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Pen & Paper Roleplaying Central => Pen and Paper Roleplaying Games (RPGs) Discussion => Topic started by: honeydipperdavid on February 12, 2024, 01:55:55 AM

Title: Crazy old bat with Gygax rights
Post by: honeydipperdavid on February 12, 2024, 01:55:55 AM
This is the 2019 article about Gary's widow, the litigous Gail.  40+ calls to cops, multiple lawsuits and talking to the ghost of Gary, suing Gary's children to stop Gygax magazine.  Its like Gary literally married a D&D night hag and she rode him to death.

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

Ahh the gems of what appears to be a crazy coot who he piece he married after his divorce using the memorial fund for God knows what:

QuoteOnce, when she was at the hospital battling kidney failure, she said she saw Gary's spirit come to her, to tell her not to die because she hadn't finished his statue.

I do like that Tenkar exercised the cunt from attending Garycon:

QuoteGail used to attend the show, but stopped in 2016. She said that a man named Erik Tenkar, who runs a blog about old-school role-playing games, had in private conversations joked that Gail would try to trademark the word "cunt," and that he would burn the rubber bricks she'd use for her memorial.

It looks like everyone listed in the interview had enough sense not to communicate with the reporter, from government to Gary's kids.  Tenkar was posting their emails on his blog, good man.

The acrymony of this cunt is truly legendary however:

QuoteAround 2012, Gail also found herself battling a man named Jayson Elliot, who, along with Luke and Ernie Gygax, was in the process of launching a role-playing game fan magazine called Gygax. It would include the original editor of the official Dungeons & Dragons magazine, Tim Kask, along with contributions from well-regarded D&D illustrators. Gail filed an application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office for the Gygax name on March 4, 2013, one month after Gygax magazine's first issue, exactly five years after Gary passed. Elliot filed against her. That triggered a lawsuit.





Title: Re: Crazy old bat with Gygax rights
Post by: JeremyR on February 12, 2024, 03:06:32 AM
OTOH, it seems like the rest of the family have also decided to try to cash in on the family name

https://shop.gooeycube.com/back/?attribution_code=FBDemonCollect&fbclid=IwAR1dvbQh_kepy4ooWfIkNVvALZ8kmDxFBGlZk0ZBnYZopx269mtuILwQuDA
Title: Re: Crazy old bat with Gygax rights
Post by: honeydipperdavid on February 12, 2024, 03:42:16 AM
I'd rather see his son Luke and his kids and former co-workers put something together in light of Gary's works than nothing at all.

Now getting the thread back on track, holy cow what about Gail, that was some paranoid behavior wasn't it.
Title: Re: Crazy old bat with Gygax rights
Post by: Grognard GM on February 12, 2024, 04:49:28 AM
She sounds a lot like Stan Lee's daughter.
Title: Re: Crazy old bat with Gygax rights
Post by: El-V on February 12, 2024, 06:08:30 AM
I fully believe that Gary's ghost visited Gail and refused to let her die until his statue was finished, sounds just like something the eternal spirit of EGG would do ;D 
Title: Re: Crazy old bat with Gygax rights
Post by: honeydipperdavid on February 12, 2024, 09:25:25 AM
Quote from: El-V on February 12, 2024, 06:08:30 AM
I fully believe that Gary's ghost visited Gail and refused to let her die until his statue was finished, sounds just like something the eternal spirit of EGG would do ;D

Or now hear me out, she's narcissistic and paranoid.  Gary's daughter wanted to put up a memorial statue for Gary in the park, his widow took it from his children and there has been $220K raised and nothing to be shown for it.  Seeing as the estate lost its lawsuit to the State, hopefully the memorial is tied to it so people will see what happened to the money.
Title: Re: Crazy old bat with Gygax rights
Post by: shoplifter on February 13, 2024, 09:05:13 AM
I always thought the best statue would have been a table with Gary at the head, so people could come pay their respects and game together.
Title: Re: Crazy old bat with Gygax rights
Post by: honeydipperdavid on February 13, 2024, 09:25:17 AM
Quote from: shoplifter on February 13, 2024, 09:05:13 AM
I always thought the best statue would have been a table with Gary at the head, so people could come pay their respects and game together.

From the article she never played games, she just fed the players at Gary's house.  So its not like she'd have been able to come up with anything for Gary.  A simple bronze statue of Gary would be better than the nothing they have now.  It just irked me that the bat took the idea away from Gary's daughter and $220K later nothing was built.
Title: Re: Crazy old bat with Gygax rights
Post by: Exploderwizard on February 13, 2024, 12:31:25 PM
I don't see how its possible to patent the Gygax name. It is the legitimate name of his sons. So Luke Gygax can't use his own given name that is on his birth certificate? That just seems so wrong. What if some batshit crazy person named Smith decided to do something like that?
Title: Re: Crazy old bat with Gygax rights
Post by: Banjo Destructo on February 13, 2024, 12:34:32 PM
Gale Gygax has ruined more than a decade of potential fun and gaming at this point with her frustrating actions. I am beyond annoyed and wonder why she was even married to him if she was going to be this vindictive to his legacy.
Title: Re: Crazy old bat with Gygax rights
Post by: Armchair Gamer on February 13, 2024, 12:47:48 PM
Quote from: Exploderwizard on February 13, 2024, 12:31:25 PM
I don't see how its possible to patent the Gygax name. It is the legitimate name of his sons. So Luke Gygax can't use his own given name that is on his birth certificate? That just seems so wrong. What if some batshit crazy person named Smith decided to do something like that?

  It was a trademark, not a patent, and trademarks have a lot of latitude within their specific areas. So the other Gygaxes couldn't market stuff in the RPG field using their name, but could have done something else. For example, I see billboards for TSR fairly often in my city--but it's an injury law firm, no relation to the D&D hobby.

 
Title: Re: Crazy old bat with Gygax rights
Post by: Grognard GM on February 13, 2024, 01:42:45 PM
It's possible that Gary's ghost told her to create a Bronze Golem to house his essence, and the delay is his wife becoming a high enough level Wizard to create it.

When giant mechanical Gary is back to writing books, you're all going to need to apologize to Gail...OR FACE HIS METAL FISTS!
Title: Re: Crazy old bat with Gygax rights
Post by: honeydipperdavid on February 13, 2024, 01:56:26 PM
Quote from: Banjo Destructo on February 13, 2024, 12:34:32 PM
Gale Gygax has ruined more than a decade of potential fun and gaming at this point with her frustrating actions. I am beyond annoyed and wonder why she was even married to him if she was going to be this vindictive to his legacy.

She's into antiques and has filed over 40 police reports including accusing a child of stealing Gygax's works.  I'm imagining a cat lady horder scenario personally.  If I also had to imagine why because she sells antiques the cunt thought that she'd get more money for Gygax's works by selling them 30 years after he died, you know like a rare original manuscript.  She has to have the IQ range in the 90's.