We're talking about a RPG, not a MMO-RPG, which I believe is what a lot of players have been spoiled on. It's shouldn't be about number crunching. It
This is some sort of New School myth, that MMOs invented number crunching and stats. I find this myth very amusing because it betrays the age of the people who believe in it. Factually, number crunching in RPGs existed long before MMOs did, and long before video game RPGs even existed.
Believe it or not "RPG" in GAMING terms, was never really about "playing a role", it's always been about stats, hidden or revealed. It's always been about GAMEPLAY. The "pretending to be someone" part can really be found in just about any videogame from CoD to Madden to Daggerfall. "Playing a Role" isn't what truly defines RPG GAMES. Mechanics do.
When you play Super Mario you are "playing a role" as mario, you are pretending to be Mario. But it's not an RPG. Yet PAPER MARIO *is* and RPG... playing the same role, 1 is RPG 1 is side scroller/action. What's the diffference? Gameplay mechanics.
Super Star Wars SNES vs. Star Wars TOR. one is action game, one is RPG, both are "Playing a Role" pretending to be a jedi. It's always been gameplay that's the distinction.
What's happened now is classic "RPG" games are dabbling in Action game mechanics and things like stripping out RPG features or hiding them, or merging them etc... That's what the discussion is about. When is that fun for the RPG gamer and when does it just make the game more frustrating?
Not knowing how *much* an effect something has in game, when that is a perk/skill for instance, and not having that choice be reversible is a point of contention for many of us.