Every single game is RPG actually. In Half-Life, you role-play as Gordon Freeman. In Halo you role play as Master Chief. Sure you don't level up, but it's still an RPG. Take Half-Life for example, the only numbers you have are your health, your suit power, and the ammunition you have. What else? Nothing, no weapon stats, no NPC stats, you don't see any of those. So yes, everyone actually played an RPG without stats.
And on top of all those, I'd not play an RPG game(RPG that has level up and stats and sort of open world etc., unlike HL or Halo) without the so called "numbers".
Hell, even table top RP games have stats. There are formulas there, like "2D10 + Speech Skill = Your chance to deceive someone". Sure you can just simply not show the "numbers", but then how will the character know if he has level up? You're going to say "Oh look! Looks like you leveled up, man that's hard thing you did there, without the numbers and shit". Essence of the RPG is "being whoever you want to be". If I want to be a bard that has awesome speech skill and lute playing skill, then I'll be one and the stats will tell me if I'm good enough.
RPG is not real life, so someone can't come and say "oh dude you're good at that" or "dude why don't you use steel shield, that'd protect you better". Yes they can, but only on text, because it'd take a lot more space than what we use these days, if we wanted to record all these lines of speech. And because of that, it can't be one or two people that says this, many people has to say it, and they have to be unique, because you can't make the same NPC come out of nowhere in a dungeon and make them say "use steel shield". Essence of RPG is the "Numbers".
Even the essence of life is "Numbers". So why would you get rid of it?
TL;DR: No.
And on top of all those, I'd not play an RPG game(RPG that has level up and stats and sort of open world etc., unlike HL or Halo) without the so called "numbers".
Hell, even table top RP games have stats. There are formulas there, like "2D10 + Speech Skill = Your chance to deceive someone". Sure you can just simply not show the "numbers", but then how will the character know if he has level up? You're going to say "Oh look! Looks like you leveled up, man that's hard thing you did there, without the numbers and shit". Essence of the RPG is "being whoever you want to be". If I want to be a bard that has awesome speech skill and lute playing skill, then I'll be one and the stats will tell me if I'm good enough.
RPG is not real life, so someone can't come and say "oh dude you're good at that" or "dude why don't you use steel shield, that'd protect you better". Yes they can, but only on text, because it'd take a lot more space than what we use these days, if we wanted to record all these lines of speech. And because of that, it can't be one or two people that says this, many people has to say it, and they have to be unique, because you can't make the same NPC come out of nowhere in a dungeon and make them say "use steel shield". Essence of RPG is the "Numbers".
Even the essence of life is "Numbers". So why would you get rid of it?
TL;DR: No.