A well meaning video, to be sure, but one I feel misses some obvious aspects. And while I can agree and even support the idea of trying to push for change for the better, unfortunately it wont work.
The first, and most glaring issue to address is the idea that we, as geeks and gamers, don't actually have the power. We don't. The very idea that we do is merely illusion in the same way that I am sure the maker of the bell bottoms thought they had power to influence fashion. Right now gaming culture is a glorified fad. A very marketable one, to be sure, but still, a fad.
Think for a moment, what is geek culture's appeal and drive? And how is it treated? You can point to any movie you want and yet so much of it is blatant pandering not because of the culture, but because the culture has money at the moment. Geek culture is very lucrative trade and more and more companies see that and try to market it, but in doing so many fear it will do what such market strategies always do, it will make too much crap, people will lose interest and then geek culture will be dropped for the next brand of fad. In that regard, we don't have the power, we are merely the current target audience and any illusions of power comes not from the culture itself, but our expendable income, at least until the fad fades. Furthermore, with the way the marketing has been going, with all the "broader appeal" and the like, what little influence geeks have as shepherds of the tread is quickly dissipating into the mainstream as the very aspects of the culture that appeal to geeks in the first place are deluded and removed. You can see this in everything from the treads in video games and consoles towards regurgitation of the same crap to D&D and the streamlined gaming.
Another aspect to address is the reason geek culture is prominent now. It wasn't because we, as a subculture and movement decided to push forward. It wasn't because we were growing and ready to step up. If it was, then your video would have been very good. Instead, geeks were dragged into the limelight because of greedy corporate interest, their culture was dissected and examined and marketed, and now they have to fend off attention many probably didn't want, people they might feel are posers and a watering down of what they like to make it have "more appeal" to a "broader audience".
Lets be honest here, geek culture was a patchwork of nerds, outcasts, hobbyists, gamers and social rejects of the mainstream social culture. Part of the way some geeks coped with that was to claim the distance of the subculture from the mainstream as their own. They weren't popular, but damn it, it was a place where they could be themselves and do what they were passionate about, be it comics, books, games, whatever. You start introducing new people into that, and the natural reaction will be to be wary, though all the geeks and like I knew were welcoming if a true interest was shown. The problem with the current trend though is that it isn't that more geeks are introduced, it is a flood of people claiming to be geeks are. Now you have a group who feel that even their safe haven is threatened, and not even by newcomers but fad chasers and posers and opportunists who don't have the same interest and instead just want to change geek culture into what they do like. This is where the divisions formed. Where people started to label others as hard core or casual players. The dudebro gamer. People are wary of new people, but geeks instinctively hate those that are notably different or threaten to change the paradigm, and that is exactly what happened when geek when mainstream. A group feels their culture is being appropriated and right or wrong, you will get a vitriolic response to it.
You said yourself, geek culture is very insular, to the point of racism, sexism and the like. Do you think they pushed to be part of the mainstream when they often exclude others and seem, for the most part, to claim their own excluded status as a mark of elitism and pride? No, many were not ready for this and as a result you get a lot of what you see.
Geek culture is in at the moment because of marketability. Whether or not that lasts, well, that remains to be seen. It certainly has a good chance to last longer, true, but I can't help but think of a lot of this video as a responsibility forced on a people who didn't ask for it on top of a situation pushed on them that they did not want. How many geeks did you know of from 15 years ago would have said they wanted to be pandered to like they were the lowest common denominator and have their hobbies and passions used as the day's fashion? Or have it watered down to appeal to a broader audience?
I keep thinking back to an episode of The Simpsons where they go to Australia. In the very early part of it, they mention the Dundee effect, where the culture was latched on to, appropriated, and then left. Source of the thought aside, so much of what I see in geek culture feels like pandering and manipulation and it seems that making it mainstream has actually done more harm for the subculture then good. Like child-actors, the geek subculture wasn't ready for the attention or expectations, the scrutiny nor the benefits. Little wonder it has torn and split in the ways it has.
I do think that as a culture, geeks can and should be better then they are portrayed of late. They should be more inclusionary, more accepting and ethical in how they handle things and how they police their own. We are outsiders, many of us, but we are still good people and we should show that. However, I can not expect the overwhelming majority of any culture to react well to how the geek culture is treated. The Rap subculture reacted in a similar way, did they not? Posers and hatred and the like. I will not excuse those that share geek culture for being asshats, and I will do what I can to curb their actions and call them out for it. But I can and do empathize with their point of veiw.
