What defines a RPG?

[lestatdark]

This thread has been done, redone, reshaped and remade countless times and never ends with a "proper" conclusion as to what actually defines a RPG.

Personally, a RPG is defined by the narrative and characterization of the game's protagonists and story. If you have a game which revolves around a varied set of characters taking specific roles (be it pre-determined ones or that you can shape and mold) that's pivotal to the story's events and whose evolution is made via a set of stats/parameters that you can manipulate.

That being said, the RPG genre itself is pretty expansive and in it's current nowadays molds doesn't resemble it's D&D origins that much since most of it's elements are diluted and mixed with other genres. Which leads us to the sub-genre characterization, which is probably the most correct one to assume.