RIP E. Gary Gygax

by on March 5th, 2008

The inventor of Dungeons & Dragons, E. Gary Gygax died today. All the obituaries mention the following:

Although he dropped out of high school, Mr. Gygax took anthropology classes at the University of Chicago.

It seems only fitting that anthropologists from the University of Chicago are now doing research on online games inspired by Dungeons & Dragons…

P. Kerim Friedman is an assistant professor in the Department of Ethnic Relations and Cultures at National Dong Hwa University, in Taiwan, where he teaches linguistic and visual anthropology. He is co-director of the film Please Don't Beat Me, Sir!, winner of the 2011 Jean Rouch Award from the Society of Visual Anthropology. Follow Kerim on Twitter.

From Briefly Noted, In the Press

1 Comment →
  1. Brian Johnson permalink

    I was surprised when I first heard the news, because it happened to be on the anthropology livejournal group. It seems a lot of anthropologists (myself included) are or were gamers, though I suspect this applies to academics of a certain generation in general.

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