Thanks to Gygax, I think I wasted a whole summer, maybe two, possibly three, in friends' basements and at friends' kitchen tables playing games. Then we discovered drinking, girls, gambling and other assorted vices.
Interestingly, Gygax claimed to have been influenced only a little by Tolkein in creating his game.
GameSpy: How profound an influence was Tolkien on the creation of the world?He was a maker of worlds, a feeder of the imagination, and contributed a lot of fun. Not a bad life. RIP.
Gygax: Not that much, although he certainly assisted in popularizing it because I did put Tolkien-esque things in there. I'm not a big Tolkien fan, though. I did love the movies, but I yawned through the books. I found them very droll and very dull. I still don't give hoot about Hobbits.
GameSpy: That's interesting, because most people who look at Dungeons and Dragons tend to think that Tolkien was a much heavier influence than apparently he was.
Gygax: [Laughs] I've been reading fantasy since 1950.
