Arneson doesn’t stand to gain anything because Arneson is dead, too. Read the fucking article before you spout off some long-ass uninformed comments whose basic premise is wrong.

It’s pretty hard to be petty from beyond the grave.

“Arneson, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to have that quality working for him. He just comes across as spiteful and vindictive in his words, still holding a grudge with a man who died over a decade ago”

I am by all means a historian, who is currently in the early stages of research into a project on the historical influence of table top RPGs. In the right circles none of this is new. It’s just new to those who are now hearing about it because D&D is more popular than at any point in its history. Popular enough that…

An excellent article. IMO a similar case could also be made for Stan Lee. I have (for the most part) much respect for what Lee brought to the table at Marvel Comics. But popular culture pretends that Lee did it all alone, created every Marvel hero alone.

Exactly. I remember back in the 90s there were stories of Gygax being a complete ass. 

especially since Gygax is dead and can’t speak to defend himself, and especially since these complaints are only being made now

Wait, only being made now?

Did you miss the lawsuits, by chance? This whole thing has a ‘Facebook’-esque background of lawsuits for royalties and credit going back decades. 

We don’t know these things haven’t been brought up before.

“And when they talk about how it all started, the biographers and fanboys and panel speakers and local hobby shop owners and dungeon masters all tell the same tale, the by-the-bootstraps American dream story of Gary Gygax, progenitor of the role-playing tradition, the original dungeon master.”

Another great write-up on a topic near and dear to me, Cecilia! It sounds pretty clear that both these guys had some huge moments of genius that made (A)D&D what it is, so it’s a shame that it (perhaps inevitably) got so contentious.

Exactly this. It’s nice that the pendulum has swung back to recognizing Arneson more, although not to the level he truly deserved.

Dave Arneson got Jack Kirby-ed.

I guess you didn't read far enough into the article to see that Arneson sued TSR a couple of times over the past few decades. Does that count?

Eh, this dispute has literally been a thing for decades.  Just no one wanted it to interfere with the narrative that had been constructed.  Hell, it was a topic of discussion in the hobby shops I frequented back when Edition 2 was the brand new ruleset.

Penny Arcade for the win. Beautifully done.

“Never believe that anti‐ Semites are completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies. They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge. But they are amusing themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words. The anti‐Semites have the right…

In covering the Epic Games Store, Kotaku has written about how the consistent, perpetual rage over its mere existence

I think that’s how a LOT of Nintendo works. See their at-best poorly implemented online components. I’m WHOLE convinced there’s a lot of 80 year old board members at Nintendo that still think online multiplayer is just a passing fad. I’ve remember playing games of Diablo *1* that had less lag than most of my online…

Actually (pushes glasses up) that’s geekdom - becoming really obsessed with a subject, usually a pop culture related one. Nerdom is more academic.