Title: Some Thoughts on TT- & C- RPGs
Fandom: RPG (Genre)
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Summary: Author bemoans the fuzziness of the CRPG genre.

Tabletop Role Play Games (TTRPGs) are a distinct category of tabletop games: You control a character and interact within a world. This easily separates it from other tabletop games such as Scrabble (a word game), Monopoly (a board game), or Cribbage (a card game).
Computer RPGs (CRPGs), on the other hand, are not a distinct category of computer games, at least according to Steam’s user-base. One of the user-defined tags for Jedi: Fallen Order is RPG! Assassins’ Creed: Black Flag apparently is an “RPG,” alongside Hades and Tomb Raider.
These all match Britannica’s definition of a CRPG as a genre in which players advance through a story quest, and often many side quests, for which their character or party of characters gain experience that improves various attributes and abilities. You advance through a main plot. Sometimes there are additional activities or time-wasters or whatever for you to do. You can upgrade your character or weapons. You fulfil the role of your character in the story, whether it be Cal Kestis or Edward Kenway or Zagreus or Lara Croft. But are these RPGs?
I think not.
Innovations in technology have given rise to genres simply not possible in tabletop games. A great deal of computer games are games where you fulfil the role of a character and interact within a world, whether it be by killing things or solving puzzles or smashing pots. All of these are role-playing games, but they are not RPGs. The term CRPG is too fuzzy to be useful—either we need a concise definition, or we need another term.