Video games labeled as "role-playing games" aren't usually "role-playing games" in the sense that lots of people tend to think. It's not just pretending you're someone you're not and living a second life. Hell, the games Second Life or The Sims are a lot closer to "role-playing games" than, say, Final Fantasy or Chrono Trigger. The difference is the latter games have their roots in old pencil-and-paper "role-playing games" like Dungeons and Dragons. In these games, you would construct a character that you would play as, "playing" their "role" at all times in the game. This character would grow and gain skills, maybe even a personality, making them more real, and since this character was the player's creation, they would grow very attached to them. This character is essentially an extension of the self. The same goes for Second Life and The Sims and similar games, but these games aren't called RPGs.
In contrast, Final Fantasy and similar games have preset characters, preset abilities, a preset storyline, preset everything. For me, playing Final Fantasy games are more like reading an interactive book, where I can change the events in very slight ways, and, although only virtually, experience the events. While I suppose you still are fulfilling the role of these characters, it's no different from any 1st-person shooter, 3rd-person shooter, side-scrolling, or any other sort of game featuring identifiable characters. It's sort of arbitrary, but I was driving back from Kingston today, and I thought about it... so I decided to post this.
--Jon
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