Not litterally. RPGs are still selling very well today. But I've noticed that today's RPGs are less rich and plentiful of dialogues since voice-overs became mandatory for a game to be "accepted".

Go back in the pre-Final Fantasy X era and take a look at the narrative of RPGs. Take for example Final Fantasy VIII, which had a hell of a lot of dialogues (and monologues). The staff behind the game could cram an infinite amount of text if they so desired. Reading doesn't take long, and nobody cares if the story is interesting. It's just like reading a book. All Final Fantasies were like that (especially VI, VII, VIII and IX). Lots of interesting text to read, which would make the story rich.

Now compare these to today's RPGs, in which there are voice-overs. Scenario writers can't let their mind run free and write plenty of dialogues. They've got to gauge the right amount of dialogues needed so the game doesn't feel empty, but not to much. Why? Because now they've gotta hire and pay voice-actors (which costs quite a lot). Not only that, but if the dialogues are too long, the game will get tiresome real fast. Take a scene from any RPG that would require between 5 and 10 minutes of reading. Take all of the text and add voice-overs. It'll take a lot longer to cover the same amount of information brought forward by reading, and the player would get tired. In the end, game company can't afford to write stories and dialogues as rich as before.

Of course, voice-overs have their advantages. Games are now more movie-like, and actors bring the characters to life. But that doesn't mean pre-voice-overs characters were lifeless. More dialogues and information is what a story and character needs. I'm not saying today's RPG characters are lifeless. Final Fantays XII has great, interesting and living characters. But it's not the same as before. Just compare the amount of information contained in FFVI, VII, VIII and IX to X, X-2 and XII. There's quite a difference in the amount of content. Also, when there are no voices, a character's personality will be forged only by his/her dialogues, whereas with an actor behind the character, the personality is kinda forced.

If voice was something crucial to the development of a characters, then books wouldn't have a purpose. But we know this isn't true. Everybody knows nothing will surpass the richness books offer. RPGs nowadays are like movies, but I prefer when they were like books. I prefer having a lot of interesting text to read than having to simply watch a cutscene that might have irritating voices. I could read for over 10 minutes-long and not be bothered at all, but not-so-much with cutscenes with voices. What's your opinion?