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

[DemoMonkey]

Sometimes it's best not to know too much about the things and people we admire.

It's a choice. Me, I choose to like things.

 

[ninjayeti]

The part I find particularly sad is that neither could acknowledge how much the other was critical to their ultimate success. Without Dave's flash of creativity, Gary would have spent his life writing wargames that sold 1,000 copies tops. Without Gary's drive to transcribe and publish his rules, Dave's great idea would never have left a handful of midwestern gaming clubs. Yet instead of being grateful to the other for their contribution to their success, they just ended up resentful.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Yeah, though plenty of people have argued the case for either side, you very likely would not have had D&D without the both of them. But the bitter corporate wrangling and legal proceedings that eventually followed drove them far apart.

The part I find particularly sad is that neither could acknowledge how much the other was critical to their ultimate success. Without Dave's flash of creativity, Gary would have spent his life writing wargames that sold 1,000 copies tops. Without Gary's drive to transcribe and publish his rules, Dave's great idea would never have left a handful of midwestern gaming clubs. Yet instead of being grateful to the other for their contribution to their success, they just ended up resentful.

 

[el-remmen]

My copy arrives tomorrow.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Sometimes it's best not to know too much about the things and people we admire.

It's a choice. Me, I choose to like things.

The phrase "never meet your heroes" has an easy (although pessimistic) way out of the cycle of "idolize someone, learn what they're truly like, stop idolizing them, move onto a different person to idolize, and repeat". Stop idolizing people. Anyone and everyone. Admit everyone is flawed, and although you can be grateful towards someone else for their contributions to your life and the world in general, always remember that no one is an idol to venerate/worship. We're all human, we're all flawed, and all of us have parts of our behaviors and personalities that suck.

You'll always be disappointed in your heroes if you learn what they're truly like, because they're not actually heroes. They're not perfect, and there will always be a part of them to be disappointed in. That's just a fact of life.

It sucks and it's pessimistic, but it's true.

I'm a newer player. I've only been playing (and DMing) for about 5 years, but I'm familiar with the hobby and its history. I've met a lot of older players that idolize Gary Gygax, or Dave Arneson, or one of the other creators of early D&D. I'm grateful to them for creating the game and I can acknowledge how much their creation has changed my life, but I don't idolize them. I'm glad that D&D exists, I'm thankful that they created it, and I think that a lot of the ideas that they had were ingenious and revolutionary, but they're still people, and people shouldn't be idolized.

It's always better to know. Facts over feelings. The answer to "knowing about these people's flaws will make me admire them less" isn't to choose to not learn about their flaws, it's to not admire/idolize them in the first place. That's the proper choice. Ignorance begets poor decisions and disappointment.

And I don't mean this as a personal attack. Just an explanation on a more correct way to view the creators of D&D (and people in general).

 

[MichaelSomething]

Founding a kingdom and ruling a kingdom are two separate things which require different skills...

 

[overgeeked]

Without Gary's drive to transcribe and publish his rules, Dave's great idea would never have left a handful of midwestern gaming clubs.

There were other typists and publishers in the community at the time. There’s no reason to assume that “without Gygax” Arneson’s invention would have languished in obscurity.

 

[Mercurius]

The phrase "never meet your heroes" has an easy (although pessimistic) way out of the cycle of "idolize someone, learn what they're truly like, stop idolizing them, move onto a different person to idolize, and repeat". Stop idolizing people. Anyone and everyone. Admit everyone is flawed, and although you can be grateful towards someone else for their contributions to your life and the world in general, always remember that no one is an idol to venerate/worship. We're all human, we're all flawed, and all of us have parts of our behaviors and personalities that suck.

You'll always be disappointed in your heroes if you learn what they're truly like, because they're not actually heroes. They're not perfect, and there will always be a part of them to be disappointed in. That's just a fact of life.

It sucks and it's pessimistic, but it's true.

I'm a newer player. I've only been playing (and DMing) for about 5 years, but I'm familiar with the hobby and its history. I met a lot of older players that idolize Gary Gygax, or Dave Arneson, or one of the other creators of early D&D. I'm grateful to them for creating the game and I can acknowledge how much their creation has changed my life, but I don't idolize them. I'm glad that D&D exists, I'm thankful that they created it, and I think that a lot of the ideas that they had were ingenious and revolutionary, but they're still people, and people shouldn't be idolized.

It's always better to know. Facts over feelings. The answer to "knowing about these people's flaws will make me admire them less" isn't to choose to not learn about their flaws, it's to not admire/idolize them in the first place. That's the proper choice. Ignorance begets poor decisions and disappointment.

And I don't mean this as a personal attack. Just an explanation on a more correct way to view the creators of D&D (and people in general).

Yes, well said. Lots of great artists and thinkers were shmucks, and we're all shmucks to varying degrees.

 

[overgeeked]

The phrase "never meet your heroes" has an easy (although pessimistic) way out of the cycle of "idolize someone, learn what they're truly like, stop idolizing them, move onto a different person to idolize, and repeat". Stop idolizing people. Anyone and everyone. Admit everyone is flawed, and although you can be grateful towards someone else for their contributions to your life and the world in general, always remember that no one is an idol to venerate/worship. We're all human, we're all flawed, and all of us have parts of our behaviors and personalities that suck.

You'll always be disappointed in your heroes if you learn what they're truly like, because they're not actually heroes. They're not perfect, and there will always be a part of them to be disappointed in. That's just a fact of life.

It sucks and it's pessimistic, but it's true.

Pessimism tends to be true.

 

[LordEntrails]

Pessimism tends to be true.

Eh, sometimes.