Yeah I think that identity stuff is very nerd-specific.

I cannot imagine sitting in your wagon for the day going to the next town over for (say) a wedding, and giving the next town shit for playing their rondo wrong.

But — and god I hate stretching metaphors this far — I could totally see the problem when some goons show up with electric guitars and drum machines and algorithmically generated melodies. Probably their product would be judged terrible because it doesn’t fulfill the needs and expectations of the traditional performers. You can’t even dance to this!

So back to the assumptions of play thing. Maybe what isn’t needed is games that leave all assumptions explicitly addressed, but rather is clear-eyed about where assumptions are about to be challenged. Burning Wheel did this pretty well (the little demon face) but it’s also deeply confrontational: I think we have a better way of doing this thing can be hard to swallow if you don’t (think you) have problems.