Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Is BG3 bad for the genre?

(Not speaking as a mod here. Just interested in culture)

Re: The Nerd Culture Meta

I don't think Nerd Culture is one thing. There are people who like all sorts of different things, and "nerd" encompasses so many different interests, approaches, and behaviors. Is a computer programmer who only cares about statistical min-maxing in games not a nerd? Is a method acting roleplayer not a nerd? Is someone who wants to sit around a table with the same friends for decades and roll dice to kill monsters not a nerd? Is someone who makes costumes of their favorite indie video game characters not a nerd? Is someone with a singular obsession for a particular anime not a nerd? Is someone who plays competitive online strategy games for hours not a nerd?

"Nerd Culture" is experiencing the same post-internet transformation as music culture. It used to be that you had set groups who had set interests and these groups socially congregated together around specific activities. Hip hop fans didn't mingle with rock fans who didn't mingle with country fans who didn't mingle with the indie scene. Nerds were ostracized and bullied incessantly for years for their perceived lesser interests. Now, people, especially young people, just do what they find fun. They add to their playlists or game time whatever they find enjoyable. Some of it is nerdy, some of it isn't. The old paradigm of Nerd-Normal is breaking down, though, and it's being replaced by more specific interests and ways to relate to things.

I'm not even sure what "Mainstream Culture" is anymore. In the 1960s-1990s, there was a clear culture defined by a set of (controlled) mass media companies, a unified sociopolitical narrative, and local communities conversing with each other. Against this mainstream culture emerged the counterculture. In 1960s America, this was marked by the Beats like Kerouac and Ginsberg, hippies, and the early formal LGBTQ community. In the Soviet sphere, you had Czes?aw Mi?osz's concept of "Ketman" and double discourse, by which citizens under the authoritarian system would have one set of outward behaviors in favor of the mainstream culture, and another set of inward beliefs and behaviors which were directly against it. Now, mainstream narratives are optional. Don't like one news channel? Turn it off and go to another. Don't like any news channels? Choose to believe podcast hosts or forum posters. Don't like those either? Social media connects you with like-minded people. The day-to-day culture of young people is dominated by algorithms which reinforce preexisting interests rather than unifying local narratives. Want to roll dice to kill monsters? There's a group for that. Want to roleplay characters with a ruleset? There's a group for that. Want to discuss the intricacies of lore of fantastical worlds? There's a group for that.

"Nerd" Culture has become decidedly iridescent. Everyone is coming at it from different angles now, and are drawn to it for completely different reasons, seeing completely different definitions based on their angle of observation. Its "unity" borders on nonexistence. Further, as life becomes increasingly sedentary, isolated, and digital, peoples who would not have been nerds 30 years ago are born nerds now. Outside of religion, writing, and academia, there were hardly "nerds" several centuries ago. Nerd culture was a transient product of a post-industrial society that had ample leisure time, mass literacy, a sedentary lifestyle, and mass-produced leisure materials. The Internet and changes in human connectivity/connective behaviors has simply changed the calculus.