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[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Originally Posted by Felon

Here's the difference. Describing an edition of D&D as "dumbed-down" is a negative reference to the edition. Describing people's reaction as "nerd rage" is denigrating to those people.

And by association, people interested in playing a "dumbed down" game, because apparently they couldn't cope with the "smart" game.

Overemotional reactions are hardly new to the world. We just have a new word for baiting people who are upset. The fact that they're upset is somehow evidence that they're nerds.

Describing peoples reaction as nerd rage is denigrating their rage, describing it as blowing something out of proportions. It tells. "You/They are way overreacting, as happens often with nerds." (And as hong points out, we are all nerds. Or maybe we're all geeks, and we just misuse the word in this context. The difference between geek and nerd is getting lost these days, I surely can't pinpoint it.)