I wasn't really trying to do that, but rather get the point across that roleplaying as a term has outlived its usefulness when discussions get theoretical. Most of the time, it's fine to just say "rhino". In a biological discussion however, the generality of the term will quickly be discarded as it is not specific enough. That's kind of what has happened to roleplaying.
We cool. Sorry if I jumped the gun, a fight I've had too many times and thought it was starting again.
You make a good point, if someone says 'there's a lot of roleplaying in my game' what exactly does that mean? Is it something I will enjoy? I've known gamers who refer to anything that isn't combat 'roleplaying', such as puzzles and riddles. I really dislike those, because its challenging me the player, not the character I'm imagining. Does is mean a lot of interpersonal drama and character driven rather than plot driven games? Does is mean the GM is loose with the rules? It could mean any of these things.
Rather than saying one of them is roleplaying and the others are something else is what gets people thinking you're one-true-waying. Me included. They're all roleplaying. They can be different categories under that broad title. And does this apply to gamers, groups, or game rules? I've thought about this, and worry if I go too far down the rabbit hole I'll end up with something like GNS, which manages to predict that D&D and Vampire, the two most popular games of all time, are terrible games that should be colossal failures. But they aren't.
And yes, I'm willing to admit that you get the kind of play you want without metagame mechanics just like I get the kind of play I want with them. Gaming isn't about right and wrong so much as style.
But I think most players think about the metagame at least a little, if they aren't colossal jerks. Now some people think only of using out of game knowledge for in game benefit (ie, the GM worked all night on this adventure, there's no way he'd kill us right now!), but it also refers to using out of game knowledge to make the game more enjoyable for everyone. For example, when a new player joins the game, the group usually accepts any excuse to let him join in the adventure. They might put up a pretense of not trusting the new guy yet, but certainly they give more leeway than they would an NPC. This is because Dave came over to play this game we've been talking about, and we want him to play it! He can't do that if we don't let him come on the adventure with us! The players aren't looking for any advantage here, they are trying to show Dave how cool and fun this hobby is.
That is good metagaming.