Are the assignments (sometimes quests, sometimes puzzles et cetera) or the initial disturbance of a balance (which the player should reinstate) that a game offers the player part of gameplay?
If so,
Taken that gameplay can be equated with a strive towards mastery, are RPGs then games? You'd say so because they're sold as such. But in RPGs, fulfilling the main quest is not mainly based on mastery (in for example combat), but mostly on interaction with NPCs. And there is no such thing as mastery of interaction. You just have to get enough intelligence for your avatar to gain access to more interaction possibilities. The whole point of a rpg is to create a story, which is perhaps gathering bits and pieces of information, but not gameplay as defined above.
If so,
Taken that gameplay can be equated with a strive towards mastery, are RPGs then games? You'd say so because they're sold as such. But in RPGs, fulfilling the main quest is not mainly based on mastery (in for example combat), but mostly on interaction with NPCs. And there is no such thing as mastery of interaction. You just have to get enough intelligence for your avatar to gain access to more interaction possibilities. The whole point of a rpg is to create a story, which is perhaps gathering bits and pieces of information, but not gameplay as defined above.