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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Charlaquin" data-source="post: 7982961" data-attributes="member: 6779196">Well first of all, I don't think the “Matt Mercer effect” is a real thing. It’s been pointed out a few times in this thread that accounts of players and DMs actually expecting their games to be just like Critical Role seem to always be third-hand. It looks less like a genuine phenomenon to me and more like a poor attempt at scaremongering targeted at old fogies who don’t like all this newfangled streaming business (which is itself a bit of a caricature).Second of all, the quality of play in sports can be objectively measured, where DMing and playing is far more subjective. Fans setting Matt Mercer as an example of quality DMing is far more dubious than setting Tiger Woods as an example of quality golfing. Tiger undeniably golfs well, whereas opinions on Matt’s DMing are varied. Which, again, I think is the point of the alleged “Matt Mercer effect” - to scare gatekeep-y folks who are already worried that streaming is “ruining D&D” by saying “look, new players are treating The Bad Internet DM as a benchmark for good DMing! Won’t someone please think of the newbies!”</blockquote>