In this post I'll be expanding on the first statement in the hypothesis. This should, I hope, clarify matters for the reader.
I. A roleplaying game is an organized activity in which the participants play imaginary characters in an imaginary world.
---A. "Organized Activity" means that the RPG has a set of rules which serve to describe how things work in the imaginary world, and govern what is possible in that world.
---B. "Imaginary Characters" means that the players assume the role of make believe people living in a make believe world. People who have talents and abilities, and who vary in those talents and abilities as people do in real life.
---C. "Imaginary World" means that the action during a game session occurs in a make-believe reality where much is like the real world, and much is different. It also means that the immediate environment can, and will, pose challenges of varying degrees of difficult. And that those challenges will not always be commisserate with a person's ability.
---D. The Player is therefor engaged in living an imaginary life, with all the inequities, challenges, needs, and dreams of such a live. With limitations and opportunities established by that world and the way it works.