Just to show how much a geek I am, I bought a set of the metal dice(I chose the brass ones cause they looked closest to gold). In fact, I was at GenCon this year(my first time, and I had an absolute blast) and one of the primary things I bought were dice(I found a really cool set of dragon dice along with the metal dice I bought).
Anyway, I know about the RPGer in the closet feeling. Being an old-schooler myself, it's hard to see past the old attitudes and prejudices of days past. However, a funny thing happened while I was at GenCon. I realized how many different NEW people were into role-playing now. It used to be, as you say, role playing was a dark and closeted thing, something only the "weird" people did. The stereotype was always a bunch of fat, ugly, no-life geeks clustered in the basement acting out a bunch of childish fantasies over some dice and paper. However, when I was at GenCon, I was shocked and amazed at the number of "normal" people that were into role-playing. There were even people that I would consider to be more the trend-setter types that were into role-playing(they especially seemed to like the more story-teller heavy systems like Exalted, Vampire the Masquerade, etc. that are based more on socialization than dice rolling). Yes, there was the share of the stereotypical role-player; however, the population was much less than I expected. There was also a much large population of hotties than I would have ever expected.
Role-playing, from what I can tell, has definitely become more mainstream. More people are into it, and more different kinds of people are into it. The entire hobby has expanded beyond the closeted geek in the basement and has become a serious activity enjoyed by many different people from different walks of life.
After my experience at GenCon, I became proud to say that I'm a role-player. I no longer felt I needed to hide it and would gladly admit it to anyone met. I felt refreshed and invigorated by the new life and the new generation of role-players that I saw at GenCon. It was quite an eye-opening experience, and I look forward to going again next year(I just need to save up because it is quite an expense).
Oh, in our RP sessions now, I always use my metal dice?haha!