There's two perspectives here... well, three. One of them is the one we currently hold.

1. "RPG" in video games as a genre is defined by being derived from the play mechanics of tabletop strategy games (which are also the roots of D&D). The genre here is mechanical, as genres in video games must be. They are not role-playing games in the Dungeons and Dragons sense because you can't make our own story or interact with the "dungeon master", and the fact that some of them try to approximate this experience doesn't change the fact that they invariably fall short. That said, "RPG" is still a valid genre label because it means somehting different in this context than it does in tabletop gaming.

2. "RPG" in video games are defined by taking on the role and making choices for your character, being able to define your own personality and act according to your whims. In this case he is right, JRPGs are not RPGs in this sense - most of th time. But WRPGs often aren't, either. Persona 4 is very much an RPG, as is something like Fallout, but KotOR and Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest don't qualify.

3. "RPG" in video games is determined by the act of takking a role in a game and making choices and progressing within that role - sort of an absolutely ltieral interpretation of the term "role playing game" rather than a genre moniker. Harvest Moon, Gears of War, Mother - lots and lots and lots of video games qualify under this. Almsot everything does. Tetris doesn't.

He's operating according to the second definition, here. There's nont anything wrong with that except where you could probably accuse him of hypocrisy

Sounds like sour grapes on the part of Bioware because Demon's Souls was a better Rpg than Dragon Age and FFXIII curbstomped ME2 in sales. Stick to games that have the venier of a deep morality system, but in the end have about as much bearing on the game as a can of beans.

Preface:
Please, use your brains people; this guy is not bioware, just because he feels one way doesn't mean every employee agrees.
:eck, he's not even Greg or Ray.
Just because one gamespot review gave a game and unfavorable score doesn't mean that the ENTIRE gamespot staff agrees.
Look at the difference in scores from IGN US compared to IGN UK and AU.
Not everyone at sony despises the 360 and not everyone at Micro despises the PS3.
1e arw humans; we are given the power of deductive an inductive reasoning. Let's use this gift to our advantage

At first I kinda just shook my head at the title, but while I may not wholeheatedly agree with the statement, I does kind of make you think of how far rpgs have deviatedd from their original formula.
RPGs do seem to be a bit more restrictive these days, focusing on large worlds and straight story-telling-not to mention graphics-in favor of the player-driven experience.
Really makes you realize how old school bioware is.

i knew FF13 would bring shame to the genre, now we have people generalizing and they do have some kind of evidence thanks to FF13.
Now he is taking away merit from classics like chrono trigger, Final Fantasy 4-9, breath of fire, dragon quest, personas, tales of phantasia and so on, all thanks to Square Enix. If FF13 was stated to be an adventure game like it is, it wouldnt be getting this kind of comments and jewels like the ones mentioned would remain respected.

Hang on a minute everyone. According to his point of view what he's saying isn't wrong at all. FFXIII doesn't fit his definition of an RPG so it isn't. And this is coming from someone who holds FFXIII & Fallout 3 to be his tied games of the generation. Stop attacking bioware for no reason.

Besides thats 1 person not the entire company saying that.

@Radha

on the other hand you, what the hell is your problem? If a thread talks about FF13 at all your onto it like a army of vultures attacks a corpse.

im commenting on the OP, whats your problem? the guys is generalizing jRPG's based on FF13.

Psh, in SMT series you can customize your own stats and choose your alignment for the story. JRPGs are just as much RPGs as are WRPGs.
This guy from Bioware is living in the past, RPGs have evolved to many different ways and I like variety in a genre.

LoZ is an RPG, so is FF and anything that Bioware makes. COD and GeOW arent. This is because you can customize your characters with different attacks, clothes, weapons, and armor. You really dont have the depth of customization in a shooter that you do in an RPG.

srry i love my turn based RPG'S.

Oh so Halo is an RPG in multiplayer, then