I grew up in an Italian Catholic family. I was never given the stink-eye. While my father thought it was crap, he saw it as a way of keeping us out of trouble. He would often hang out with us but mostly rolled his eyes and laughed out loud. My mother saw it as another battle between good and evil played out in fantasy books. My mother defended our gaming to other parents and often told them that bad people are bad people and no fantasy book is going to make anyone good or bad. That parents should be mindful but inanimate objects to not all of sudden make people into the devil. Neither really cared as long as our school work was completed and we kept good grades. They both just rather not have my brother and I watching TV which they both believed was more evil than D&D. Given the shear crap on TV today, I am not sure they were wrong about that.

Regarding “mainstream academia” they were clueless then and they are just as clueless now because they suffer from the same problem. When they speak they speak in an echo chamber. If it was not D&D that was evil, it was video games or heavy metal music or Pokémon. It is often very easy to blame “something” else or some “inanimate object” than the person who did the horrible act or the parents or the school system or ….

The oppressors of yesterday still remain today just what they wish to suppress has changed and today their are many waiting at the keyboard to be offended or finding a way to be offended so they can broadcast the offense in social media.

Academia still have no clue what they are talking about. My oldest will be going to university next year and I cringe at every university I have visited as what or how they teach. So much of what they promote will not help in getting a future job and it is frustrating to see as a parent and as someone who often recruits for the company where I work.

No, IMHO, what has changed is a lot of those children of the 80s and 90s have grown up, had their own children, stuck with the D&D and have helped to create a larger community. I do not believe that D&D will ever be mainstream like video games but nobody cares any more about the content and many see it for exactly what it is — role playing or acting out a part. People like Felicia Day and Geek and Sundry with their web series have shown people that it can be fun and have gathered first a viewing audience and then people who have wanted to participate. Technology and the availability to get inside what is happening is what has helped.

This is just like “Tabletop” from Wil Wheaton — love or hate the show, every time he reviews a game, sales explode for that game often selling it out. /r/boardgames subreddit now has 250,000 subscribers many who come to say they are first or new gamers thanks to that web series. In their small way, BoW has elevated miniature gaming especially as their production value of “Let Play” has improved.

it was not academia that has increased the popularity of D&D it is access to information so that people can evaluate it for themselves.

Now, if I can just find a way for my mother-in-law to stop calling my miniatures little boy toys, life would be good *sigh* LOL!