The problem is you don't play a role in FF games and such. For those of you who are not fully aware of what roleplaying is, it is where you put yourself in another person/thing's perspective, and make choices that you think that person/thing would make, based on the info you have.
Sure, they give you choices in FF games... but often its maybe 3, and there is only 1 outcome. Where is the role playing if no matter what you do the result is the exact same(which is usually "fight the the evil dood because he's evil!").
Stats are present in all games. Levels, phat lewt, etc... can all go and you can have a role-playing game, just probably not one with combat, nor a good conversation system.
EDIT:
No.
role playing - being in control of the fictional characters in the FF games.
sure, its broad, but that's what it is.
Yeah, and I get what your saying, both sides of this argument are dumb in their own right. I'm just trying to defend volourn's view since he seems smart and thought out, compared to the elitist ****.