Fantasy's Widow: The Fight Over The Legacy Of Dungeons & Dragons

[Nargrakhan]

Wow. I knew there would be vultures fighting over Gygax's creations after he died... but I didn't think it be this dark. :smalleek:

https://kotaku.com/fantasys-widow-the-fight-over-the-legacy-of-dungeons-1833127876

How far does the well go?

[Segev]

Wow. I knew there would be vultures fighting over Gygax's creations after he died... but I didn't think it be this dark. :smalleek:

https://kotaku.com/fantasys-widow-the-fight-over-the-legacy-of-dungeons-1833127876

How far does the well go?

A weird bit in this is that the article seems to be trying to write sympathetically towards Mrs. Gygax, but it does sound more like she's not developing properties she claims a right to, and is blaming others for her failures to push forward. It's tragic that she and her kid and step-kids don't seem to get along enough to work together, and I do feel for her, but this article paints a picture of a woman who is so afraid of trusting anybody that she backs out of doing anything.

It's hard to know the truth when so far removed from it. Still, I've known too many people with inventive memories who seem to always have every hand turned against them in their own minds, and it's almost always their memories of events that are least accurate. I don't know if the article writer is a stealth anti-Gail person who is good at writing sympathetically while painting a sinister picture, or if she's genuinely trying to be kind to the widow of Gary Gygax and the way things unfold just naturally paint Gail in a light of somebody who creates her own problems, but either way, the picture here is exactly that: a woman who tragically gets in her own way, and the way of the very legacy she seems to want so desperately to support.

[Friv]

The writer sounds sympathetic, but not flattering. There's been a lot of gossip floating around that Gail Gygax was in some way a schemer or con artist - that she's been deliberately blocking the fans from getting what they want, forcing out Gygax's children, and stealing money. In that context, I think this article has been written to say that actually, Gail's decisions are being made out of a combition of love and fear, and that what seems like deliberate spite from the outside is actually someone who has been pushed hard and doesn't know how to deal with it.

[Segev]

The writer sounds sympathetic, but not flattering. There's been a lot of gossip floating around that Gail Gygax was in some way a schemer or con artist - that she's been deliberately blocking the fans from getting what they want, forcing out Gygax's children, and stealing money. In that context, I think this article has been written to say that actually, Gail's decisions are being made out of a combition of love and fear, and that what seems like deliberate spite from the outside is actually someone who has been pushed hard and doesn't know how to deal with it.

It's also a much more believable motive than spite or greed. I mean, if nothing else, why would anybody doubt that Gary Gygax would have wanted anything he did have rights to, any part of his estate that is worth something, to be used to support his wife and children? He wasn't estranged from his wife; he never had any public row with his children, not even the ones from his first marriage. The notion that she's being "greedy" or "stealing" by wanting to ensure his legacy can keep her afloat is awfully greedy, itself.

And it's pretty clear that she likely could make more money by releasing things, selling things, selling out, etc., but she's getting in her own way if making money is her sole goal. It seems to me far more likely that she is afraid to trust anybody with this IP, and thus is genuinely self-sabotaging, as this article paints her.

Poor lady. Nobody deserves that kind of stress.

[J-H]

Even worse, she is into her 60s, and people with dementia/alzheimer's etc. sometimes will misplace/forget things and then insist that "they" or "someone" stole them. It's happened with at least one relative of mine, although I was pretty distant from the situation (out of state). She may be starting her dotage early and developing mental problems. Or maybe someone really is trying to steal stuff. There's no way to be sure, but the number of calls she's made to police implies that something's up.

I would not think someone would try to steal stuff from Gygax's house, but on the other hand, ours is the hobby that created the story about the "lanky b___" who got upset and started waving a sword around.

It's definitely a sad situation. I hope she has some friends who don't care about the D&D stuff and who are just her friends... maybe a weekly lunch bunch, or some old ladies who get together to play bridge and drink wine twice a month, or a Sunday school class at church, or something. It's easy for old people to get socially isolated and lonely, and that does not help with any of the possible explanations.

Whatever the cause, it seems like we are not going to have much happen with the Gygax estate for a while unless she finds someone she trusts to oversee/manage it (unlikely).

[Frozen_Feet]

It's not a situation easy to judge from distance. On one hand, this kind of paranoia is common of elderly people with onsetting memory disease. On the other, there are scammers and thieves targetting elderly people precisely because that makes them easy marks. There are obsessive fans willing to sort through their idol's trash in hope of finding something. There are children willing to sell off or steal their elderly parents' property out of greed or resentment. None of this is unheard of, and to a degree the different interpretations aren't even mutually exclusive.