It's a great post, but I think people make fun of role-playing because of some genuine faults with current RPGs. Mostly that they are built around letting the player vicariously live out a shallow fantasy. While we do learn something about ourselves when we play role-playing games, the enlightenment we derive from the experience is usually not something we think about much nor does it have a profound effect on our day to day lives. The real reason we play these games is the chance to be famous, talented, intelligent, a psychotic crowbar wielding physics post-doc, so on and so forth. But then we come back to reality and the only place the game leaves a lasting effect is on our social lives.
This isn't a commentary on the people who play RPGs as everyone is entitled to their own fantasies. This is more a commentary on the people who capitalize on the fantasies, that is, the game creators. Instead of creating yet another rip off of JRR Tolken to make money (or fulfill their own fantasies) they should use Bogost's idea of procedural rhetoric and challenge the gamer to think about their world and reality the same way good books, movies and other art forms do.
Image a game where the player's heroic warrior could be slowly convinced into demonizing the enemy until the warrior is committing horrible acts against them before calling them out on it. Or an elf who struggles against the backwater and rural stereotype humans place on him, then draw parallels to prejudices in modern society.
A gamer could then use the role-playing to viscerally experience and come away with something. This has been done before (Bioware usually does a good job) but it's rarely the focus or even intentional.
PS: My apologies for the pretentiousness of the post.
