Jim: "Most kids don't read for enjoyment and will not read for enjoyment as adults. I've seen stats from literacy groups that note something like a third of all kids who graduate high school will never read another book in their lifetime. Almost half of all college grads don't read after college. The stats get more grim from there. "
So you agree with me then, that challanging and interesting books should be presented to kids at a younger age so that this interest can continue on into adulthood. Well, thats just what Gygax did with 1E (many a kid developed a strong appreciation for reading and research from those 3 core books (taking that experiance and applying it to their own fields of interest later in life).
You could play the kiddie game 0E (what 5th graders cut their teeth on) or you could go for 1E (the percieved adult game -which in reality was a game for kids in middle school and high school, thats where its biggest market existed anyway). Remember too, 1E books were bought by the "smart kids" in class (the DMs), not by every student who just wanted to play. As players started to understand the game and its power, they too wanted to DM and thus bought the books. This was how I experianced the progression of 1Es players (who eventually made up 1/3 of the boys in my class, far more then played Risk or Monopoly on a regular basis). The key to 1Es success was the slow and steady build up and its consistancy of rules over time. Sure it had a fad element, but that was secondary. The game concept itself was its strength.
2E and 3E approached thier marketing differently, targetting instead the players and DMs at the get go (buying into the concept that games are fads and that its best to "strike the largets potential market while the iron is hot". By not believing in the long standing nature of a well designed and marketed game (like many board games out there) they created a self-fulfilling prophecy...2E became a fad because that was what it was designed to be (the colorful art and presentation screamed this). 3E follows the same template and so does 4E. All three failed (or will fail) to become perminant fixtures in the American culture (and develop a huge market size) with staying power because they don't believe in their product or the mental capacity of its players. Their way of thinking is a looser mentality. The D&D brand and potential was huge in the early 80s, and then was systematically trashed by those wishing to take advantage of the market the previous system had developed for them, with new "have to have" books (if you wanted to stay modern). At the time of 2E, 1E sales and interest were still going strong. There was still many groups all over my college that played 1E on weekends. Once 2E became popular, the game was tried and then dumped not holding the interests of the players (and most groups never reformed, jaded by the experiance, craving the new 2E promised but failed to deliver on, and missing the old (the system that worked) which was now talked down by the super-geek squad. Where once it was acceptable to admit you played D&D it suddenly was social death (because only the biggest wierdos played 2E). I remember when I dated in college I had to point this history out to the girls who new I played (assuring them my 1E was normal, no different then playing any other board game).
Jim, your statement that the bulk of the core players of 1E were established gamers is not correct in my experiance. For instance, in my highschool we had a huge AD&D club which ran from 82-88' or so (I think its membership rose to about 150 kids out of a total school population of 500). Of those, probably 95% new of only 1E (with zero knowledge of other hobbiest games). And I'd say none of them considered themselves hobbiests (they played 1E as if it were Risk, it just kept their interest and created bonds more soundly) most were average kids, who dated and played sports (not the fringe geeks that came to define the game a half-decade later). Sure, initially D&D may have started with that core market of serious hobbyiest/gamers (hell that group invented the game), but its wide spread acceptance by millions made it on par with the more popular board games of the day. Thats why none of us could believe the stupidity of TSR when they threw that all away with 2E (focusing on the most rabid geekiest portion of the existing market). If TSR had been smart they would have kept OD&D and 1E going indefinitely and supported both along with 2E (at the very least). What they really should have done (and what was the most obvious course) was to dominate all catagories of RPGs (Conan, horror, vampires, Star Trek etc.) by simply buying out their competitors and using the D&D brand to unify them under a single combat system (creating rules for its new games that were very similar to 1E). Everyone I new was pretty shocked when 2E came out, its colorful and splashy covers a huge turn off. Most of us were pushed away from D&D, no longer welcomed in its house (rather then drawn away by choices that were "better" then 1E. For instance, people played GURPS because they no longer could stomach what D&D had become). Why TSR hadn't unifide its various games under the AD&D rules system from the get go (what GURPS was) is also a big question. I guess Gygax was the one who dropped the ball here early on.
In any event, the bottom line is this: if 1E had stayed in print and was continually supported by TSR with new modules and support material (of classic quality), both 1E and TSR would probably still be in existance today. I found it very telling that Gygax's death was covered by almost every major newspaper and television station. Hell, CNN had his death on the front page of its website for a week (do you think the same will be done for anyone associated with 2E...I doubt it
). Gygax (oddly enough) is/was "mainstream" 2E (and its later incarnations) are not.
He wasn't remembered in the news for some glorious 1st edition stand against the tyranny of TSR and the latter editions of the game. He was remember simply because he, along with Arneson, created the Dungeons and Dragons game and most people consider him the "Father of Role-playing".