I would too, but I suspect that GenXers don't contribute a hugely outsized portion compared to their numbers.
Age does not matter to:
*The Showoff- at any age...you know this person. They have everything...or nearly everything. And they are the first to buy new stuff...and not just buy stuff but special pre order "I know a guy" get it before everyone else. Oh, and they show it off...
*The collected will just buy everything...they "got to have them all"
After that...well there is some truth to "young folks just buy stuff" and "adults tend to think about things first."
One thing I do wonder, is how much money is being spent that WotC is not capturing, from 3PP books to unofficial merch. Of course, I am sure WotC would like to know that too.
I'm not so sure they want to know...they seem to oddly ignore this.
This too is EXACTLY what I am talking about.
The game does not proliferate as well if older gamers are not involved!
Well, my point was people have been playing D&D in the back ground for nearly all of the 50 years. Pick any point in time, and I'm sure 100's of people are playing D&D on any given weekend.
I do have a nice, passing the touch story. About a year after I started running D&D games at the rec, I was approached by a young girl (14 at the time). She wanted me to run a game for her and her friends. They had tried and just "could not get the hang out it". I told her no, as I only ran games for adults and recommended she try some of the other kid DMs. She did not give up and made a while case that she wanted me to teach her to be a DM. So I agreed, to a couple teaching games so she could get "the hang" of DMing.
And so started the Pretty Princesses. Five girls, each with a 'bored' princess adventurer banding together to save their kingdoms and the world. They were and are all great players. They took to the game like ducks to water. It only took a season for her to "catch on" to Dming. Then she took over. We settled into a three week her, one week me DM set up. And this game lasted for four years...until they all graduated from high school. They were set to go different ways after that...so we had one last game. With me as DM the characters disposed their fathers/brothers to take over each kingdom, merge them into one kingdom....and then make that One Land a free land.
They are all adults now, scattered around. We still stay in touch via social media. And they are all till gamers to this day, playing where they are. And maybe twice a year, when they all come home, we squeeze in a time to play and update the One Land.