I don't think I suffered "abuse" like what the original post describes, but I was treated negatively because of my interest in games. I remember the librarian at the school I had attended taking Magic Cards away from me and threatening to give me detention for them.
I was already a little bit of an outcast (but one who was accepted due to being involved in athletics at school,) so I didn't catch flak from peers. Most of the issues came from adults.
Later, I gained some idea about what D&D was because one of the English teachers had books that he would loan out. The Dragonlance books were some of the books that I borrowed. I saved up money to buy what I think would have been 2nd Edition D&D at the time, but was told by the clerk at Toys'R'Us that they would not allow me to buy it. There was no game store in this area at the time, so I had no other option.
Later in life, I joined the military. That's where I ended up playing tabletop rpgs for the first time. Rifts was the first game I played because one of the guys stationed where I was had the books for that. It was something to do while stuck on a base and waiting to ship out; it was also a fun way to sharpen tactical thinking and problem solving. So, it's a little odd to me when I hear people say it's "not manly." I'm aware that's a view that people have, but it is at odds with my own anecdotal experience.
Fast forward a bit more... I came home on leave and bought D&D 3.0 from the one game store that had started in my hometown, but never got to play it because I went on another combat tour. Came home for a bit and it was 3.5, but then shipped out again.
I never actually got to play D&D until I was home after a few tours and was struggling with the effects of TBI and PTSD. I hit a low enough point that I had to have a hard conversation with myself about "hey, I don't want to live this way, so I gotta figure something out to rehab myself." I knew some guys who played D&D locally; I figured I could handle a small group of people while playing a game. It worked; I recovered well enough that most people would likely not believe those are things that I struggle with.
So, despite some of the heated conversations I may have here, in real life, I've taken it upon myself to step in when I saw someone being bullied or suffering abuse similar to what was described in the OP. It's not an exaggeration to say that roleplaying games saved my life, so it rubs me the wrong way when I see someone trying to ruin what may be the only outlet a person has from whatever they're dealing with in life.
Today, I'm still friends with the people I played in my first D&D group with, and I'm a dad who can share playing games with my kids -and lowkey teach them math and reading comprehension while rolling some dice.
).
