He's a bizarre fellow, with a twisted, almost self-contradictory opinion about games in general. Look at the games he lists as favs and you can see the angles an arcade and platform gamer with ONE saving grace that he likes System Shock 2. All that means is that he's just not into the kind of games we like so his opinion is really only a matter of taste, but he tried to back up his dislike of the genre with poorly thought out ideas.
"Well, if depth of story is important to you, then why not pick up a good book? The only advantage the RPG has in terms of story is the illusion of player participation. You feel as though somehow your decisions are making a difference and in some meaningful way affecting the storyline."
That can be applied to any game or any genre.
Games are not real Mr. Casey, when you're playing your Mario games you're not actually Mario jumping about and collecting your coins!! It's just a game, you either like it or don't. I don't like Real time strategy games. Should they be abolished? Should every game incorporate real time elements to make them all a better whole?
Basically what he's trying to say is from now on only create his type of game like Mario etc. but chuck in a bit of 'rgp' so make Mario jump higher or run faster when he gets more coins. If you want story read a book instead. What a load of tosh.
The main problem with people who write for magazines or websites is they seem to be of the opinion that if you have 'hit points'and you can raise them through the game then it's suddenly an RPG!! Most people think Diablo is an RPG but it's nothing of the sort in my eyes. But that's really the only niche it can fit into. Your character is not created, just chosen, and he/she has no personality what so ever.
The huge amount of people who play the online rpgs can't be wrong can they? Or should we call be dancing together on line with Dance Dance Revolution or jumping on turtles in Mario with 20 other humans?