I agree. I've been playing a lot of turn based RPGs recently and they just don't feel the same like they used to back in the 90s. I love to think fast most of the time.

Yeah, any game that resembles the granddaddy, pen and paper Dungeons and Dragons, by remaining turn-based, is archaic.  I don't want to put forth my best strategy each turn, I want teh graphics to flow and everything to be fast-paced.  WoW > D&D.  D&D 4e is basically WoW anyway, and that's for the better.  I also don't like the uncertainty with turn-based games as to when each character will act relative to one another (initiative).  I just want to know ahead of time how fast each character can move, as in how many attacks within how many seconds of gametime, and have it set in stone.

Turn based is archaic, but it's not fair to make RPG all action orientated as many players just suck at action. Heck sometimes people just don't wan't to play action games. Does it make it archaic yes, because it's hold over that a snobish crowd likes to hold to just for sake of holding on legacy development practices. What we really need is a proper shift of the classic turn based, to a combat system that is action orientated, but not twitch based. I think Dissidia's Command mode is on the right direction, but could use some work.

I think tea is archaic now-a-days with the advent of soda! Your entire premise is extremely flawed. Action RPGs are not an evolution of turn based. They have been around for nearly as long at this point. They are simply a different mode of play. To proclaim an entire style of play is archaic simply because you no longer enjoy it as much is simply out of touch. So long as the two types of games play differently then neither one can make the other archaic, out dated, or bad. Any claim is a person projecting their own values on the entire market through either ego, or ignorance. If it is based on ego, then there is nothing to be done. If it is based on ignorance, then people responding here saying they do not share the same opinion should prove the point.

Turn based is way more fun than real time IMO

If you were a heavy fan of the Dragon Quest series, you would see that its pretty much the pinnacle of turn based combat.  Everything down to the balance of weapons to the pace of battle and the number value for attacks have been refined so well, its like a well oiled machine that few series can even hope to compare to.  There's a reason Japan threw a fit when they announced Dragon Quest IX would be chaging from turn based to a free motion/active battle system.  Its because its one of the few series that has stuck with the turn based system and gotten it right every time.  Even the latest DS remakes have made improvements to the system to make it faster and more balanced.

So when some people say they like turn based games, there's a reason.  Some of them just play so damn well, you want them to stay that way.

Again, this is not to say Action/RPGs or any other type of RPGs are inferior.  Some of them are excellent.  But those games and series are build for those styles of gameplay.  The truely good turn based RPGs are some of the best RPGs out there because they were built for that system.

I tend to agree with the OP that turn-based is really getting old. I'd say that the fact that some games insist on retaining random battles is even more egregious, though.

Except the opposite of turn-based is not action RPG. See: Final Fantasy XIII.

I like action RPGS like Kingdom Hearts and Demon Souls...
But my love of RPG stemmed from games like Final Fantasy 6 which used a turn based battle system. I have been playing turn based RPGS for decades now and i am not going to stop now.

No way. FFX had the best FF battle system ever, so deep. FFXIII was a turd in comparison; even FFXII is superior, and gosh I hated that game. Back to square one, Square

I kinda agree.

But there are exceptions - for example... the Mario RPG/Paper Mario/Mario and Luigi system, where you have to press buttons/command sequences at the exact moment of the action to atack/defend/perform special atacks, etc... that keeps me awake and makes it impossible for button-mashing - aka final fantasy and most others battle systems.