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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Steel_Wind" data-source="post: 5143597" data-attributes="member: 20741">While I agree with John that the Net had much to do with the ability of others to interact and connecti with Gary, I do think that the launch of 3rd Ed did something else.It brought a lot of former AD&D players back into the fold; and by doing so, brought Gary back into the limelight a little.  Nostalgia will do that, every time. That was one of the objects of 3rd ed and it worked brilliantly. Gamers who had left playing either 1st or 2nd edition for other game systems over the years returned to 3rd edition. So as part of that return, I think it is fair to say that Gary had an increase in his overall exposure.He was also getting visibly older and his mortality was becoming more obvious. In that, his fans who started with OD&D and began to hit middle age in or about 2000 shared that realization in a way that most never had before. (And that trend continues, too. Indeed, those who began with AD&D 1st Edition in or about 1980 as teens are hitting 45 yrs old now. It's a milestone that naturally brings about self-reflection and a gaze back towards our youth. We call it nostalgia - and it happens every decade for the same reason. It's been going on in the RPG world for the past decade, and is visibly swelling now as the numbers of player who started playing as teens in the early to mid-80s - the single biggest demographic boom that RPGs have ever had - all hit middle age.Seen in that light, the rennasisance in Old Skool gaming that has happened over the past decade was not simply natural - it was inevitable. And Gary was aslo, inevitably, a part of that.I'm glad that WotC reached out to Gary as part of its stewardship of the game and I'm glad that Gary was receptive to some of their overtures.I had the opprtunity to exchange e-mails with Gary around 2005 when he assisted me with an offical implementation for BioWare's Neverwinter Nights using Chainmail's jousting rules. He was very gracious and that experience and interaction with one of the heroes of my childhood was, I candidly admit, the highlight of my rather brief forray into game design.All by way of saying, I don't think Gary owed WotC a special thank-you. But he was gracious enough to be polite and to continue to participate in the rennaissance of a hobby he founded. It's very sad he's gone - but what he created continues to touch the lives of millions over the world.  There is not a single other person who will read this message who will have that great an impact upon the world when they are dead and gone.  Not one.Gary was a giant. If any of us stand taller - it's only because we're standing on his shoulders.</blockquote>

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