Clearly you have a better grasp on the concept of the RPG than I do.
I really need your help. Please help me with this:
provide a clear definition of the RPG video game genre actually is
explain why a social sim game with a player avatar is excluded from that definition
--- When we talk about roleplaying in the context of the tabletop or LARP or sexual roleplay or anything else, we're talking about creating imaginary characters with imaginary social relationships and stories. What single-player video game better facilitates that than a social sim such as The Sims?
I didn't argue that social sim games are always roleplaying games. But all it takes is adding a player avatar to a social sim and you have a roleplaying game. It's a very fine line and The Sims straddles both sides of that line. There are many different ways to play that game.
City Builders or Flight Sims are not social sims. They're simulating jobs; they're not simulating social relationships. (It's possible for a game to do both though -- eg Harvest Moon and its genre of Farming Life Sims.)
