I've always thought CRPGs were just games like Fallout 1/2, Planescape, Baldur's Gate, and so on, but I see some games that aren't like the games mentioned. I'm lost now, what is a CRPG?

Or indulge in Wikipedia's extensive article:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Role-playing_video_game

There's always a vagueness what's to be subsumed under a certain category.

Be very careful of what you read that makes a role playing game (cRPG is simply a 'computer role playing game). An RPG can be defined as a game that features a persistent character (or characters) that is (are) developed through player-driven, consequential choices -- note that story is irrelevant. Nothing else is required to make an RPG, and any game without those elements is not an RPG. If a computer game has those elements, then it's a cRPG. It's really that simple.

An endless debate, in my experience. Everyone seems to have his own definition.

My opinion is that there's really no such thing as a cRPG. Role-playing games are tabletop or pencil-and-paper games (traditionally but not always utilizing miniatures), and cRPGs like Fallout are actually computerized RPG simulators with the machine handling the calculations. It's a huge difference because no one has ever come up with a computer game that could match the flexibility and emergent storytelling of a true RPG.

There are lots of computer games with RPG elements, though. That's the source of half the confusion. The other half is game company propaganda: labelling something a role-playing game is good marketing strategy, so they do it whether it's true or not.

Yeah, this.

Making choices that change the story is one, (how consequential the choices need to be, is debatable).
Leveling up and getting new skills is maybe the most widely used definition.
"Playing a role" is another very ambiguous definition, but I like it the best anyway.
"Needs to be turn based" or "must be isometric" are just silly rules, but used anyway.

Guess it's a long list of RPG-ELEMENT check boxes, tick one and the game has RPG-ELEMENTS,
after some arbitrary point you have enough to call it an cRPG. At some point in the sci-fi future
where you have a true AI as game master (enabling you to do whatever you want) it's a true RPG
and the "c" can finally be dropped.

The problem is not so much what an RPG or a CRPG is, but how the title gets thrown around for games that absolutely do not deserve it. To many gamers, the simple fact that you can tweak stats to alter the game experience slightly is a "roleplaying element". Nonsense. Stat sheets are a byproduct of pen and paper roleplaying games where you need more functionality and rules than just have the players tell a free form story, ie a way to limit and monetise the narrative (the roleplaying). The stats and manipulation of the stats are not the roleplaying part of a roleplaying game, it is just administration, a way to balance and decide the odds.

A roleplaying game is a make belief experience with some rules to ensure that all participants are pulling the same direction. a CRPG, computer roleplaying game, is sometimes a direct translation of a pen and paper roleplaying game ruleset except with computer controlled events and obstacles/enemies as opposed to a human narrator. Often however, CRPGs use unique rulesets that look like pen and paper RPGs except more complex as a computer can handle more detailed events in milliseconds that would take too long for humans to simulate with several die rolls and interpreting AND narrating those die rolls.

So what? A CRPG is a game where you pretend to be someone and you have limitations and are afflicted with random chance? That sounds like most computer games, period. Yeah well, most computer games are more focused on the simulation and not so much the make belief. A Deus Ex player typically does not pretend to be JC Denton, they are too busy manipulating the world simulation (first person shooter mechanics, juggling inventory spaces, using "meta-knowledge" of the adventure and environment).

HOWEVER... If you pick any game with a narrative and logical non-abstract universe, disable auto-saves and do not use manual saves except for when you need to close down the game, and really imagine that you are a person in that world with a history, a set of morals and ambitions... Any game can be a roleplaying game. When you stop thinking about the best way to "beat the game" or manipulate the simulation (for example, abusing quicksaves) and instead think "how would I react to this if it was real? How would I react if I was an elite soldier in the late 21st century?" and make decisions based on what makes narrative sense rather than doing stuff that only makes sense for an immortal gamer, then you're roleplaying it.

Even racing games can be roleplaying games if you play them that way. You just have to imagine that you're a real person dreaming about becoming the best driver in the world. That means choosing cars you could realistically own, driving it as if replacing it in case of a wreck is very difficult, and that breaking the rules of racing may cost you your whole career. The game might have super cars that are obviously "end-game" material and every race is self-contained or even have "retry" options. Most racing games do in fact not simulate rules and safety regulations so you can crash your way to the top and win. They lack roleplaying rules. If you impose those rules in your mind however, you suddenly have a computer roleplaying game!

Playing a role can apply to almost any game, though. In Civilization, you play the role of a civilization. In Halo you play the role of the Master Chief, or whatever his name is. I would say playing a role doesn't necessarily require that the player be able to create his game character from scratch (because in PnP RPGs players sometimes use pre-generated characters too), but the player must have a role in determining how the character develops; the player must have some control over skill and stat progression as well as the personality and ethical outlook of the character.

Making choices is probably the most important element, but it's also the one computers are least able to handle. Even in the best cRPGs, the choices and consequences are a shadow of what a free-form PnP RPG can produce. In a regular RPG you can make your character do anything you want, and the rules are there to facilitate that. If there is no rule, you make something up.

Turn-based is traditional going back to the tabletop wargaming from which RPGs evolved. Turn-based combat, character stats, weapon damage, and a Game Master - these are all things inherited from miniatures wargaming. That said, the main purpose of simulating a role-playing game (or a wargame for that matter) on a computer is to transfer the burden of calculation to the machine. I think real-time combat can be viewed as transferring the burden of combat calculation to the machine.

Isometric isn't required, but there's a fondness for it because it simulates (and actually improves on) traditional PnP RPG gaming with figurines.

The thing to consider is that the invention of RPGs was a tremendous revolution in gaming. The elements have spread so far and wide to so many other kinds of games, a lot of them are simply taken for granted now.

For a modern example of what is a CRPG, buy and play Divinity: Original Sin

A CRPG is basically a traditional pen and paper style roleplaying game except it's a computer game - where the dice rolls are done by the computer's random number generator and the computer keeps track of character sheets etc. Some CRPGs might not be based on a specific pen+paper RPG but use similar mechanics and elements.

Some examples would be:
- Eye of the Beholder series, Baldurs Gate series, Icewind Dale series, Temple of Elemental Evil, Planescape Torment, Neverwinter Nights (all based on Dungeons & Dragons pen+paper RPG)
- Realms of Arkania series (based on "Das Schwarze Auge"/The Dark Eye pen+paper RPG)
- Fallout series (based on Wasteland, which is based on Tunnels and Trolls/Mercenaries/Spies and Private Eyes pen+paper RPGs)
- Shadowrun (based on Shadowrun pen+paper RPG)

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