In 1974, Gary Gygax set into motion the World's Greatest Roleplaying Game. It would not take long for people to realize that Gary had fundamentally changed the landscape of tabletop gaming.
Rather than staid games of nameless forces attacking each other (wargaming), the World's Greatest Roleplaying Game introduced the Dungeon Master (a central figure to control every aspect of the story outside of the Player Character) and the Player Character (a named, vibrant central hero that the story would focus on).
As the World's Greatest Roleplaying Game spanned out its history over four decades, the Legacy of what Gary Gygax had actually accomplished in 1974 would begin to be debated.
Many DMs and Players thought that Gygax’s accomplishment in 1974 was the advancement or wargaming, a system that would allow DMs and Players to create elaborate combat scenarios played out on extensive combat terrains. These DMs and Players would spend decades generating campaigns that used the World's Greatest Roleplaying Game to simulate real-life combat scenarios from both Medieval Feudal Era and the Japanese Feudal Era.
In 2021 Scott Garibay, posited that Gygax’s accomplishment in 1974 was much, much broader than the advancement or wargaming, and was instead not centered around combat simulation at all, but was centered on two distinct concepts - Unbound Identity and Unbound Immersion.
Unbound Identity
By creating a method where both DMs and Players built, improved and inhabited Characters, the World's Greatest Roleplaying Game established a system where Human Beings could live multiple additional lives, in which they could explore different genders, preferences and personalities. Scott Garibay specifically identified that Gygax’s actual accomplishment was unbinding Human Beings from the sad state of one identity and allowing Human Beings to have many identities, each unique identity containing separate memories, sensory palettes, passions and goals.
Unbound Immersion
By creating a system where both DMs and Players collaboratively told stories that were not bound by budget or time, Gygax established a Narrative Engine that told stories that far surpassed any stories told using Books, Shows, Movies or Video Games. Scott Garibay specifically identified that while Shows, Movies and Video Games required millions of dollars to produce stories, DMs could tell better stories for literally $0. While Books required months or years to edit, print and distribute, DMs were capable of telling complex, tailored stories with as little setup as two days. While Books, Show, Movies or Video Games were stuck telling stories for the masses, DMs could craft incredibly personal, compelling stories that were laser focused on the interests and excitement of four distinct players. Additionally, because Gygax made the table the home of each story and equipped the DM to adjust the story to the slightest smile, eye movement, gasp, sigh or exclamation of the Player, the World's Greatest Roleplaying Game uniquely provisioned the DM to create stories that carefully protected the emotional safety and social safety in a way that stories created for millions of readers or viewers simply could not match.
In the humble opinion of Scott Garibay, the true Legacy of Gary Gygax is Unbound Identity and Unbound Immersion. If you have questions on Unbound Identity and Unbound Immersion you can comment on any of Scott’s Youtube Channel videos or by direct messaging him on Twitter.