Subplot Kudzu

All due props to Mr. Ford (of whom I remain a big fan), I am leery of analyses of precursers to seminal events. Yes, there were comedia del artes, and Diplomacy, but they were very different animals that now look similar only in hidesight. MAR Barker's Tekumel war games and Stafford's Glorantha war games existed, but none of them were Role Playing in the sense that we now understand it. Call me an old stick in the mud, but I also doubt that any of these would have made the jump to RPGs as we know it (or even something similar) without Gygax and Arenson's moment of genius. These men might have been uniquely poised to implement that genius in their existing fantasy worlds, but that still depends on the initial inspiration.