D&D General Rant: Sometimes I Hate the D&D Community

[Remathilis]

All I got is a tweet...

The definition of fandom is people who love a franchise or activity and incessantly complain about every aspect of it.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

The definition of fandom is people who love a franchise or activity and incessantly complain about every aspect of it.

Star Wars fans hate star wars, star trek fans hate star trek, marvel comics fans hate marvel comics, DC comics fans hate DC comics.

I could give examples of all... but I am in messageboards/facebook groups where people call themselves fans, spend hours per week just saying how it sucks now...

this isn't new. 2 of my buddies bought a comic store a year or two ago... but one of them worked there for years (2002 I think) and at least 10 years maybe more ago we were there and taking with the then owner and we all agreed that more regulars would complain about comics (It was around civil war II). From back then to now I have asked a few times and Matt (old worker now owner) still agrees that they get more people wanting to talk about complaints... even as they buy the books they complain about...

 

[Cadence]

Ah, I see. I know from having looked into the history of Curious George that French really doesn't make the distinction. And historically, English was fuzzy about it: Macaques used to be called Barbary Apes despite being monkeys.

Googles Barbary Macaques.

Look of shock and horror.

"I can't believe the song lied to me!"

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Thanks, glad to know that Bachelor's in English Writing still comes in handy!

There may be a better post that sums up what is so great about this site, but if there is, I can’t think of it. Brilliant by @Ralif Redhammer

So it would seem most days. While I think it is possible to love something and still be critical of it (and indeed, I think it's important to do so), want it to be better, it increasingly feels like the complaints in fandom come from a place of hate, not love.

The definition of fandom is people who love a franchise or activity and incessantly complain about every aspect of it.

 

[Guest 7034872]

it increasingly feels like the complaints in fandom come from a place of hate, not love.

Mm. I'm not sure it even rises to the level of actual hate; I'm inclined to call it, "a place of moral impatience." Still a pretty unhappy way to live, though.

I have to say, in every single session my friends and I have had since 2018, pretty much the only thing about which we've groused and moaned is the way challenge ratings are calculated: that's it.

 

[Deset Gled]

this isn't new. 2 of my buddies bought a comic store a year or two ago... but one of them worked there for years (2002 I think) and at least 10 years maybe more ago we were there and taking with the then owner and we all agreed that more regulars would complain about comics (It was around civil war II). From back then to now I have asked a few times and Matt (old worker now owner) still agrees that they get more people wanting to talk about complaints... even as they buy the books they complain about...

From Howard Stern's Private Parts, 1997, based on a conversation from 1985:

Researcher: The average radio listener listens for eighteen minutes. The average Howard Stern fan listens for - are you ready for this? - an hour and twenty minutes.

Pig Vomit: How can that be?

Researcher: Answer most commonly given? "I want to see what he'll say next."

Pig Vomit: Okay, fine. But what about the people who hate Stern?

Researcher: Good point. The average Stern hater listens for two and a half hours a day.

Pig Vomit: But... if they hate him, why do they listen?

Researcher: Most common answer? "I want to see what he'll say next."

 

[Thomas Shey]

So it would seem most days. While I think it is possible to love something and still be critical of it (and indeed, I think it's important to do so), want it to be better, it increasingly feels like the complaints in fandom come from a place of hate, not love.

My own feeling is that a very, very large number of fans are in love with the version of a property they have in their head, and their perpetual disappointment with the version they actually get slowly curdles.

 

[cbwjm]

One of the hardest things is liking something and then realising that the fan base is pretty toxic so you end up not talking about it except with your friends because you don't want to be associated with the fan base. I have this issue with Rick and Morty, Diablo 3, and WoW. Thankfully, DnD is fine in comparison.

 

[MichaelSomething]

My own feeling is that a very, very large number of fans are in love with the version of a property they have in their head, and their perpetual disappointment with the version they actually get slowly curdles.

I thought the whole point of DM empowerment and rule zero was that the players would transform the game from what it is to what they want?

Didn't people ignore vast amounts of sub systems back in the game? Add pages of house rules? Not use spells/races/items they didn't like??

 

[Thomas Shey]

I thought the whole point of DM empowerment and rule zero was that the players would transform the game from what it is to what they want?

Didn't people ignore vast amounts of sub systems back in the game? Add pages of house rules? Not use spells/races/items they didn't like??

Are you somehow under the impression even when that was true that people didn't find reasons to hate on the direction the core game went, and not just in D&D?

The truth is that many people, even those willing to do that, consider it in many cases something of a failure state. Because at the end of the day there's a lot of players who are resistant to house rules, so having to get on board them using them is another hurdle. That's even more true if you periodically need to find one or more new players, who are going to hear "I'm recruiting for a game of System X" and not hear "plus two pages of house rules, some impacting parts of the game you find important".

(Don't confuse my position here; I've used some degree of house rules over the course of my decades in the hobby, but its abundantly clear a lot of people dislike doing so, especially by need, to one degree or another).

And this isn't even getting into tonal questions as you reference in your last sentence; that can turn into a whole other war of expectations.