As most of us in the Forums know, there's a difference of opinion on how to characterize Second Life. But the news media seem to have settled on "role-playing game".
What would you call a recreational pastime where you dress up and play act-out
your little dolly with your friends in an imaginary world that you create?
Even when you add money, and the dollies go to tea parties to hear
live music or listen to a lecture or technical presentation... it's still
all about YOUR IMAGINATION.
If you want an immersive virtual reality experience suitable for
something other than "role playing", get a videoconference
with shared multimedia constructs. It's the avatars, even
more than the surrounding content and activities that make
people consider it "game" where you "role play".
I often role-play a mildly curmudgeonly nerd, but nobody would
think that "role" is just "playing" IRL. But as soon as I swap the
meat suit for the pixel suit and move into a building-blocks fantasy
world, it's going to be called "role play".
The most interesting thing about it is that people call it "role play"
because they know it's disconnected enough from the real world
that people can be anything they want; yet they still see the
tension, and are invariably surprised by the consequences of
the "nobody knows you're (not?) a dog" phenomenon of
anonymous, consequence-free role playing.
"Role Play" also marginalizes the activity, which is comforting
to those who are for some reason threatened by it, or who have
an adgenda of (usually negative) sensationalism although I do
think online virtual worlds are gaining mainstream understanding.