Re: [enworld] D&D Historian Benn Riggs On Gary Gygax & Sexism

On Tue, 9 Jul 2024 10:52:48 +0200, kyonshi <gmkeros@gmail.com> wrote:

Why then has the response been outrage from various corners of the
internet?

Because those are the only people who posted: the perpetually outraged.

It is a huge sample bias. Most people are fine with it. Those who are
mildly bothered aren't posting.

But even a thousand people can make credible noise on the Internet. If
you get to 50,000 or a million, then it feels incontrovertible. A quick
Google says 50 million people play D&D. Even a million people is a 2%
sliver of the community, and it's usually down to much, much fewer. You
have to use scientific notation to record the 1,000 people. 50,000
people, which is more than enough volume to seem credible, is easy math:
0.1% of the community. Wow. BFD.

In short, there is a cadre of people who live on the Internet and will
run there and complain about literally anything, because they have little
power in their lives to effect any change that matters around them. So
they cast their line deep and far and go pissing in every fishing pond
they can find. I know. I used to be one of them. It helps you cope when
times are rough.

Facts: Gygax was a dude in the 70s. It's been 54 years. Any "dude from
the 70s" is going to look racist and sexist by today's standards. Of
course he was sexist. So was Malcolm X.

Result: Now we don't have "Ki" points anymore, we have "Martial
Discipline" points, which is flavorless and dull and a mouthful. But God
forbid Hasbro get dinged for cultural appropriation by the self-appointed
thought police.

It's high time we stopped taking any of them seriously.

---

My 2 cents about Gygax.

Gygax was a racist, a narcissist, and a sexist. He took all the credit
for D&D when it was Arneson who wrote Chainmail, and the community that
grew and wrote the game. He compiled a slew of community notes into a
messy book and called it Advanced Dungeons and Dragons. Then he took
credit for it. He was an *editor*, but the book says "by Gary Gygax" on
the cover. I posit that he was a *bad* editor. Have you seen the
pummeling and grappling tables in the 1e DMs guide?

Play-wise, he had a reputation for being mercilessly unfair to his
players and his style of DMing, adopted by many, was the impetus for a
legion of rules lawyers. That eventually got us to 3rd edition where
there is a rule for almost everything. D&D became a game for rules
lawyers. Skip 4th. 5th ed finally got it back to a sane game where the
rules facilitate play, not dictate play.

But who cares? It's a great hobby and Gygax was instrumental in its
creation and promotion. He almost sunk TSR by 1990, but his earnest (see
what I did there?) contributions should be enough for anyone. There's no
earthly reason to judge him or the work by such standards.

--
Zag

No one ever said on their deathbed, 'Gee, I wish I had
spent more time alone with my computer.' ~Dan(i) Bunten