I was just thinking about the sorry state of modern gaming, and that video of the Diablo 4 level designer chicks (trying to) play the game they helped design popped into my head.
This also ties in to a comment I made somewhere recently about being tired of anything "white" or "male" or "straight" or just generally normal being derided, and the destruction of those things being celebrated.
"Dude bros" is generally just code for passionate young white men. Now, sure, there are some negative aspects to young men of any race (usually overshadowed by the never talked about positives), but it was weaponized as a smear by fucking race communists to try to invade and take over...well, everything.
Things were better when "dude bros" ran (or at least contributed) to things. Back in the day, these creative innovators were genius nerd gamers who were hyper-passionate about their work, and it showed. They were rockstars, who actually played and cared about the field they were contributing to, and pushing forward.
Today, we have a bunch of diversity hires (anyone non-white and/or non-male, and/or non/straight) who often clearly have never seriously played a video game in their lives, much less the game they're spending their time designing. They're not passionate about the field, they're not passionate about the project. They're either just there for a paycheck or, worse, they're there to take shots at the imaginary "dude bros" in their minds that haunt their every waking hour. They're out for revenge, and to rub it in the faces of the dude bros that came before, and the dreaded largely straight white male demographic their games are still appealing to. I'm not even sure they have the self-awareness to realize their own work will never even hold a candle to that of the dude bros.
TL;DR: Put nerdy White/Asian male gamers back in charge of game design, and kick out the harpies and queers. Simple as. Same goes for society, probably.
Ninja Edit: The dude bros could make really impressive shit run on a calculator. Modern game design makes supercomputers sweat doing basic fucking shit. Save me from this nonsense.
One More Edit: Excellence used to be rewarded. Now it often gets hitpieces written against it by jealous journos working for the megacorps who churn out the shit games. If you don't pay the tithes, you don't get attention.
I never thought of the term dudebro as any of these things, but more of the college fraternity trust fund types who spent all their time partying on their dad's money while treating everyone else who were inevitably beneath them like shit. As far as gaming goes, they would never be seen playing anything beyond Madden or Call of Duty.
Outside of what they are called though, whatever group you describe are definitely the ones that made the golden age of games.
As I said in my other comment, it's basically just become a generic term for a young white dude, usually who dares to hang out with any other young white dudes. Any white male dominated space is inhabited by 'dudebros' by definition, because communists hate white males.
Doesn't matter how nerdy or uncool they may be, if a bunch of white dudes get together to create something, they're smeared as dudebros. And also oppressive racists...how could those dudebros keep the stunning and brave transwomen of color out of the field that they totally want to work in organically?!
"Dudebro" is just any white male who doesn't toe the party line...and plenty who do, if the space they inhabit is still too white.
Maybe it is now, I'm not really a young white dude so I don't have a point of reference for that, and I find most people here spend much more time observing leftist spaces than I do, so I guess they could use that term for it now. I was thinking historically. I grew up the nerdy programmer, game modder, computer builder type. I can't imagine any of my friends wanting to claim a term to describe ourselves as a "dudebro." In 1995, we'd have wholly rejected something that sounded so retarded and gay, or projected it onto a another group that was actually retarded and gay.