“When is an RPG not an RPG?”

“When it’s Diablo.”

What I’m getting at here is the hazy distinction between two diametrically opposed genres that seem to be lazily confused into one. A role-playing game, by its very definition, should revolve around the development of a ‘character’, rather than an animated collection of combat moves and/or magic spells. Diablo was born out of a desire to make RPGs a form of online entertainment, and so all the long-winded drama that caused Gary Gyrax (D&D creator) to stop playing with toy soldiers in the first place was brutally axed.