I had to dig around for the original source there, but it leaves out a lot of context from the video interview where he said this.

He wasn't saying that all RPG's must have xp and leveling system or that games with an xp and leveling system are automatically RPG's. What he was saying is that over the years, a lot of features and mechanics from different traditional game genres have sort of "bled in" to each other.

If anything, he was saying that the definition for a genre, such as an RPG, can sometimes vary a bit, and that its definition can be somewhat loose. Which is true, I've had debates with people who've had differing definitions.

And this was an opening response to a question that was posed asking "When it comes to the RPG genre, have players' expectations been changing?"

Not that I'm offering any defense for a lot of the idiotic design decisions he and his company have made.

I had to dig around for the original source there, but it leaves out a lot of context from the video interview where he said this.

He wasn't saying that all RPG's must have xp and leveling system or that games with an xp and leveling system are automatically RPG's. What he was saying is that over the years, a lot of features and mechanics from different traditional game genres have sort of "bled in" to each other.

If anything, he was saying that the definition for a genre, such as an RPG, can sometimes vary a bit, and that its definition can be somewhat loose. Which is true, I've had debates with people who've had differing definitions.

And this was an opening response to a question that was posed asking "When it comes to the RPG genre, have players' expectations been changing?"

Not that I'm offering any defense for a lot of the idiotic design decisions he and his company have made.