What does that even mean? The core experience is pretending to be an elf with your friends.
Operative word "with"

What does that even mean? The core experience is pretending to be an elf with your friends.
Will never happen. Being a real-world-interaction game is the TTRPG USP!
You jest, but honestly when climate collapse throws us into the next dark age, what else are the survivors going to do to entertain themselves?
More and more people are playing online because it is easier and more convenient. I have a weekly game with 5 players living in 5 different states. I also have a weekly IRL game. Both are great.
True, but "never happen" is a stretch. Telepresence get more advanced all the time.More, yes, still a fractional minority of people playing
Genuinely-new players presumably want to find out "what this D&D thing is all about" but their expectations can't go much beyond "it's gonna be fantasy," and "there'll likely be a /dungeon/ with a /dragon/ in it, though that may be a little on the nose." You could sit down a group of new players and run T&T, TFT, Rolemaster, or a dozen other clunky old TTFRPGs, and they'd likely have about the same reaction. Unless there's some grizzled old RPG veteran there to snatch the scales from their eyes "OI! That's na' REALLY D&D!!! Eubenhad!"- in particular, new players love it, because it gives them what they want and expect from D&D.
We'll still have the SRD, so someone else can just pick up the torch like Paizo did.Well D&D is good for another 30 years even if it spirals downwards. Short of WotC going under or D&D killed off by corporate.
Genuinely-new players presumably want to find out "what this D&D thing is all about" but their expectations can't go much beyond "it's gonna be fantasy," and "there'll likely be a /dungeon/ with a /dragon/ in it, though that may be a little on the nose." You could sit down a group of new players and run T&T, TFT, Rolemaster, or a dozen other clunky old TTFRPGs, and they'd likely have about the same reaction. Unless there's some grizzled old RPG veteran there to snatch the scales from their eyes "OI! That's na' REALLY D&D!!! Eubenhad!"
Hey, once you've /watched/ it played, you're not exactly new to it, are you? It's not an expectation, anymore, it's an experience.I think you're vastly underestimating the importance, accessibility and pervasiveness of social media (much less the internet general) and especially streaming if you actually think new players can't have expectations beyond "fantasy with a dungeon and a dragon"...