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If RPG's were originally intended to be role-playing-games (taking the role of characters), then the inventers of the genre really stuffed up, because they didn't realise that you take the role of a character in nearly every game all across many different genres (as I said before).
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The term was not invented for video/computer games; they borrowed it from pen-and-paper role-playing games, for which the distinction is arguably much more meaningful (compare the role-playing aspect of Dungeons and Dragons to, say, chess or poker). The mechanics and themes of these games vary quite widely, but the traditional example has been Dungeons and Dragons, and most RPGs are still at least partly based on themes and/or mechanics that D&D popularized. The actual work - throwing dice, doing the math, making maps, etc. involved in playing pen-and-paper RPGs is a nontrivial matter for many players. It is this aspect of the experience that video/computer games are most capable of altering, and the one that you seem to give the most weight to. It's worth considering, however, the possibility that the rules and mechanics of an RPG can be abstracted in a video game without destroying the underlying concepts... |
