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From: kyonshi <gmkeros@gmail.com>
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd,rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: {Game Developer] Obituary: Jim Ward, Dungeons & Dragons designer,
 died at age 72
Date: Fri, 29 Mar 2024 09:48:32 +0100
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On 3/28/2024 6:26 PM, Justisaur wrote:
> On 3/28/2024 1:38 AM, kyonshi wrote:
>> On 3/26/2024 12:52 AM, gbbgu wrote:
>>> On 22 Mar 2024, kyonshi wrote:
>>>
>>>> Source:
>>>> https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/obituary-jim-ward-dungeons-dragons-designer-died-at-age-72
>>>>
>>>> Obituary: Jim Ward, Dungeons & Dragons designer, died at age 72
>>>>
>>>
>>> Damn, losing all the names that have been around the industry forever.
>>>
>>
>> It's the unrelenting march of time. The hobby has been around for over 
>> 50 years now (when did the first fantasy campaign start? '71? '72?), 
>> and the people who were involved in the beginning were not kids back 
>> then either.
>> We'll have a constant stream of deaths coming up from now on. Well, we 
>> had one already. That also is part of hobbies growing unfortunately.
> 
> I always worry the fairly sedentary aspect of the hobby them all.  We 
> lost a number of the greats long ago at relatively young ages as 
> compared to average lifespan of 80.  Yes it's an average but it seems 
> very low.
> 
> Don Kaye, 36
> Tom Moldvey, 58
> Dave Arneson, 61
> Jannell Jaquays, 67
> Gary Gygax, 69
> Jim Ward, 72
> John Eric Holmes, 80
> 
> Dave "Zeb" Cook, couldn't find age - must be a vampire :)
> Tim Kask, 75
> Frank Mentzer, 74
> Lawrence Schick, 69
> Ed Greenwood, 64
> Jeff Grubb, 64
> 
> So unless they're making it to around 100, the average appears rather 
> low (unless Zeb is raising it by being a vampire with a couple centuries 
> under his belt.)
> 
> - Justisaur
> 

Yeah, I didn't want to say it like that. We generally are not as healthy 
as the rest of the population. I do wonder if newer generations actually 
get better in that regard. 5e got a lot of people in the hobby that seem 
to be much more mainstream or even healthy in their approach to food and 
that stuff.
I also wonder if anyone ever would do a study between those roleplayers 
that do LARP as well and those that don't (and if it matters at all 
considering the copious amounts of beer and mead that can be consumed at 
these events).

On the other hand... you tend to remember those creators that have 
stayed with the hobby for a long time, and maybe one forgets about those 
that were just famous for a bit and then turned to other directions.

There's a few people who are still alive that used to be big names in 
the hobby but now aren't anymore. First person coming to my mind is Lew 
Pulsipher, who used to be everywhere (seriously, White Dwarf and Dragon 
and his own stuff) but now mostly seems focused on teaching (game design 
naturally).