[Agema]

RPGs and strategy games however have always been minority interests to the big beast of action/arcade gaming. When we think of big RPG and strategy games, what has often made them successful is that they have had more and more to do with action gaming. For instance, Starcraft and other RTSs are often not so much about tactics, as just knowing the optimum build queue at the beginning and then clicking your mouse like crazy when the action heats up. At the RPG end it's Diablo, which trades more on its relation to 80s arcade hit Gauntlet than it does on the RPG element from Nethack/Rogue etc.

In major industry terms, with the exception of Bethesda Studios, no-one is making decent RPGs for PC. In terms of strategy, I might have given Creative Associates a nod for Total War, except that as their games get better in graphics and AI, they get worse in design, heart and soul. Possibly the Civ series and related games are still going okay and fairly strategy purist.

Both RPGs and strategy really exist and thrive in the realm of independent publishers and internet retail. There you can really find the sorts of things you are looking for, where teams with more limited means craft what are often unpolished diamonds rather than the polished turds available from major development studios. However, I find it is often much harder to gauge whether the game is actually good, bug-free, and much more, as they attract much less in the way of good critical reviews.