Games that are not RPGs

[Mayareira]

Everything evolves. In the past, due to technical limitations RPGs had to provide depth with deep gameplay, complicated rules etc.
Nowadays they are somewhat simplified and they benefit from improved technology. Again, first person perspective =/= FPS.

Heretic/Hexen are FPS's with RPG elements, not Deus Ex/Fallout etc.

[Kenai]

I should have known better than to think the majority of this thread would be real discussion. Interesting idea, though.

You are correct, in a sense. SRPGs, Action-type RPGs and the like aren't really like what is traditionally considered an RPG. That is why I always thought they had the sub-category thing in place. It really does boil down to two things in my opinion: gameplay mechanics vs other RPGs (or what is considered one) and the amount of RPG elements in said game that would relate it to another genre more than RPGs.

A lot of the problem imo is that over the years, elements that were almost exclusive to RPGs in the beginning of the videogame history (inventory management, character customization, real story told in-game, stat boosting, monster strengths/weaknesses to exploit) were slowly added to other genres, and now many are standard in other genres.

Most RPGs do have:

some form of "leveling"
some type of transition between battleground/rest of world, even if instant like KH

and that's it really . I almost put a "party" of people to manage but some RPGs don't have that so eh.