Lol as much as i love Mass effect.......it is no Elder Scrolls or Fallout......those ARE indepth WRPGS. Mass Effect is an action game compared to them both.

Character driven stories? Or characters driven by stories?

Both types of RPG offer much to the end gamer. Saying one or the other holds more merit is asinine. It's like arguing hockey vs. football. Both are sports, but very differently played and any one person can like or dislike them based on different personal factors. It doesn't mean either sport holds less value than the other.

What was this thread about again?

no... because one is an rpg and the other is an adventure game at best and more like a interactive book at worst... the FF7 series sit in the middle at times and it looks like 13 leans towards the later

I'm assuming you are referring to Japanese style RPGs? Call them what you will, but they have been recognized as RPGs since their inception by both the established gamer base and professional institutions. Your opinion doesn't really hold enough weight to change that or sway the current status quo.

That being said, I can't disagree with you per se because I can see how people could feel that way about jrpgs. I am not a fan of jrpgs, but I refuse to discredit an entire genre of games based solely on a technicality.