Frank Mentzer quote from facebook, again

His original post:

Jayson tagged me for the "10 RPGs that most influenced me over the years." I'll just list them here. Hard to trim down to 10, but here's the results, in chronological order.
OD&D (1974, & Holmes expansion 1977, & my BECMI 1983-86)
Tunnels & Trolls (1975, and Monsters! Monsters!, part of the family)
Traveller (1977)
Advanced D&D (1e only, 1977-79)
Runequest (1978)
Morrow Project (1980)
Champions (1981, & Hero system)
Call of Cthulhu (1981)
Paranoia (1984)
World of Darkness system (1991, Vampire etc.)

Frank Mentzer: Original D&D is a serious wargame with miniatures, roleplaying entirely optional. Played it that way for a year or so. (Edit: Memory glitch; reflecting, I realize we only played that for a few months, until Holmes D&D showed up.)

Me: "Hi Frank, I hope you don't mind if I bug you for more details about this? Does that mean that you played OD&D as if it were just Chainmail Fantasy set in an underground dungeon?"

" exactly. That's what it was (the front of the box says so). I learned years later that Dave had at least SOME awareness of the potential for group interaction via close-knit group, but I saw none of that from Gary's wargame version; his 'roles' were rules governing the interaction of the individuals. Wargames were Gary's roots, where his head was at. It was kinda cool, instead of outdoor army units, you played individuals (personal 'units') and ran individual battles in a very tight environment. Really different from my usual miniatures games, very personal and dynamic. But roleplaying was an 'add-on', entirely unnecessary."