I was wondering when the term Role-Playing Games was first mentioned.

Here's a post on the subject:

viewtopic.php?t=5969

MAR Barker's definition of the RPG: "interactive and cooperative oral fiction."  The idea of the RPG may have been around before D&D, but Gygax and Arneson should get the credit for bringing it to mainstream consciousness.  They changed the nature of storytelling from a passive, one-way form of communication, to an active, two-way form.  They'll go down in the history books one day as more and more people engage in gaming and social networking/community RPGs.

Certainly actors on a stage role play so role-playing has a very long history, but the concept of interactive and cooperative storytelling is a recent innovation as far as I know, to which a lion's share of credit should go to Gygax and Arneson.  From MUDs to MMORPGs to future "holodeck" environments, all trace their origin back to D&D.  I think one day a woodgrain box will end up in the Smithsonian as a seminal event in American and entertainment history.

Mars wrote:I just want to clarify that I think in a psychological sense the term "role playing" has been a practice used since the 1940s or before.

Very true, but what I've described at viewtopic.php?t=5969 is not just roleplaying but roleplaying formed into a game, including dice to resolve events. The prepared scenarios have referee-only material & settings derived from fantasy fiction.

While the particular book I've quoted is from 1973, it is a compilation of stuff dating back to 1963, time enough for the concept to be picked up by wargamers. The popularity of wargaming on college campuses puts it in an environment where ideas could easily filter down from flakebrains in the Psychology Department.