Khuutra on 21 September 2012
When most people say "RPG" - including Mr. Koebke - they are referring to a subset of the strategy genre.
Health points, experience, leveling, individual attack stats - those are strategy game holdovers predating Dungeons and Dragon by quite some time. Ditto being turn-based, though that's a more obviously strategy game idea.
More appropriately, "RPG" is not a genre, it is a narrative mode. Most games called RPGs, including the likes of EarthBound and Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest and Knights of the Old Republic, are highly specialized strategy games with an RPG storytelling mode. Mass Effect is an action game with an RPG storytelling mode and strategy-based base stat management. Ditto the Elder Scrolls series.
