E. Gary Gygax was buried this weekend.

Monte Cook, one of the people who took on the duties of carrying on Gary's work in it's third edition incarnation, attended. Part of what he wrote was:

"It was also moving and meaningful. Both the service and the time before and after were filled with stories of the man and his impact on our lives. The minister focused on three things, which I thought were all absolutely perfect: He spoke about how Gary (through his creations) valued human interaction, cooperation rather than conflict, and intellectual challenge. I could not have put it better myself."

All these years, people have asked me "What is an RPG". And I always answer with something about fantasy, or something about the mechanics, or drama. And it amazes me that somehow, all this time, I failed to describe what it's all really about. Just those simple concepts: a group of people getting together to cooperatively challenge their minds.

And of course there are other ways to do that, but Gary Gygax helped invent a game that uniquely achieved that goal on an very consistent basis. So effective that it spawned an entire industry.

D&D isn't a game about winning. It's not a video game where you hide behind your TV set or computer. It's not about beating your opponent, like with a board game or sports. It's not about mechanics of playing the game even, though a lot seems to be devoted to those rules on first look. Really it's just about that simple concept - folks directly meeting to cooperate in challenging their minds. In that sense, role playing games have more in common with 19th century philosophers in the coffee houses of Vienna that they do with World of Warcraft.

Thanks again Gary. Wish I could have met you in person. I wish I could have played the game you helped invent, with you. And I like to think, had I met you, that I would have told you that what you created got me out of the house as a kid (and adult), to interact with friends in person, and cooperate with them, and try to figure out devilishly intellectually challenging things like your Tomb of Horrors module. That helped me grow into the person I am now.