Originally Posted by
Merton9999
I'm not saying I want it to fit a label at all. The "this isn't a true RPG" absurdity is a high school clique "cook kids" label. A few years later most people realize the names don't mean anything.
You keep trying to take your personal preference for a passtime and objectify it, which is where the absurdity comes in. You don't get to personally define what an objective universal definition of RPG is, or even the idea that FFXI has to necessarily meet this definition if it even existed. I also assume if there was some legal obligation of what RPGs are meant to be, it would change over time. If not, I'd expect you to be buying consumables one at a time like I bought potions in FF1 in 1988. Man, what an accomplishment that was.
Again I'm going back to my high school kids that never left their hometown. There is a tremendous tendency to take the only thing you know and make it the "right way". For most people that fades as soon as college away from home slaps them in the face. For some it's a simple trip to another country, and others a career world with people of all age groups. But we can't even get you to try VW or other end game content, so I don't think there's hope yet.