[Milawe]

I think the problem that's actually come in with the RPI thing is actually pretty basic. RPI has evolved to have a certain set of "must-haves" by the people who have basically decided that their mud falls into this category and a few select mud that they agree fall into this category. Originally, RPI didn't mean perma-death, nor did it mean "crafting system", nor did it mean any of the stuff that's been listed. It mean roleplay intensive or immersive, which a number of roleplay enforced games out there actually ARE. There are some people who still believe that's what it means, obviously, since a PLAYER believes he's looking for an RPI only to be told that what he is looking for ISN'T an RPI.

As RPI evolves further to mean this very select group, it'll become a misnomer for the games who aren't interested in being pegged down with those specifics. Then someone else will come up with a new term, and people will try to narrow that popular term down into a very specific set of criteria that they hope to exclude other games from in order to be called that very thing!

It's just taking a while for people to decide what is RPI territory and what isn't. Personally, I really couldn't give a hoot! As RPI evolves further and further away from just being roleplaying immersive/roleplaying intensive, games who just care about roleplaying enforcement and the roleplaying environment but not any of the other stuff will dump this argument.