One of the constant irritations of a gaming message board is the term RPG.  Much of this I think is caused by the genre of games called JRPGs.  The root of this may be that JRPG is a poor term for the genre.  The term RPG has seemingly taken on the definition of any game where characters have customizable skills.  This seems to run counter to the actual term role-playing which implies the player taking the role of someone else and having choices in the character's decisions.  JRPGs, though, seem to focus much more on strategy and a more linear story than anything else.  The player usually does not have any say in determining the character's decisions, only the small scale battle strategy of the battles.  Sometimes, players are given A or B courses of the story, but it is not their actions that determine this.  The problem with using customizable skills as an indicator is that there are many games that use customizable skills that people would definitely not consider to be RPGs.  While it will most likely never be possible to give the character every option in the world, role-playing games imply that the player does have an influence over the character so that the player can in some way feel that the character is reflecting them or the role that they wish the character to fill.  Most JRPGs are story based games where players unlock more of the story through strategy based battles.

The purpose of this thread is not to discuss better or worse.  There are a large amount of JRPG fans and it is a well established genre.  I just to believe it is misnamed.  At their heart, I see JRPGs as a form of strategy game or, in more detail, story based strategy games on a small scale (small group battles).

Important Note: Just to cut off those that wish to turn this into a WRPG/JRPG battle.  I think the same argument could be made that many WRPGs are mislabeled.  However, the alternative term for those questionable WRPG games already exists, action games.  Also, I am not saying that all games currently labeled JRPGs lack the role-playing aspect, some may.  However, actual role-playing does not seem to be a criteria for the JRPG label, thus the incorrect name discussion.

 Some suggestions:

Small Scale Strategy

Episodic Strategy

Party Based Strategy

Thread rating pending 

I give the OP a 0.1

I like the way we rationalize JRPG, and we should keep it that way.

It's like when Soriku tried to say that casual = Non-traditional.

Why fix something that ain't broken?

A 0.1? That's harsh! I give him a 9.0.

Your plea is about two decades too late. Sorry, but I sincerely doubt anything's going to change at this point.

I just have another more fitting name for all these games, wether western or eastern, and that is... RPG!
I really dislike how people divide them into various genres jRPGs, CRPGs, cRPGs, ARPGs, and so on. That´s mainly the source of hate/love towards a certain sub-genre.

Because most JRPGs aren't really "role-playing games"?

Most RPGs don't involve Roleplaying anymore in general.

I miss the days of the nameless protaganist.  Even the Voiceless protaganest is often better then the main characters who are just idiots.  I can't empathize and feel myself in the role of an idiot.

Hard to get around that when you've got constant voice acting though.

I know that I hate it that SRPG's are considered JRPG's. 

Whenever I say that the ps3 doesn't have any JRPG's coming out in the near future, I realize that Valkyrie Chronicles and Disgaea 3 are both JRPG's....but they are also SRPG's.  Many people such as myself prefer one type over the other.  I don't like Strategy RPG's near as much as "traditional" JRPG's.  It would be nice to be able to differentiate between them.

The ps3 is getting some SRPG's, but not any traditional JRPG's in the forseeable future---which is completely unacceptable to me.

 I think it is because the term causes problems and people start calling everything an XRPG.  Look at Secret of Mana (one of my favorite SNES games).  It is essentially an action game, but called an action RPG because there are multiple characters and stats.  JRPGs are strategy games.  The player is rewarded for leveling characters and using the right weapon and skill combinations to defeat enemies.  The player does not sit and think if he or she is making the character a good person or bad person.  They just unlock the next part of the story or side-story.  It isn't role-playing.

 I give that post a 9.5. 

 In video games there will never be true open choice.  The pure attempt making RPG video games comes from Bethesda, however, that can also show the limitation of the medium in that respect.  If a game has a story, your options will always be limited.  However, a video game RPG can have the character, within the confines of the setting, reflect some of the players whims.  This does mean that the story has to have more avenues and options.  It will never be a pure RPG though.  Most JRPGs though don't have any of that choice that would define an RPG in the most basic sense.

 I give that post a 9.7.