ET3D: People who play pen and paper often care about this distinction. Most others don't.
darthspudius: So why is it I have only heard this silly thing now?! The only people I know are lifeless, fat D&D fans (Im not being mean, thats what they are...). We're on a video game forum, who would assume we were talking about a board game?!
Course it´s not right:
C-RPG is Compute-RPG without a "r" in the name.
And it was chosen to get away from A (ction)-RPGs and B(attle)- RPGs.
Some folks say that A-RPG<B-RPG<C-RPG, but I can´t really go with this at all.
Examples for A-RPGs: Jade Empire, Venetica, Divinity II, Alpha Protocol, Mass Effect,...
Examples for B-RPGs: Gothic, Risen, Witcher, ...
Examples for C-RPGs: Wizardry, Might and Magic, Torment, Baldurs Gate, Drakensang, Dragon Age, ect.
BTW:
In my opinion Hack and Slays like Diablo or Titan Quest technically aren´t RPGs at all...