10mila anni fa, poi #DungeonsandDragons, poi il #futuro: il #gdr visto da #FrankMentzer. E dal suo amico #GaryGygax. Intervista al guest of honour @LuccaCandG 2014

05 Ott 2014 10mila anni fa, poi #DungeonsandDragons, poi il #futuro: il #gdr visto da #FrankMentzer. E dal suo amico #GaryGygax. Intervista al guest of honour @LuccaCandG 2014

Finalmente ecco l’attesa intervista a Frank Mentzer, che arriva a Lucca Comics and Games come Game Designer Guest of Honor per celebrare i 40 anni della “scatola rossa” con incontri, seminari e tornei di D&D.

(vi tralascio il mio inglese, e vi lascio il suo)

Sei esperto e collezionatore di giochi di ruolo e da tavolo: quali sono il tuo gdt e gdr preferiti?
“That’s trickier than it sounds. For Roleplaying, the ‘fav’ has to be the original D&D game (1974), the one that started the revolution in social entertainment. That said, I repeat what I always say: If you sit down at a table with another player, you’re doing it right; the rest is detail”.

Grande Frank!! ^_^ ehm… scusate… ^°^’

“Boardgames have come a long way; they often reflect transient social themes and interests (as well as local favorites in artwork). I own more than 10,000 boardgames, and my personal favorites are fact, thoughtful, abstract games, many of which can be played in a few minutes yet offer unique mental challenges. Classic examples: ‘Cathedral’ and ‘Black Box’ (Ordo in Germany). Details of both are on BoardGameGeek.com..”

Com’era Gary Gygax? Cosa ricordi di lui? (tenete conto che solo dopo ho visto la firma della mail di Frank: “My friend Gary changed the world. Remember him. Honor him.”)
“Quite a lot, as he was arguably the most dominant single influence of my life. Gary the man, the fellow gamer, the good father, the businessman… all, and more, were facets of his mind and life. At the many conventions I attend, I try to schedule a 1- or 2-hour chat about “Me and Gary 1980-85”, which inevitably stretches out to a story spanning 1965 through 2008, involving our entire hobby and more. Q&A are expected. I will be doing this at the Lucca Games & Comics fair in October; see you there!”

Ecco… tenetemi un posto! >^_^<

Secondo te, D&D ha cambiato qualcosa, oltre che nel mondo del gioco, nell’ambito culturale almeno occidentale? Voglio dire: che effetto fa aver dato vita ad un fenomeno che ha creato una rottura nel continuum culturale dalla quale è scaturita anche l’attualissima tendenza trasversale della gamification?
(Sì, la domanda era un po’ lunga… non era facile porla…)
“Let’s be clear on one thing; I was ‘third wave’, as we call it. The true founders were in the 1960s and 1970s; popularity grew the company, TSR, from 5 to 35 employees in the late 1970s (‘second wave’). I arrived in January 1980, starting off the ‘third wave’ of growth. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time, with the right skills, and ended up lucky, chosen to write RedBox and the rest, the edition that ‘went global’.

Gary was proud of creating something specifically for ‘Nerds & Geeks’. The ‘brainy guys’ were often ostracized by the ‘cool kids’ in the 1950s and ’60s America, and this was for them. Since it required above-average intelligence to simply understand the game concept, and then out-of-the-box imagination to do it well, that subset of the population found something to unite them. Separately, the spread of the internet connected much of the world in real time, and the intelligence of these ‘gaming geeks’ lifted many of them to positions of power and money in that framework. Along the way we’ve discovered that many females are just as ‘brainy’, and although the ‘kill the dragon’ meme is more male-oriented than otherwise, that’s no longer the only way to play.”
(Grazie Frank… <3 ho le lacrime alle vibrisse!!! >’^_^’<)

Il gdr: che ruolo ha avuto e quale futuro pensi che avrà?
“It started 10,000 years ago, when Paleolithic man first imagined people turning into monsters, and drew pictures on cave walls. Roleplaying appeared in many forms for centuries… as did wargaming, the recreation of historical battles in an attempt to learn more about strategy & tactics. The D&D game codified that in 1974. Now you can participate in a RolePlaying event wherein you play the part of a modern person with AIDS — and experience the prejudice and misunderstandings of  governments and other authority figures first-hand. Back in the 1980s we experimented with RolePlaying as an educational aid; it’s changed on its own, in the hands of social activists and professional educators, to be a valuable tool. And in a different version, you can still go slay a dragon and save the Kingdom. ;>

The future of this and most gaming is digital; videoconferencing tools already make it possible to face other gamers in person while you’re on opposite ends of the Earth. But remember that people still play chess in the park. The popularity of Analog games may wax and wane at times, but they will survive and even gain in popularity as we become ever more blasé about Digital wonders and computer graphics. People need People, and that won’t change.”

Thanks, purr and kisses to this wonderful cretive man! Even my life is different because of your brain, work… and magic too! See you soon @Lucca! >^_^<

PS: qui per iscriversi ai tornei di D&D dei Comics