Seems you're aiming to put out material that looks at tabletop roleplaying through a seldom-used lens, which I really welcome. Looking forward to seeing what you come up with! To your point about people you'd never suspect being gamers, I was chatting with my sister the other day and was a bit startled when she mentioned that her husband is part of a D&D group. I've known the guy for years, I mean he's my stepbrother! I had no idea. I'm realizing that a big part of building stronger in-person gaming culture is just getting everyone to raise their hands and be seen.
It's funny, when I was young, I had this impression like "gosh, I feel like imagination games connect more broadly with people and their interests than media stereotypes would lead us to believe." This is in like 2004. Fast forward 20 years, and I'm actually much closer now to believing that the actually-rare person is the one who would think "I wouldn't try that" or just write off RPGs entirely. "[J]ust getting everyone to raise their hands and be seen." What a lovely way of putting it.
This didn't go where I thought it was going to go, but I'm really looking forward to it. As an autistic person, I've moved my gaming completely online, but I really miss having some level of in-person connection. Loud, crowded, overstimulating game stores aren't good, but at the same time it's important to me to get people together who don't all look like me. White, bearded, middle-aged dudes often have some unfortunate opinions of people from different backgrounds, and despite looking like those dudes, that's not who I am either.
I'm glad you were surprised by the video! Honestly, I wasn't sure where it'd be going either, but I'm glad some people found it resonant. The scene is such a funny animal, huh? There's no question how alienating and gatekeep-y, and honestly just plain inaccessible and hostile it seemed. Sometimes I feel so disappointed by many elders on the scene for like, failing to shepherd the future. But we've got a better world to build!
