Michael, you certainly seem to understand where I was coming from on my "do RPGs even exist?" idea. It's a topic we could certainly talk about much more, but the central idea is that back in the day an RPG was a game where you assumed the role of a character whose stats you could effect, had much more control in combat (did more than jump on their heads) and had a deep and engaging plot. But now games across all genres have these elements. Borderlands and Dead Island use mathematical combat - numbers drip from your enemies, inFAMOUS has moral decisions and unlockable powers, Trine has skill trees, etc...
So my main point is that what we originally thought of as an RPG wasn't a genre at all, rather it was a collection of game mechanics that when grouped together most resembled the pen and paper role playing games many of us geeks were used to playing. Now many of those elements have been transfered to other "genres."
Just as you said, genres are disapearing as the technology and ingenuity of developers improve. It used to be that making a first person shooter was limiting, but even games in the first person that include guns, like Half-Life or Metroid Prime are hard to classify as such.
We as gamers and people in general like our labels, but the truth is that they are disapearing and that's okay.
