I get where you're coming from, but like some have said or, at least made reference to, you're a little bit extreme. At the time, the PS1 and the N64 focused mainly on RPG's (or action RPG's, or light action shooters) which focused on story because on-line play was not available at the time. This led to an era where nearly every game you played told a unique story with unique characters in a unique setting. The only problem with this was that a lot of people simply did not like RPG's, in-depth story-lines nor puzzles. They simply wanted shooter games, like Golden Eye (N64) or Jet Force Gemini (N64). Game producers probably realized this and began to put emphasis on this once the Xbox and PS2 came into production and consequently, the majority of the games are all shooter based games. Once the on-line notion came into play, it simply took-over the industry. If you have 5%-10% of a population of gamers who are die-hard RPGers why would you continue to make a lot of RPG games if the other 90%-95% of the gaming population enjoys playing, mainly, shooters with on-line-play? And even when a company does make a game they are usually under-budgeted.

Also, another reason why the PS1 and N64 era was so good was because of the emergence of a new generation of gaming. 3D games with NICE sound-clips. Prior to that it was mostly 2D with midi music o.O

So, the current generation of gaming consoles isn't necessarily bad.. but it's nothing new. So far, all the gaming industry has done is increase the graphics and introduce on-line-play (which is, actually, a big feat, but nothing truly new). So until they come out with some NEW genre of game play, I don't see a very bright future for RPGs in this current era (they have, however, started to create the non-linear RPG games like Mass Effect which should prove to be interesting).

Rv