What defines a RPG?

[lestatdark]

Mnementh said:

lestatdark said:
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.

You are right, that genre is very diverse and people have very different opinions about it. But as I play Pen&Paper too, including D&D, I have some problems with people including games that have no player-choices in character-development into the genre.

I'm not particularly fond of that characterization myself as well, but since the genre is very hard to define, they have room to manouver when it comes to including those games. 

That's why I said that the sub-genre characterization is probably the most correct one, because the sub-genres have more defined patterns which are easier to recognize and separate.