Benjamin Olson
Hero
I mean Critical Role probably did innovate in terms of having a lot more people who are completely new to playing the game come in having already fully-formed ideas of what the one true playstyle is, whereas historically such ideas would develop over years of actually playing. But I think the degree to which CR shapes game expectations of D&D players as a whole has been widely overstated, in part because the occasional incidents of "total newbie gets angry at DM for not doing everything like Matt Mercer" are so striking and fit some people's "darned kids these days" narrative so well.That's not a new phenomenon and it's certainly not because of Critical Role. From the literal start of the hobby there have been factions of players who think their house style is the one true way. The west coast vs east coast crowds. The wargamers vs theater kids. The power games vs role players...on and on and on. They all have their preferences and all think their way is the right and proper way. Literally nothing to do with CR.