I'm going to post one which I reckon a lot of people are going to go "of course!" about.
The Dungeon Masters Guide, by E. Gary Gygax.

My first game of D&D was when I was seven years old and my mum insisted my siblings let me play, mainly to keep me out of her hair. I didn't have a clue what was going on, but I was at the age when I was reading Narnia and the Hobbit and the idea of being able to play the books as a game just clicked with me. I read everything that Gygax put out as soon as I could get it, and got all my schoolfriends into the game I'd discovered.
I spent a lot of my teenage years and early twenties gaming and painting lead figures. I met friends and socialised with them, I met several girlfriends.
As I've grown older I've gamed less but the skillsets I got from games have stood me incredibly good stead, even years later. I run my own company and from RPG's I've learned problem solving and conflict resolution skills. I can think on my feet in business situations and I can point to at least one specific instance where an idea I've had as a result of the skills I gained gaming has changed the way people do business in my sector of the industry.
Whilst I don't work in the RPG 'industry', a lot of the business ideas I have and the things I do have at least some of their roots in my childhood hobby.

People talk a lot about the benefits of roleplaying. Being able to relate to the positions of others and understand their motivations is a valued skill in a service-led economy. Companies charge huge sums of money for business roleplaying, and executives go on retreats to learn how to project themselves into the shoes of others. Me? I've been doing it for most of my life as a hobby.

Without Gygax, I wouldn't have got any of that. Without Gygax's books, the RPG industry probably wouldn't exist, and without that probably the field of MMORPGS wouldn't be there either. Without D&D, chances are the fantasy renaissance of LOTR, WoW, Pratchett and more probably wouldn't have happened.
Without Gygax's writing, I'd not have got half my business skills and a large amount of my spare time-fillers.

I met him, once, back in 2000.
I bought him a pint. I reckoned I owed him one.
(davywavy, Thu 15 May 2008, 17:48, 2 replies)

I just started playing good ol' AD&D with my daughter
I dug out my old books, bought a new copy of the Player's Handbook (99p, yay for Amazon) because I couldn't find it, and we're well under way with our first adventure. And playing it as an adult with a scientific mind makes it even more fun (I've invented a monster called the Fan Spider that solves the problem of ventilation in deep tunnels, for example...)
( flatfrog Staring vacantly into space, Thu 15 May 2008, 18:43, closed)

I didn't even think of this one.
But it's true nonetheless.

D&D basic set, aged 11 and a bit. Didn't sleep for three days getting my "massive huge impressive dungeon of doom" ready to play.
Life is sweet.

bought him a pint. I reckoned I owed him one.
Thanks, I'm glad at at least one of us did.
( DukeEuphoria Comes highly reccomended, Fri 16 May 2008, 14:04, closed)