GAME DESIGNER

Gary Gygax

1938 - 2008

Photo of Gary Gygax

Icon of person Gary Gygax

Ernest Gary Gygax ( GHY-gaks; July 27, 1938 – March 4, 2008) was an American game designer and author best known for co-creating the pioneering tabletop role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) with Dave Arneson. In the 1960s, Gygax created an organization of wargaming clubs and founded the Gen Con gaming convention. In 1971, he co-developed Chainmail, a miniatures wargame based on medieval warfare with Jeff Perren. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Gary Gygax has received more than 2,775,847 page views. His biography is available in 29 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 27 in 2019). Gary Gygax is the 16th most popular game designer (up from 19th in 2019), the 4,740th most popular biography from United States (up from 6,284th in 2019) and the 4th most popular American Game Designer.

Memorability Metrics

  • 2.8M

    Page Views (PV)

  • 51.06

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 29

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 1.99

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 4.44

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Page views of Gary Gygaxes by language

Over the past year Gary Gygax has had the most page views in the with 320,125 views, followed by Russian (17,670), and French (16,185). In terms of yearly growth of page views the top 3 wikpedia editions are Egyptian Arabic (403.66%), Simple English (190.19%), and Breton (142.26%)

Among GAME DESIGNERS

Among game designers, Gary Gygax ranks 16 out of 77. Before him are Satoshi Tajiri, Lizzie Magie, Klaus Teuber, Sid Meier, Shinji Mikami, and Shigesato Itoi. After him are Hironobu Sakaguchi, Toru Iwatani, Masayuki Uemura, Hidetaka Miyazaki, Peter Molyneux, and Reiner Knizia.

Most Popular Game Designers in Wikipedia

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1938, Gary Gygax ranks 284. Before him are Daevid Allen, Richard Dürr, Gianluigi Saccaro, Nani Bregvadze, Pupi Avati, and Jaswant Singh. After him are Francesco Coccopalmerio, Sawa, Hermann Huppen, Ants Antson, Bhalchandra Nemade, and Karl Schranz. Among people deceased in 2008, Gary Gygax ranks 177. Before him are Paavo Haavikko, Levy Mwanawasa, Heinz Kwiatkowski, Vija Artmane, Evelyn Keyes, and Choi Jin-sil. After him are Lennart Bergelin, Võ Văn Kiệt, Marlyn Meltzer, Ken Ogata, Ronnie Drew, and Antonio Innocenti.

Others Born in 1938

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Others Deceased in 2008

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In United States

Among people born in United States, Gary Gygax ranks 4,740 out of 20,380. Before him are Howard Stern (1954), George Seaton (1911), Kenneth Nichols (1907), John Bennett Perry (1941), Ward Bond (1903), and Carrie Snodgress (1945). After him are Joan Wallach Scott (1941), Frances Cleveland (1864), Susanna M. Salter (1860), RuPaul (1960), Harry Hammond Hess (1906), and Daron Malakian (1975).

Others born in United States

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Among GAME DESIGNERS In United States

Among game designers born in United States, Gary Gygax ranks 4. Before him are Jeff Kinney (1971), Gabe Newell (1962), and Lizzie Magie (1866). After him are Dave Arneson (1947), Carol Shaw (1955), Will Wright (1960), Scott Cawthon (1971), John Carmack (1970), John Romero (1967), Steve Jackson (1953), and Ed Boon (1964).

American born Game Designers

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