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The "nerds" who make this claim are actually telling on themselves. If you are serious about a hobby, you want to be in a room that cuts off from the top of the X distribution, not cuts off the bottom.
I'll give a concrete example. The game CSGO has Official servers and Third-party servers.
Within the official servers, there is a casual mode and a competitive mode. Third-party servers are competitive only because the only people who would pay on top of owning the game are serious about it.
A - Casual mode in Official servers cuts off the top. Good players don't play casual.
B - Competitive official servers cuts off the bottom, the bad players don't play competitive, you would need a baseline level of tryhardiness in you to put yourself through that torture.
C - The Third party servers cuts off FROM the top. The best of the best players are exclusively found there only. (B actually cuts off the bottom and the top)
So imagine a guys who plays in B complains about too many players from A shitting up B. Well you ask yourself.. Why isn't he in C ?
In my observation with mostly video game communities, the truly skilled are safe from having their space shat up because that space usually comes with some sort of additional cost/gatekeeping.
I don't follow.
Under the assumptions you specified, yes. If you're complaining you're probably not as nerdy as you think, because you'd just be in C.
Wait, what? Why? Wouldn't that be a choice for a moderately dedicated casual?
Yes, but that's under the assumption that gatekeeping is allowed. It used to be a pretty hot culture war topic in nerdy spaces, which might color a lot of these conversations.
Yes, it is the choice for him. But it's hard to gather up sympathy for a casual complaining about his fellow casuals. It's not inconceivable to me that some communities can die off as a result of catering to the low-skilled, truly competitive communities however are immune to that.
E.g. No amount of Chess streamers will be able to shit up the chess community, it's ELO based. Chess is doing just fine with the recent influx of normies.
If your activity doesn't have a ranking system, you might just be better off accepting the fact that you yourself are a casual. But you are a casual who thinks he's more than that and are now upset because your peers are a reflection of you.
Back to that comic, a bunch of nerds play some card game, the card game itself probably doesn't have a high skill ceiling, and a steep learning curve (necessary for immunity), it's just a nerd community being taken over, the complaints are about the aesthetics not the skill.
Also the Motte is gatekept on skill. Those who shit up the space will eat a ban. Not for having the wrong opinions (aesthetics), but for sharing it badly (low skill).
Maybe the subreddit for Warhammer or whatever isn't. And I don't really feel that bad for them.
I don't think it's just aesthetics, it's about taking the game seriously, rather then using it as an excuse to hang out with people.
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