However I admit some RPG purists don't care for it.
That would be me!
My bottom line on Oblivion is this great fun, loads of open and beautiful spaces, some really creative stuff (Brotherhood, Impressionist Painting, etc) mixed in with some otherwise dreadful writing ...
BUT ... it has an absolutely broken leveling system, and if you consider 'choices & consequences' or 'picking *A* character class' as a foundation of modern RPG's, it is hard to describe Oblivion as anything but 'fun sandbox console action game with RPG-lite elements'.
That said, I still recommend it to everyone!
As for Mac stuff ...
- Eschelon Book 1 (Book 2 coming soon) as mentioned
- Litany of Bioware games as mentioned (BG, NWN, KotOR)
- Also Bioware, Jade Empire. Bought this for Mac recently and it works great ... not cheap though.
- More Black Isle - Icewind Dale. Great party based combat-centric turn-based RPG with a great soundtrack to boot!
- Fable - as a RPG it is *very* short (I finished it in ~12 hours, shorter than many FPS games), and the 'organic world' is a thin veneer, but it is fun if you can get it cheap.
- Deus Ex - FPS/RPG hybrid, still quite fun.
As for WoW ... all I will say is that MMO's are pretty much a different genre than standard RPG's. I have tried them repeatedly but really have never clicked wit them. It is a personal preference thing.