D&D DNA Endures in Digital Era

Dungeons & Dragons co-creator Gary Gygax valued interaction and innovation above all. He devised the game with friends equally inspired by war games and bedtime stories, starting with tabletop battle re-enactments, then injecting magic and mythology into his creations. Wired visits Wisconsin for a lengthy profile that was in the works before Gygax died last week.

""There's a call to adventure," Gygax said of the childhood experiences that inspired him. "It's something in the inner psyche of humanity, particularly males." Despite having the respect of video game creators, the master of all dungeon masters considered virtual gameplaying antisocial. "There is no role-playing in an online game that can match what happens in person." (More Dungeons & Dragons stories.)