Quote

Pen-and-paper role-playing is live theater and computer games are television. People want the convenience and instant gratification of turning on the TV rather than getting dressed up and going out to see a live play. In the same way, the computer is a more immediately accessible way to play games.

Gary Gygax

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Gary Gygax
Age: 69 †
Born: 1938
Born: July 27
Died: 2008
Died: March 4
Businessperson
Game Designer
Novelist
Publisher
Role-Playing Game Designer
Writer
Chicago
Illinois
Ernest Gary Gygax
Ernest Gygax
E. Gary Gygax
Instant
Games
Theater
Accessible
Getting
Role
Convenience
Rather
Computer
Gratification
Live
Paper
Dressed
Play
Roles
Pens
Going
Playing
Immediately
Way
Turning
People
Television

More quotes by Gary Gygax

Image
When you master role-playing [gaming], you become immersed in an activity that is peerless among leisure-time pursuits.
Gary Gygax
Image
Outside of the mindless sitcoms that the networks thrive on, people able to think generally consider most entertainment is escape in one form or another.
Gary Gygax
Image
There is no winning or losing, but rather the value is in the experience of imagining yourself as a character in whatever genre you’re involved in, whether it’s a fantasy game, the Wild West, secret agents or whatever else. You get to sort of vicariously experience those things.
Gary Gygax
Image
I think a lot of what I was taught, gathered, and learned is worth keeping. Heritage and wisdom and simply personal family and local history enrich the one able to tap such information. As it is I wish I had garnered more from my grandparents and parents.
Gary Gygax
Image
I foresee online gaming changing when there are good audio-visual links connecting the participants, thus approximating play in a face-to-face group.
Gary Gygax
Image
I'm just a risk taker. I have gut instincts.
Gary Gygax
Image
I hated school, didn't like the discipline.
Gary Gygax
Image
Role-playing isn't storytelling. If the dungeon master is directing it, it's not a game.
Gary Gygax
Image
I would like the world to remember me as the guy who really enjoyed playing games and sharing his knowledge and his fun pastimes with everybody else.
Gary Gygax
Image
Enjoy a 'world' where the fantastic is fact and magic really works!
Gary Gygax
Image
There's a call to adventure. It's something in the inner psyche of humanity, particularly males.
Gary Gygax
Image
The books I write because I want to read them, the games because I want to play them, and stories I tell because I find them exciting personally.
Gary Gygax
Image
One more thing: don't spend too much time merely reading. The best part of this work is the play, so play and enjoy!
Gary Gygax
Image
When AI approximates Machine Intelligence, then many online and computer-run RPGs will move towards actual RPG activity. Nonetheless, that will not replace the experience of 'being there,' any more than seeing a theatrical motion picture can replace the stage play.
Gary Gygax
Image
Send anyone claiming that their RPG activity is an art form my way, and I'll gladly stick a pin in their head and deflate it just to have the satisfaction of the popping sound that makes. One might play a game artfully, but that makes neither the game nor its play art.
Gary Gygax
Image
Games give you a chance to excel.
Gary Gygax
Image
The essence of a role-playing game is that it is a group, cooperative experience.
Gary Gygax
Image
Gaming in general is a male thing. It isn't that gaming is designed to exclude women. Everybody who's tried to design a game to interest a large female audience has failed. And I think that has to do with the different thinking processes of men and women.
Gary Gygax