Gary Gygax, one of the legends of role-playing games and the co-creator of the world of Dungeons & Dragons, has passed away on 4th March 2008 at his home in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.

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When I had heard about this, I was shocked. I didn't know Mr. Gygax personally, and I have heard differing stories about what he was really like, but the one unshakable fact is that, along with Tolkien, he was the father of modern fantasy.

Without D&D we wouldn't have had any of the D&D-based RPGs now widely available. And we wouldn't have had Final Fantasy or the Elder Scrolls. Every single role-plying game out there today owes a huge debt of thanks to Gary Gygax, because without him, they wouldn't exist.

without him, they wouldn't exist

He's even credited in the mainframe version of Zork!