In the 30+ years I've been involved with RPGs, I've heard of Luke Gygax twice. Once was him cashing in on his name for the now defunct Gygax Magazine, and the other was when he was cashing in on his name just recently with the new "white" "male" lead vice president in charge of D&D bullshit at WotC. I think that this was the opposite of a inclusivity/diversity hire. It was an exclusivity hire, because the guy in the chair is the most "standard nerdy" guy still left at WotC with all the troons and blue hairs. They had one white guy, probably sweeping floors and dumping bins until they needed him to stand in front of a camera and look like an actual person who actually plays actual D&D across the entire country outside of Seattle, Washington.
I only watched a little of their recent press conference, but he said something telling. He said the words (paraphrasing) he'd been "playing since the original red box". My ears perked up. Because original D&D can be described in one of three ways: Brown Box, White Box, and by slightly dumber people Blue Box (indicating Holmes Basic, which was just a starter set before starter sets were a thing). There is no "Red Box" original D&D derivative. In a room supposedly full of nerds nobody corrected him, which is especially telling for the guy sitting right next to him. Luke fucking Gygax.
There was a lot of things said at the conference after that, but this alone told me not to trust anything coming up. Mentzer red box wasn't even the original "Basic D&D". Any real nerds in the entire audience would know that. Meaning none were there. At Gary Con, supposedly. Which makes me want to avoid Gary Con. But I digress.
Let's talk about Luke. He's 55. Spent most of that in the Army. I can respect paving your own way and having your own career. That being said, if he had any talent in the RPG sphere beyond loaning his name out to give products bona fides like his dad had something to do with them, we would have seen that by now. Hell if he had passion and no talent we would have seen a lot of shitty stuff because his name alone would give him an opportunity. We have not. This just tells me he's retired from the army and looking for income, and what did he have? He had his family name. Not only that but he's the last living male with his family name, which triggers some imperialist fibers deep in the brain of every male. He is the Gygax patriarch, like it or not. Just like the guys in charge of the Tolkien estate, it's his name to ruin. And I feel he will, if given the chance.
So, long story short, Luke will do what he's told by WotC as they are fitting the bills. He'll put his name on whatever they ghostwrite for him, and cash their checks. Nothing will fundamentally change. I feel this is probably the safest prediction I've ever made. He will not champion the old school, he will not defend his family name, he won't even get the fucking disclaimers taken off the TSR catalog at Drivethru RPG. He won't bring "races" back. He is a non-entity. His employment exists to trick the core fanbase into coming back to WotC. If anything had changed the first thing they could do is burn all the disclaimers at DTRPG and they haven't. Fire Jason Tondro and they haven't. Issue a public apology to the true core fanbase of D&D and they haven't. Start firing their marketing & design department and hiring those positions in the Midwest, far from Seattle politics... but they haven't. They haven't done shit but have a press conference and effectively say nothing worth hearing.
Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss. Luke is selling out, but that's really all he's good for. And good for him. I hope he milks them dry and they get nothing for it because old schoolers aren't stupid enough to fall for it.
