Gandalf the white upgrade

Gandalf the white, upgraded, 2.0 or whatever you want to call him.

I've always had a thought that him defeating the balrog and beeing reborn with more power is the main influence behind EP (experience points) in games.
It kinda feels like he's been given more powers because he defeated the balrog, I'm not saying this is the case, but I think it's the seed of the thoughts behind EP in games like D&D.

Your thoughts?
 
Well, Miniature Wargames, which has been around for hundreds of years, were the original inspiration for the tabletop RPGs, but I can't find anything about leveling up before the release of Dungeons and Dragons in 1974. Gary Gygax did create a game called Chainmail (the precursor to DnD) before that, but I don't think it had a leveling system. Gygax was heavily inspired by the Lord of the Rings when creating DnD, borrowing monsters and races and so on, so it seems possible that Gandalfs upgrade could have inspired the leveling system also. Cool.
 
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