Dungeons and Dragons and Documentaries
Westpaw Films has decided to make a documentary looking at Gary Gygax and the creation of Dungeons & Dragons, an idea I approve of mightily. I think the rocky relationship between Gygax and TSR is worth exploring, and it’s especially worth remembering how some morons actually believed D&D was promoting satanism and somehow inspiring kids to murder each other. I do think, however, that the doc might be overselling D&D’s cultural importance just a tad. Oh, it’s certainly important, but I don’t think that we can necessarily give it praise for creating the entire videogame industry, or Facebook. I think it’s somewhere in-between — it inspired a lot of people and a lot of great things, but also wasn’t a nefarious tool of satan. Split the difference. Thanks to Eric B. for the tip. (Via Wired)
About The Author
Robert Bricken is one of the original co-founders of the site formerly known as Topless Robot, and its first editor-in-chief, serving from 2008-12. He brought the site to prominence with “nerd news, humor and self-loathing” as its motto, raising it from total internet obscurity to a readership in the millions, with help from his savage “FAQ” movie reviews and Fan Fiction Fridays. Under his tenure Topless Robot was covered by Gawker, Wired, Defamer, New York magazine, ABC News, and others, and his articles have been praised by Roger Ebert, Avengers actor Clark Gregg, comedian and The Daily Show correspondent John Hodgman, the stars of Mystery Science Theater 3000 and Rifftrax, and others. He is currently the managing editor of io9.com. Despite decades as both an amateur and professional nerd, he continues to be completely unprepared for either the zombie apocalypse or the robot uprising.