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When did "sandbox" come to prominence as a piece of jargon?

When did "sandbox" become a popular term in rpg discourse?
It has been suggested to me that it came from computer games to roleplaying. Was this the case and when did this happen?
This thread at Enworld from 2007 uses the term and assumes familiarity: [https://www.enworld.org/threads/sandbox-style-how-to-handle-challenge-levels.203005/](https://www.enworld.org/threads/sandbox-style-how-to-handle-challenge-levels.203005/)
This thread uses different terminology, though sandbox is mentioned once in post number 42: [https://www.enworld.org/threads/do-plot-based-adventures-necessarily-involve-railroading.145258/](https://www.enworld.org/threads/do-plot-based-adventures-necessarily-involve-railroading.145258/)
I can't make the rpg.net search engine look for old posts except by very tedious manual navigation, but maybe someone figures out what the parameter in for example this url means and does it: [https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?search/2363567/&q=sandbox&c[older_than]=1597680120&o=date](https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?search/2363567/&q=sandbox&c[older_than]=1597680120&o=date)
The old Wizards of the coast forums are by now long gone, but would have been a valuable source. Maybe Dragonsfoot has something, too?

When did "sandbox" become a popular term in rpg discourse?
It has been suggested to me that it came from computer games to roleplaying. Was this the case and when did this happen?
[This thread at Enworld from 2007](https://www.enworld.org/threads/sandbox-style-how-to-handle-challenge-levels.203005/) uses the term and assumes familiarity.
[This thread](https://www.enworld.org/threads/do-plot-based-adventures-necessarily-involve-railroading.145258/) uses different terminology, though sandbox is mentioned once in post number 42.
I can't make the rpg.net search engine look for old posts except by very tedious manual navigation, but maybe someone figures out what the parameter in for example this url means and does it: [https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?search/2363567/&q=sandbox&c[older_than]=1597680120&o=date](https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?search/2363567/&q=sandbox&c[older_than]=1597680120&o=date)
The old Wizards of the coast forums are by now long gone, but would have been a valuable source. Maybe Dragonsfoot has something, too?

history-of-gaming terminology