I've always had an incredibly strong, almost instinctual revulsion to that kind of shit, and the sheer unfiltered pozz that eventually came out of these communities vindicated my prejudice. The whole trendy hipster "geek" shtick was always just so damn phony, and the kinds of cucked soyboys and mediocre egirls who populate these scenes are in reality deeply unhappy people. Behind the facade of happy-go-lucky irreverence is a stewing cauldron of despair, frustration, and compensatory narcissism.

Every beta who posts about "punching nazis" has only ever punched drywall and maybe their underage gf. And the whole CalArts demographic just feels like a giant cult, considering how cults have the whole Jekyll-and-Hyde dynamic going on where they front with lovebombing but then become absolutely vicious on a dime if you say one "wrong" thing. Those people just give me the absolute creeps because they're the epitome of smiling to your face while clutching a knife behind their back.

Yep and all subsequent Celebrity Geek shit.

It made DnD too popular. If you play with normies they will also try to emulate it which just isn't my style personally. Very annoying.

Critical Role was fine, as they actually play other characters.

The "modern audience" doesn't want to do that. They want to play themselves or a perceived aspect of themselves in a mostly modern world representation but with magic. That's why you have to have a wheelchair mechanic, and race no longer reflects anything of importance.

This focus on "self exploration" has infected not only the players, but the creative teams as well. As someone noted below, many of the dwarves are probably self-inserts. We also get such releases as: "D&D’s Strixhaven campaign has mechanics for ‘what a hot mess college life can be’".

Thus all fantasy productions will just be "L.A., right now, but with some magic.... kind of"

R.I.P. DnD. You follow other greats like star wars and Indiana Jones to Valhalla while the corpos wear you like skin suits.