I know what you mean. I only know about 6 kids who have played Final Fantasy. Most I know that play it Love it. Of course, I do have the nerdiest friends in our whole school. *Shrugs*

I guess its peer pressure to play stuff like Halo and Gears of War and laugh off Rpgs.
Who knows. I have kids at school who say they love Video Games and Video Game culture in general and I ask them whats Old-School to them. They say Halo 1. I ask them what Chrono Trigger is. They say no idea.

Seriously, schools need to start game clubs for RPGS as most of them aren't mindless shooters.