What Exactly is an RPG?

There is a really good piece written up on the MTV Multiplayer blog about what really defines a role-playing game these days. It seems that definition has shifted a bit from what it was years past. To be quite honest, I'm starting to agree with the reality written about in that post.

I tend to get rather upset when people term games such as GTA4 and MGS4 role-playing games when, by all past definitions, they are action/shooters. But, perhaps instead of getting snarky when people call just about everything an RPG these days, perhaps we should find a different name or definition to describe what used to be an RPG in the past? Its quite the interesting read.