If my friends were different could I enjoy Final Fantasy again?

I’m 21 and since recently graduating I’m now unemployed. This means I spend most of my time job hunting, but once that is done for the day I have hours of free time to game. It’s the first time I have really had this much time off since I was at school. Yet I’m not gaming like I’m 12 anymore.

In my early child hood I would spend hours on the Amiga playing every platformer or top down shooter I could get my hands on. Looking back these games seem incredibly un inspired and almost identical. Is there really much of a difference between Alfred the chicken, Zool and Cool spot? It didn’t matter to me at the time, I loved every moment of it! I just wanted to play anything I could find.

As gaming and I grew up I moved onto other games. I played a lot of Goldeneye with my mates and played GTA all night to keep ahead of the playground. I could happily complete a 70 hour RPG, even playing it again from the beginning after it was done. Every game was still fun.

What I’m leading up to is that I recently purchased Okami. I could see it had everything I loved in a game, or at least what I thought I loved, it was fun, challenging and long! I was never interested in a game unless it had at least 20 hours of play. I started playing it and I got a little way in and I just stopped. I just couldn’t get back into it and I went off and started playing Bully (yes I know, late to the party on both accounts). Then I picked up Final Fantasy 12 (Working through a pile of shame in this down time of the year) and again I stopped pretty soon. I don’t want to play a game that is that long anymore, where you spend the first 10 hours in what is essentially tutorial mode. I think the only reason I tolerated this before was because I was doing it with friends; sometimes sat together playing through FF or rushing to school in the morning to talk about what we had done. I don’t have that anymore.

I thought my gaming tastes were changing because I was “growing up” but the more I think about it, the more I realise my gaming is completely defined by my social group. The people around me are largely in the “casual” crowd of gaming, they follow the mass media and advertisements to decide what to play. So it is highly unlikely any of them will be picking up No More Heroes anytime soon.

This means I look for games I can play with my girlfriend, like Mario Galaxy or Zak and Wiki. I am not really a Metal Gear fan yet I purchased MGS4 simply because I knew one person who was playing it. Despite being a PES fan I play FIFA so I can play with my housemates. I only play games that I can share the experience with the people around me, be it with multiplayer or through discussions of play sessions.

Maybe if I met some new people who where really into RTSs or MMORPGs I would play those.

I’ll start where I began. If my friends were different could I enjoy Final Fantasy again?