Gary Gygax dead.

Gary Gygax, co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons, passed away this morning at his home in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. He was 69.

I was never a D&D player, but I have indirectly felt his influence through video games for years. Alec Meer at Rock, Paper, Shotgun writes:

Would we ever have had PC RPGs without Gygax’s laying down of roleplaying foundations back in 1974? Oh, probably - in some form, anyway. But would we have had Ultima, Fallout, Diablo, World of Warcraft, even Deus Ex? Probably not. Baldur’s Gate, Neverwinter Nights and Planescape Torment? Definitely not.

In short, he was an enormously influential figure in interactive entertainment, and will be missed.

For further reading, the MetaFilter thread eulogizing Gygax has some great stories.