The Berlin Interpretation

It sounds like the study of Roguelikes is getting academic. Jeff Lait announced on the newsgroup rec.games.roguelike.development:

This definition of "Roguelike" was created at the International Roguelike Development Conference 2008 and is the product of a discussion between all who attended. The definition at http://www.roguetemple.com/roguelike-definition/ was used as the starting point for the discussions. Most factors are newly phrased, new factors have been added, some factors have been removed.

You can join the discussion here. I believe a splinter group is working on a definition of Roguelike-likes called the Canberra Consensus.