As I am roughly 10 years younger than you, I got into gaming about 10 years *after* you, which is after this age of gaming. However, that said...
There was another glacial change to gaming during D&D 2nd edition. There were still plenty of people who were doing weird races, DM body counts, and all the rest in 1986, before D&D 2e was published in 1989. First edition AD&D still has a lot of the old feel of the game you remember, and there was still room for improvisation and all the like. That said, I do agree that the perception probably changed, just like it changed with 2e.
You know, that makes me realise... with each edition, D&D becomes more polished, more corporate, and less player oriented. Maybe that's what we're lamenting, more than anything - that loss of the feeling that it's not *ours*, but it's something we just buy. A prepackaged experience, instead of something that's uniquely *us*.
I still have some of the Judges Guild stuff. The oldest parts of my library are generally the most cherished.
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There was another glacial change to gaming during D&D 2nd edition. There were still plenty of people who were doing weird races, DM body counts, and all the rest in 1986, before D&D 2e was published in 1989. First edition AD&D still has a lot of the old feel of the game you remember, and there was still room for improvisation and all the like. That said, I do agree that the perception probably changed, just like it changed with 2e.
You know, that makes me realise... with each edition, D&D becomes more polished, more corporate, and less player oriented. Maybe that's what we're lamenting, more than anything - that loss of the feeling that it's not *ours*, but it's something we just buy. A prepackaged experience, instead of something that's uniquely *us*.
I still have some of the Judges Guild stuff. The oldest parts of my library are generally the most cherished.