some of y'all might be Lizard People, but that's neither here nor there)

Now, I haven't finished the book yet (I'm planning on doing a full review when I do), but a lot of things become more understandable once you have the full history- it doesn't make it right, or good, but you get why it happened.

In the end, their best defense is their legacy- the product and the millions (billions?) of hours of joy that it brought to the world.

 

[mserabian]

Darn, Amazon says that my copy won't arrive for at least another week.

I got the kindle version!

 

[Parmandur]

Not sure if anyone else has had a chance to read through this yet...

I found it to be an interesting read, but also very sad. The picture it painted of both Gygax and Arnesun makes both of them look quite bad. They both come off as petty, vindictive, angry and sad men (at least during the years covered) in my reading of the book.

Wondering what others think of the book and its presentation of the players at TSR...

That matches my impression from every history of the game so far: human foibles at work.

 

[mserabian]

Look, its good to know he backs it up with evidence, all I'm saying is the two men in question are dead and can't defend themselves or give their 2 cents so that should be taken into account.

Much of the evidence consists of letters written by them at the time. There is very little supposition in the book. It mostly does let the two men "speak for themselves" as it were with their own words. And neither I nor the author are saying they were bad people. It's just that many of their actions put them in an unflattering light. Which again, doesn't make me dislike them, it just makes me sad that these two greats really mostly unfortunately shot themselves in their own feet.