It’s just after 3:30am. I should be asleep, but the air is too dry, making my sinuses and throat a bit raw. In a little more than six hours, I have to wake up and pack in order to catch my flight back home. Thoughts keep chasing themselves through my head about the profound impact that post-WWII game designers have had on the world we inhabit and how utterly mind-blowing it is having just been in the presence of some of those said designers for the past three days and how little they say or possibly know about how they changed everything. From game designer/writer H.G. Wells and Vannevar Bush through RAND Corporation and Gary Gygax & Dave Arneson, the very tool that allows me to place this piece in a location that you can access from virtually anywhere in the world is a direct descendent. The fact that you can respond and critique my logic, reasoning, or historical accuracy only further underscores the importance by which the chain of events leading up to William Crowther’s ability to design the backbone of what is the ever more ubiquitous technological wonder of which we cannot seem to live without: the Internet. This, then, is the incredibly strange but true story of how Dungeons & Dragons and designer/gamers of Gary’s generation influenced the technological and cultural paradigms of today. I often have difficulty expressing my emotions and how deeply passionate I am about not only the accomplishments of the game designers whose creations came about from the 1950s through the 1970s, but how much their work has helped shape my career choices. I was stunned when I realized that virtually no one had any idea that the man they gathered to honor by playing games and listening to stories of how gaming has affected or serves as a prominent role in one another’s lives helped pave the way for the creation of the Internet. I’ve watched, read, and listened to how various media have portrayed the gamer not as a effeminate/emasculated, weak-willed, physically underdeveloped, 10-pound weakling, but as the hero fully realized, self-actualized, possessed of personal agency, and able to navigate the physical world with relative ease. This media shift took place somewhere around the mid-1980s; ten to fifteen years after Dungeons & Dragons was published. If one uses the age of eight as a baseline, that means the younger set who were alive and exposed to the game as an original concept would be between eighteen and twenty-three come 1985. Up the age of the likely demographic for the game to fifteen and the age of the first crop of role-playing gamers comes out to an average age of 25-30. Would anyone like to hazard a guess as to the ages of the writers and directors who started changing how gamers were portrayed in film and television? I don’t talk about how deeply Gary’s work has affected me because to me, if not to others, it sounds presumptuous of me to lay any claim to Gary or his generosity. I didn’t ask to write Cosmos Builder or submit a proposal. I wanted to write the book on castles and strongholds. When I failed to get that book, Gary asked me to write a proposal for a planar cosmology how-to guide. I almost walked away. I did it because I felt obligated to give something back to the individual who has had perhaps as much if not more of an influence in my life as my parents. I don’t talk about these things because how could I expect anyone to believe or accept that in some ways, Gary has been more of a father figure than my own progenitor? I cannot prove it or really convince anyone that this is all true and that in the eleven-and-a-half years that I corresponded with him via private e-mails far outstrips the amount of time I’ve communicated with my father. Everything Gary asked of me, I did to the best of my abilities. I wrote the book he asked me to; and, when I had the chance to meet him at GenCon 2006 and personally thank him for all his work had done for me, I did what he told me to. My girlfriend at the time was more than willing to spend money we couldn’t necessarily afford so I could go, but I was also finishing up classes for the summer session and would have not been able to complete my finals. Gary told me that my education was more important, so I didn’t go. It’s the one time that I wish I had failed to do what was asked. I don’t make friends easily and when I do, I am loyal to a fault. So, rather than go and meet the man and show him how deeply grateful I am for all he’s done still hurts because I had promised myself to do what I thought would ensure that he understood how sincere I am in not only considering him a friend, but how his work kept me from going to some pretty dark places due to my home life. Gary Con III made me realize how few people know what I do about how influential Gary was to the world at large. I want to change that. It’s the least I can do for all that he’s done for me. I wouldn’t be able to share this story with you if it wasn’t for the last forty years of gaming. I wouldn’t feel comfortable about my choice in hobbies had it not been for the cultural changes wrought by designers like Gary. I wouldn’t have the wherewithal to offer up my humble attempt to give men like Gary the credit they richly deserve but haven’t received by the public at large. Meeting and talking to fellow members of this forum was an eye-opener, and I felt compelled to share this with you.
Proof I'm not making any of this up: http://www.juliandibbell.com/texts/cavespace.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossal_Cave_Adventure http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Crowther http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pluribus http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_R ... cy_Network Note that while ARPANET predates D&D, its rapid expansion does not occur until after 1975, the same year that Crowther released "Colossal Cave Adventure" to ARPANET as well as when the Pluribus went operational.
Excellent post. You bring me back in time. "Mainframe dreams". I posted a thread some years back about the old mainframe days and early computing and such. Excellent. Rhu, retired IBM 370 - 3083 MVS COBOL programmer. Hehe, "FORTRAN" :lol: Was working for Borg-Warner in the IBM building in Chi-town when the 1st water cooled IBM mainframe was installed in our computer room. FAST!!
To be honest, I'm a bit exasperated that this isn't general knowledge. I sort of have the impression that the Old Guard of TSR and other companies, like AH, don't know their role in all of this. Not even Google would exist without a bit of math that came from computer RPGs.
Not sure if anyone cares about this stuff, finds it uninteresting, or just doesn't know how to respond, but I'm going to add a few more things. There are three genres that are most notably used for RPGs: fantasy, sci-fi, and the Western. As far as I'm aware, and I hope someone corrects me if I'm wrong, Gary's RPGs effectively were rooted solely in one of these three genres (D&D, Dangerous Journeys, Lejendary Adventures; Cyborg Commando, Lejendary Asterouges, Changeling; and Boot Hill). Not surprisingly, these three genres are linked in that all are genres of power or the trappings thereof. Horror is an outgrowth of fantasy; likewise, science fiction (automatons, clockwork devices, chemical concoctions, etc.). The Western was born on the plains of Troy. The police genre arose out of the Western. Oedipus Turannous is arguably the earliest recorded mysteries/detective stories. Superhero fiction is science fantasy. These would be the roots of the different genres found in RPGs. How all this fits together I can elaborate on request.
Horror is an outgrowth of fantasy. Hmmmmm. Actually, I tend to see it as the other way around. I see fantasy (with all of its heroic and mythopoeic thought) growing out of humanities horror of the nihilism around it and looking for those heroic elements which would deliver humanity from the mind-crushing world around them. An interesting thought which I will have to delve into........
Modern fantasy comes from 12th century Romance literature. This was the period of time that Tolkien studied in regards to English Lit (along with Old English stories like Beowulf). Of the the tales of note is Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Another known scholar of the Romantic era is David Eddings. Both are included in a bibliography Gary compiled for one of his fantasy RPGs. I don't remember off hand which, and I've been looking, but in my allergen-irritated state, I can't think as clearly as needed. The difference between fantasy and horror is that in a fantasy story, the characters can tap into the mystical forces to defeat their antagonists without mental, physical or spiritual harm. Horror teaches us we've always had the power to overcome that scary force, but we needed to grow to accept we're more potent than we ever imagined. Fantasy, on the other hand, teaches that no matter the overwhelming force of power that threatens to swallow us, our relationships are what matter. We are never alone, and we're in this together. Our true power, according to the fantasy genre, comes from with whom we surround ourselves more so than from within.
Interesting, I guess I've had too many Ancient Near Eastern influences along with a huge, helping of Lovecraft. I never seem to find any hope in that type of horror. In fact, in that type of horror I've never seen any power to overcome that scary force.....it seems as if it may be present for a time but, in reality, it's only an illusion. Horror will ultimately win.
Have you read any of Joseph Campbell's works? Also helpful is the recognition that what we construe as horror is mostly rooted in folk and fairy tales rather than in 12 century Romantic literature. Romanticism, on the other hand, is filled with the beginnings of modern horror. E.T.A. Hoffmann's "The Sandman" is an example of an automaton qua MacGuffin that hypnotizes the ill-fated protagonist while another figure eventually kills him.
I'm fairly familiar with Joseph Campbell and have read some of his writings. I've also watched some of the documentaries that he did. I find some of his theories to be wanting. In fact, I've done some deconstructing of Campbell's ideas. His works are fairly well used in my field and have been source materials for more current authors that I've read. I have some familiarity with the origins of modern horror. I just tend to think of horror along a few different lines, 1. "Battle not with monsters lest ye become a monster; and if you gaze into the abyss the abyss gazes into you." I believe this is attributed to Nietzsche and much of how I view horror is that it tends to converge along the lines of battling a great evil and then, in the long run, becoming that great evil in and of yourself. 2. Original Grimm fairy tales. I used to read these and they made life look rather cruel and unrewarding. Twists of fate didn't usually turn out well. 3. Ancient Celtic stories of the Tuatha De Danaan and other Celtic literature. Again, these fairy stories were usually capricious and rather cruel as well. 4. Lovecraftian Horror. There is this great monstrosity behind everything and there is no real hope. We can only defeat it for a time but, ultimately, it will win. I classify this as horror because I find it to be hopeless and often without heroes. This is, of course, a personal classification so when I use the term horror I am referring to those stories where the good guys never win. There is no chance of happiness in it and it can be very disturbing. Fantasy and/or Myth, on the other hand, is the title I give to stories with heroic figures within them. Those stories where there is some type of hope, some bit of happiness, those stories where there is, in the end, the idea that there is something better at the end of it all fit into these categories. I realize that these are categories that I am using but they function well for my purposes. If you have other categories that could be used, I'd be interested in seeing them.
Granted, Campbell's work is showing its age (The Masks of God series was written in the 50s), but it's the patterns themselves which have held up nicely. So much so, that Christopher Vogler wrote a more succinct version of Campbell's theory: The Writer's Journey. Most Hollywood films follow this model. Another source that I've drawn some of my information is Victoria Lynn Schmidt. The horror model, as she explains it (and its use in modern literature and film), is the female version of the monomythic structure in that the classic structure has a protagonist aware of his own power. It's this sense of surety in himself as a moral/physical/what-have-you sense of righteousness that leads to his demise as he refuses to change. At least, that's the tragic ending commonly found in Greek plays. That, in and of itself is horrific, which is why characters with such strength are given the ability to change their ways. In an RPG, you'd probably see adventures of this sort at mid- to high-ranged levels. What is construed as the horror genre is probably much more accurately called stories of terror. This is why one must fail two tests under duress before learning she (this is the "female" journey, after all) possessed the strength/abilities/answers needed to succeed in the first place. It's not the sense of hopelessness that defines all horror stories, it's the possibility that all may have been lost. The greater the despair, the more we cling to the hope that survival is an option. This is part of the fun of games like Call of Cthulhu, we know everyone's going to die or go insane at some point, but we keep holding out that this time it will be different whether we're aware of it or not.
