The RPG Rut Freeplay was probably the best one I've read, if only just for saying what needed to be said.

RPG's are most definitely stuck in a rut. Many of the games just don't innovate, don't change anything. Previously being a hardcore RPG fan, I know that I've been turned off by the hordes of look alike RPGs which I never finished. Now I just play casually.

It's quite correct to compare them to a western. Westerns are defined by their genre, being that every western must have some of the requisite western features: bad guy, good guy, horses, etc.

RPGs are the same way, but much worse in a sense. RPGs, ever since the days of Dragon Warrior, have been hit point, experience point, etc.

This isn't bad, but think about it. Roleplaying games could be so much more than these interactive storybooks we currently have.

Ok, that's a little too far. Maybe an RPG isn't an interactive storybook, but its close enough. The main thing driving it is the story, with good gameplay a secondary thought. Playing may be pretty fun, but I know most people only level up so they can see what that bad guy says when he dies, or how it ends.

Isn't there a way we could take this powerful story and utilize it better?

Maybe expanding the idea of "roleplaying" past hit points, magic summons, and turn based gameplay could be a start. I'm sure the gaming public would be really interested to see where that could go.

Or maybe just me.