Hayao Miyazaki, regarded as the Walt Disney of Japan, said anime (animation) was a mistake and that Otaku (the Japanese word for nerd) ruined anime. I want you to think about that. Not because I want to comment on anime or Miyazaki, but because I want you to consider why an artist might think that fans spoiled art.
First, what does it mean to spoil something? Imagine going into a mystery story and trying to solve it yourself before the protagonist, then some thoughtless a-hole spoils the ending for you. You can't have fun solving the puzzle because someone gave the answer away already. The fun is spoiled.
So for some of us, we don't pursue art for the style alone, we pursue it for both the style and the substance. What nerds do is they enjoy art for what it is, both the style and the substance, and then they do what with it? What if they collectively misunderstand it and indulge in the wrong aspects of it. Then they want more of the style and don't appeciate the substance, or they appreciate the substance disproportionately less. For example, Gundam is an anime and its message is that war is bad, so it's ironic that everyone liked the mechs so much that they just wanted more mech stuff, and thus the original mech story that wanted to tell an anti-war message is known for being the first of the mech stuff. Mech stuff is commercialized, and the original artist and his message are left behind. There are several mech animes and video games and etc, now. It's not immoral but you could image how that artist could be disappointed.
Back to Miyazaki, he says anime used to be created by artists, now its created by nerds who only know how to imitate art but can't make it. And so nerds have spoiled anime for him by turning it into an art form known for imitation and that is slowly degrading in quality and substance. I think this is a fair observation because I watched all of Naruto and while it's admittedly really fun for a while, it's also really inane. Ninja fights for the sake of ninja fights. What's the substance? Believe in yourself? Never give up? OK, sure. That's fine. I guess. I didn't watch the other Naruto series and I won't. The 2021 Mortal Kombat movie was style over substance and I didn't enjoy it.
This is all leading to a point about playing D&D. I hate everything about modern D&D. Not because I find the lack of substance to be disturbing or sad, I mean it'ss D&D. Historically it's about killing monsters for treasure in a conflict of law vs chaos so you can build your own kingdom and rule as a hero-king and create fun and exciting stories of daring-do. The problem is partially when people bring their dumb nerdy OC to bear, and boy is that just the peak of what makes nerds nerdy and exhausting and embarassing.
But seriously, how pretentious is it to complain about D&D and a lack of high art? Or maybe isn't this just part of the hobby? If you're thinking that, you've missed the point. The point is that like nerds ruining anime for Miyazaki, the wrong crowd ruins D&D for others. There is an incompatibility. What modern D&D does is it encourages all manner of silliness and goofiness with its sanitized kitchen sink setting for everyone and wide, wide catalog of player character options for everything. Be anything you want. Imitate things you like. Bring multi-page backstories. Get tons of mechanics! Can't you just be an ordinary dude who falls on hard times and becomes an adventurer? I would like it if you could turn off your nerd-brains when you engage with the game.
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