Is Zelda an RPG?

[Mnementh]

MDMAlliance said:

In a sense, it is.  RPG was a genre before video games even existed.  The term as a whole is very broad.  However, as you may know, not EVERY game actually has you playing a role as a character or something.  There are many board games and even video games where you do not play as anyone.  Those tend to be puzzle games, though.  My point still stands that genres were made up to make it easier to identify entertainment things.  

Now, when it comes to practice, the reason certain things will be called an RPG, and others will NOT, is because we came up with another definition for RPG's.  However, even within that other definition of RPG's, there are more definitions, and it gets real tricky from there.  Spemanig saying things are defined by their genre only shows that he doesn't understand what they are.

So that is an RPG, but also is not.  When people debate about Zelda being an RPG, they are defining RPG's differently.

Yes I agree, the point here is the definition. What irritates me is defining RPG just by playing a fictional character. Halo, Doom, Mario are all RPGs by that definition. It is fine with me, but makes RPG as a genre-label pretty much pointless. Because only board games, puzzles, stuff like Tetris are without a character you steer.