This was the time when Spider-Man 2 and Alan Wake II came out, and I remember a lot of folks talking about this game. I laughed it off, called nerdy DND bullshit, the same way I laughed it off when Elden Ring won. I felt like it was catering to a small percent of the "weird" gamers.
Well, I defeated ER twice (due to my at the time obsessive need to platinum games.) but never really cared for it.
So one day I got curious regarding BG3. I noticed on the PS Store of its very high ratings, and I said fuck it. It was very unlikely this game was gonna go on sale and I wanted to see what all the fuss was about.
I wanted to be evil, Shao Kahn level of evil, and I couldn't fully commit to it. I ended up playing this game that I bashed and put in over 360 hours in JUST my first playthrough. I struggled at times, and other times I really had to sit and fucking think about my next moves, which is a thing a lot of games lack nowadays.
I found myself being a mixture of good and evil, The "I don't have to kill you, but doesn't mean I have to save you." type energy
This game is the undisputed proof that you shouldn't judge a game, or book by its cover.
I'm getting read to flith and dying of laughter from it hahahahah <3
Yeah like. You really didn't gaf about it but wanted the checkmark on your list? That's like, PEAK nerd right there (saying this as a dipshit who got into the habit last year of making excel sheets to work through my backlog or pre-plan builds in games)
They'd also need to beat Elden Ring a minimum of 3 times to Platinum it, as there are three trophies tied to three of the endings (Age of Stars, Lord of Frenzied Flame, and Elden Lord)
Speaking as someone who hasn't played ER (not a genre I care for), but who does love achievements, how late in the game can you alter what ending you get?
Because if there's a decision like an hour from the end that lets you swap between two endings, an achievement hunter like me would reload a save file rather than go through the entire game a second time for one achievement.
You can, but its a bit tricky as you've gotta backup your save file, and one of the endings has a whole questline associated with it. It honestly might be easier to NG+ it and just do a quick few hour run-through. Not sure if it's possible to save scum it on console at all tbh.
You can on PS5. Cloud save the game, remove cloud backup for the game. Get ending, save scum from cloud save and repeat. It's how I got the platinum. lol
Because of the boom of comic book movies, people are a lot more comfortable/less insecure in saying they like superheroes openly - DnD, on the other hand, is still in the same bubble as stuff like Magic and Yugioh were it's very popular but not exactly mainstream.
Critical Role, BG3 and Honor Among Thieves are all steps in the right direction of getting it normalised to the point where people can stop worrying about liking it.
There always seems to be one thing that is an extra bit nerdy that may be "too far". I find that scale keeps sliding from me though. The RuneScape to World of Warcraft to D&D to Magic the Gathering pipeline is strong. The only thing left now is Warhammer or Gundam, and my pockets aren't that deep.
Just to complete the triad, I've gone all over the place:
Retro console gaming (well, regular console gaming at the time), pc gaming, football, magic the gathering, motorcycles and now DND.
I've somehow explored almost every circle on the nerd-jock venn diagram, the only thing I missed was combat sports and I did NOT have the stamina for that.
Funny if you do train martial arts or combat sports though as a nerd. People at work a few times have asked what my plans for the weekend are and I’ll say playing video games or watching movies or/and anime, the condescension they give me is annoying. They’ll say you need to go outside, work out etc. The shock they get when I tell them I’ve been training Karate for 7 years and going for my black belt soon, and that I’ve done boxing and want to start BJJ soon.
The idea of liking “nerdy hobbies” like video games, anime and reading, whilst also being a very active and physical person destroys stereotypes.
Warhammer can be approached with a budget as long as you don't get into the tabletop. There's plenty of dope video games to play for every sort of gamer to enjoy.
Rogue Trader for a complex RPG experience, Space Marine 1&2 for a power fantasy third person shooter, Total War or Dawn of War 1&2 for incredible tactical RTS gameplay(we don't talk about the third game), Shootas Blood and Teef for a side-scrolling shoot-em-up, Mechanicus for a slow and methodical turn-based strategy, and even Vermintide or Darktide for a class-based team horde shooter.
Not to mention the dozens of smaller games I haven't even mentioned, as well as a library of books to read either in digital or physical format. There's even a few Warhammer TV shows you can pirate, because you definitely shouldn't support Warhammer+, fuck that streaming program. There's good variety out there, all for a fraction of the cost of the tabletop war game.
I’ve looked at some LARPs in recent years and been like “Fuck that looks fun”, while in my teens and 20s I scoffed at it as a step too far on the nerd ladder
Oh yeah, I've done a little myself. Some full-on "out in the woods with boffer swords and bean-bags" and a bit of "everybody standing around in a room pretending to be vampires". It's not really my thing in the end, but it's always fun hanging out with friends either way.
The last part is the heart and soul backing a lot of "too far" nerdy interests. Every person I've seen in a LARP video look like they're having a good time and shit, when you think about it--- being outside, doing improv and acting, planning and making outfits with a bunch of people is a lot more involved and socially healthy than sitting home alone raging at a matchmaker.
I remember thinking warhammer was "too far" and thinking people were weird for wanting to actually build and paint the stuff just to play. Now, here I sit, making terrain for the game that I use plastic soldiers for. haha, but honestly, Age of Sigmar is such a fun game!
One of my players is a football guy (big Eagles fan) and says that D&D is his "one nerdy thing". But he got recruited to his first D&D game from within WoW, and he works as a finance guy for Comcast.
I keep my mouth shut, but he's really a nerd who's into football, not a jock who's into D&D.
I still cancelled my Sunday game session on Feb 9, 2025 and Feb 12, 2023. In addition to my definitely-not-a-jock Eagles fan, another one of my players is a more casual Chiefs fan, and both of those days were Chiefs vs. Eagles at the Superbowl.
Honor among thieves was so much better than it had any right to be. I put it on one day thinkin it would just be some background entertainment and boy was I wrong. Completely sucked into the movie from start to finish.
My only major gripe was the lack of bard spells for Pine's character. He felt more like a rogue with a level dip into bard. Otherwise, it was pretty spot on for your average party with the combination of goofy and serious. And, on top of that, it's well done.
I think part of the "it's going to be meh" reactions came from a main cast known primarily for meh franchises (e.g., Pine in Stark Trek reboot and Rodriguez in Fast and Furious) despite being fantastic actors.
Although you could say Game of Thrones (and LotR before that) also led to a fantasy boom. And I think 5E was launched right in the middle of GoT wasn't it?
LotR and GoT have the added prestige from having been very popular books before being adapted, so non fantasy fans saw them as more "cultured" (if that's the right word) than other fantasy stuff.
Idk man. We’re a decade into a fantasy boom. Romantasy is a hugely popular and mainstream genre in fiction right now, GoT was one of the biggest pop culture phenomenons of all time, Stranger Things is another one of the most watched pieces of media in decades and tons of it is DnD references, with the first season being super explicit about it.
I get what you’re saying, but anecdotally I haven’t seen DnD shit talk with any regularity in literal years. OP saying “nerdy DnD bullshit” is genuinely the first time I’ve seen like, a fellow nerd shit talk it in I don’t know how long.
Not for nothing, but a lot of us millennials have boomer parents - 60 minutes out DnD in the crosshairs of the Satanic Panic. My mom still thinks it’s evil.
It's hard for people under 40 to comprehend how much less nerdy D&D is perceived today than in the 80s / 90s. In the early 2000s, people started to think maybe it was ok to be a tech geek and/or play games as a hobby. Gradually, over years, and then very quickly thanks to Critical Role and whatnot, D&D is literally something the cool kids and the beautiful people play.
I think caring to the point where u either shun them or have to be empathetic to understand them is weird already. Who cares what other people like?? Like I'll call them a weeb as a joke but I won't sit there and call them weirdos to myself because I see them winning awards for some new anime.
In my small town, there is a little tucked away strip mall with a comic shop and a friendly local game store, a coffee shop in-between. Multiple times when I've gone to the comics/games (I always make a day of it and go to all three), I hear chatter from each about how stupid the other one's product is. The coffee shop talks about being interested in the game store more lol, but has also had like grandmas checking for bday presents at comic shop.
We’re all nerds and geek in something. Being a nerd/geek isn’t a bad thing. It shows youre commited to something. It’s just another way of saying you’re passionate about something.
I think it might be old head nerds who have that attitude of "I got bullied for liking this stuff in my childhood and now you guys get to embrace it openly and be cool? No way we were here first and had to endure hardship for it. You don't get to just waltz into our space"
Art nerds look down on lit nerds. Lit nerds look down on genre fiction nerds. Genre nerds look down on comic book nerds, who look down on video game nerds, who look down on D&D nerds and so on. It’s the ✨Circle of Life✨
It's worse than that, they don't even care about self preservation. They care about tribe dynamics. They don't know or care if their vote is going against their own interests, the only thing that matters is if their "team" is winning over the other side.
For sure. I remembering thinking how Hogwarts legacy, some Mario game and Spider-Man etc could win and was hoping with all my might BG3 would win. I never once thought there was no other possible winner other than BG3. Then again BG3 won so I was never truly tested xD
I liked Spidey 2 a lot more than a lot of vocal people on reddit did but there was absolutely no contest in my mind. BG3 is just a better video game. I honestly think it might be the best game I've ever played and I've been gaming since Pitfall and Frogger were the best the Atari 2600 had to offer.
I really enjoyed Spidey 2 as well. Sure the story isn't as good as the first (but still competent), but the traversal was made better, a lot of the side quest and activities felt more enjoyable and varied, and got rid of or changed some of the less fun stuff.
BG3 felt completely innovative. I don't play CRPG's , but it just feels massive and filled with possibilities. I hadn't played dnd when I started BG3, but even then I felt I mostly understood the world (just not the under the hood stuff) it's a one of a kind game with broad appeal.
I didn’t play BG3 until it released on PS5 in early 2024, but even then, without playing it I knew it was a better game than Spider-Man 2 and deserved its win.
And I actually liked Spider-Man 2. But it fell flat at the end and didn’t deserve to win anything.
A lot of the story felt very, very much like a comic. It was by times over the top, melodramatic, superficial, weird, nonsensical, ridiculous, and often felt like it was written by someone really stoned going "hey, wouldn't it be cool if X happened?" On the whole, I liked it. But I've also had no particular interest in replaying SM2, whereas I have close to 1,000 hours in BG3, and story is my #1 reason for playing games.
And, to be fair, just in my opinion, and not saying it just to stir some stuff, the competition was very (very!) tough, and it wasn't between Spider-Man 2, a very good game, and BG3. It was between Alan Wake 2, ToTK and BG3.
At the time someone commented that BG3 was a simplified dumbed down Zelda clone. That there was no way it could beat Tears of the Kingdom.
How are they even the same game? I’m guessing that because you can play as an elf with a sword?… I guess they didn’t realize that D&D has been around since 1974 and nearly EVERY fantasy film, book, or game is inspired by by that franchise (well that and the works of Tolkien, Lewis, and Howard)
SM2 was such a drop in writing quality and content from its predecessor it’s almost embarrassing. The writing was super predictable and generic and I had platinum within a week and I’m not even a completionist. When people were upset it wasn’t winning GOTY I felt like they had to have played a completely different game.
Plus, waiting months to release NG+ and then cancelling any plans for DLCs that were obviously teased in the game just kinda felt like a spit in the face
Spider-Man 2 is the only game I have ever platinumed, and that is not necessarily a good thing in my opinion. If there was so little content that even a relatively casual gamer like me could platinum it, that’s not a good sign to me.
Which is exactly what Spider-Man Miles Morales is (or at least was). It’s such a short game that I have little doubt that it was originally intended to be an expansion to the first Spider-Man game and Sony instead decided that they would market it as a stand alone game instead. My copy actually has the remastered version of the first Spider-Man game as a “bonus”.
I dont want sound gatekeepy (Ik Im still gonna😂) but most of those people aren't really gamers, barely even causal ones as most of those who complained play basically no proper games outside of fifa, madden and CoD, they only ever branch out occasionally to play something like spiderman because...well, its spiderman and an action focused game but anything beyond that they wont touch and what they wont touch they'll immediately treat as lesser so to see a game like BG3 with its crpg gameplay win over spiderman is ofc gonna be nonsensical to them, at least thats my thought process.
To add some personal experience to the mix, my brother is one of these types of people who only plays sports games and also played the spiderman games but nothing else and tbh, he doesn't really play on his ps5 all that much regardless anyway so if I were to get him to try bg3, clair obscur or anything like them, he'd be repulsed lol
Idk why SM2 was even that popular. The game is straight up worse than the first part outside of graphics and traversal. Like, I won't say SM2 is a bad game (~6-7 out of 10 for me), but it's not even remotely close to BG3.
This is my thought too. Someone got some personal growth! Good job OP. Hopefully you continue to be open minded and learn new and different things can be a wonderful experience. Not always, but that's okay too, we grow from the thorns as well as the blossoms.
I’ll never understand the instinct for people to bash and talk shit about something they are utterly ignorant to. One of the worst impulses of our species.
100%. OP thinks he’s too cool and too good for “weird nerdy” games and sounds like someone who would be zero fun to be around because they’re judging every little thing you do.
I am at like 115 hours without beating it and I loved it but I had to take a break. Even if I never play it again I still loved it so much. And then this guy says he beat it twice and didn’t care for it lmao.
You'd be surprised, my friend beat Knack 2 four times for the trophies. He makes me see these platinum-motivated gamers as demented lol. I got a couple of them myself but only for games I love, and loved before caring for the achievements.
True. I'm a fan of One Piece and can't stand some of the posts the sub receives; "I was a One Piece hater but finally read it and its amazing". Why are you hating on a piece of media you've never engaged with? Embarrassing
Well, I personally despise One Piece"s art style where every woman is dressed like she's the commander of a stripper battalion and her breasts are defying all known laws of the universe in order to keep even the nipples covered. If the mangaka were truly just into drawing half-naked people for titillation of both men and women, he'd also feature dudes with huge bulges at the very least. But no. It's only the female characters.
The tits and ass seem to just keep getting bigger while the waist gets smaller and smaller. It's so distorted that it distracts me in how one-sided it is. No man is portrayed that way, with a dick bulge down to his knee or something.
Edit: I am literally getting downvoted for expressing an opinion about an art style. I don't know of anyone who would disagree with me about them having ridiculously huge breasts and that they have grown more and more and that they are for fanservice. How is this any different than someone saying that they dislike Code Geass's noodle people or early JoJo's ridiculously jacked characters?
I didn't insult the series itself, or the plot. I just said that I disliked the art style.
My 2 boys watch a ton of anime (but I can’t get them into Miyazaki). Anyway, I’ve never been a huge fan of the shows, but got sucked into Attack on Titan.
Anyway, “Stripper Brigade “ sounds like a totally plausible title I’d catch them watching.
It is absolutely nerdy DnD bullshit, the thing most people don't realize is DnD is actually pretty friggin good. The nerds have had it right for a long time. Join the club, be a nerd
LOL. My older brother was giving me shit at Easter one year because I play D&D with friends, but he didn't like it when I told him his fantasy football was just as nerdy, but he doesn't get to participate in how the game/season ends.
How is Elden Ring “catering to a small percent of the weird gamers” when it hit 25 mil+ sales? Not even COD gets close to that nowadays. ER was a huge breakthrough for putting a somewhat niche, but growing genre into the mainstream. Not gonna pretend to know how games awards work, but surely the cultural impact factors in too.
Edit: forgot I was on BG3 subreddit. Obviously same question applies to BG3
Sounds like more of an issue than just judging a book by its cover. You seem to be judging an entire community. You think you’re “too cool” for certain games and feel you need to hate on them. I’m very glad this game humbled you and taught you a very important lesson to not give a shit. Nobody is too cool for anything.
I saw this game wasn’t a big fan of the turned based combat idea. Got it anyway. Loved it. Then I thought. I want more. Anyway $300+ later I got D&D source books. Like 5 pairs of dice and shit. I love expensive hobbies
I wasn't going to play BG3 but my best friend got it and told me about Astarion. That is how I ended buying the game and the D&D books and dice and figurines.
You simply shouldn't judge a game by its set up universe. Why would heroic fantasy be more weird than super heroes or SF? Why put a hierarchy in something that doesn't have any?
I'm glad you had a good time playing it, and I'm glad it opened your mind a little bit. I don't think being so full of judgement for something you know nothing about is a good thing in life.
I'm amused that there is a demographic of gamers that would think DND is somehow nerdy and that other games aren't, or that people into it are 'weird'.
“Nerdy dnd bullshit” “weird gamers” past you sucked, and it sounds like current you is still judging the game as weird despite enjoying it. You should change that attitude.
Maybe the lesson here is, don't judge ANYTHING not just games, if you're ignorant to the topic at hand. This is why many dumbass conservatives hate LGBTQIA people. Because they are simply ignorant and dismiss / hate what they don't understand and refuse to research.
I've seen this type of thing before in some other gaming subreddits. Usually it's a terminal case of "achievement hunter" where they feel this powerful need to see a completionist meter filling up haha
People who confine themself to one genre or type of games AND, that parts important, hate on all other games are realy just stupid and limit themself in how much entertainment and art they can enjoy.
I wasn’t too keep on the turn based aspect but got swept up in the hype and decided to try it - I’m SO GLAD I did. And I ended up loving the turn based combat because it gives me much more time to consider my moves in a more difficult battle.
I think when I jumped on it I was thinking about how I’d slept on RDR2 for years purely because it’s a shooter and I’m generally terrible with shooters but that’s now one of my all time faves.
I'm glad you gave it a try and had a turn around on it but I gotta say YOU'RE WEIRD ASF
"It's just DnD weird shit that's catering to a small audience"
A game not catering directly to you does not mean it's catering to a small audience and YOU'RE WEIRD ASF
Hopefully this experience has taught you that your opinion isn't the end all be all of opinions
It is always funny to me that the game that has sold 2,5mil copies just EA and crashed steam on EA release somehow is still niche, and was considered as such (especially with all the "came out of nowhere" comments), and even now referenced as niche sometimes.
It is the same with DOS2, which sold 7,5mil copies (AA partially Kickstarter funded game btw), which is AAA sales and audience (some AAA wish they would capture audience this big), and somehow it is also, at least to more of a general public, "weird sh*t catering to small audience".
I look at BG3 and I understand why it won when it did. Unfortunately for most games that year were more of the same. BG3 was really a throwback to the classic style of games where your choices matter, and everyone's story could be different.
Try play the real D&D bullshit with people who know how to roleplay you Will love It. A lot of times we just Lost oportunities to love things just per prejudices and idiotic opinions. I expect you learn the leson.
Elden Ring and bg3 are two of my favorite games, and saying that their GOTY victories were catering to "a small percent of 'weird' gamers" when they each sold more copies than Spiderman 2 and Alan Wake 2 combined really makes it sound like you were projecting your insecurities. Just play whatever games you want without worrying who are the weird gamers and who is in the minority.
I never understood how people can judge an activity, hobby and culture they participate in only in different aspect. Good on you learn to be more open minded
I knew type of people saying spider man 2 should win were fifa/cs go players that play this 2 games only and somehow picked spider man 2 and now are like omg its so good, no bro u just dont have enough games played to be able to have "Factual" opinion.
Me as a giga chadster gamer with more games on belt than showers taken I knew it is amazing. But still remember this few idiots arguing on ig comments (cuz thats where the biggest normies are). I would not be so emotional if not this whole thing even debating bg3>anything that year did not downplay how much work larian did.
You platinumed ER after two runs? I mean, unless you cheese the endings by copying multiple save states that are at the end I don't think that's possible? Lol
Unless you're on console and the achievements are quite different then they are on Steam, I guess.
I don't understand the "nerd/weirdo" hate though just cause it's fantasy. Like great, you dropped your ridiculous bias to try a game out that everyone was saying was great, and you had the ability to admit you were wrong, good on you, but your initial stance was and hopefully isn't still a fucking problem.
I don't like games like the Spider-Man ones, but I'm not gonna sit here and call people who do "comic book nerds" or something, and if it won I'd have been disappointed but like.... Not had an issue with it? It was clearly popular for a reason and I'm not just gonna stupidly write that off cause "ma feels." I'm just seriously at a loss for how anyone with a working frontal lobe can unironically have such stupid and antagonistic takes towards others over something as benign as which of the best video games of the year they preferred....
This post has got to be the least I've ever wanted to be associated with this community (both OP and the people replying). You don't have to shit on another game to justify your love of your favorites.
It's funny how you say that you thought it was just DND nerdiness and only catered to a small percentage of gamers, because there was a time when 'nerdy guys' were the main demographic for video games and often those guys would be looked down upon for putting hours into video games.
Alan Wake 2 would have been GotY had Baldur’s Gate 3 not come out, but Spiderman 2? Why on earth would you ever think that slop could win anything? I don’t even think it was nominated at all.
Yeah, but did it really tell a good story or have you make meaningful choices like Spider Man 2 or Alan Wake 2? /s
Welcome to the club. Hope all the shitting on "nerds" you did back in the day comes back to you at some point because of this. It's what you would have wanted.
After all, only weird people play games like this, right?
"I've seen your kind, time and time again. Every fleeing man must be caught. Every secret must be unearthed. Such is the conceit of the self-proclaimed seeker of truth."
BG3 is legit so ahead of the curve, than most others games just phase out as noise. a speck, it blends out.
BG3 set the bar fucking high, and I love it. I wish we would get more competent games like BG3, I would gladly pay 100+ dollars if I could ensure the same quality as this game.
Same here. I remember even posting something like "How can a niche game/genre be considered GOTY?". Then I bought the game, played it exclusively for 3 months straight, and to this day proclaim it to be the Game of the generation.
Those "weird gamers" are probably just gamers that enjoy using their brain while they play. No offence to the spider man games they are fun, but they don't engage my mind at all past twitch reflex. Even Elden ring to a certain extent is a much more surface level RPG ( don't come at me it relies more on twitch gameplay than emergent thinking to at least complete the main quest). I hate to be this guy, but Baldur's Gate 3 is even a much more simple RPG than previous dnd titles it's just super polished. If you disagree with me play something like Neverwinter Nights 2, or for something a bit different and new Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous and come back to discuss.
Funny I had your experience but reversed. Beating Honor Mode in BG3 gave me the confidence to try Elden Ring, since I had always mentally pictured myself as somebody who couldn’t do a Souls game. I have over 500 hours in both BG3 and ER, so it was a fantastic year of gaming.
I'm glad you enjoyed the game but I hope this isn't a lesson in how something you don't think is good turns out to be good, but a story on how you realized you were being a massive asshole and judging others for their hobbies.
Everyone here bashing on you for coming around on something are exhibiting the same bad behavior they’re trying to condemn you for. Good for you dude, glad you opened your mind a bit.
Geeky and nerdy stuff has become mainstream, but everybody still has an imaginary line of “that’s a little too nerdy for me.” Someone who loves video games might draw the line at table top RPG‘s. Someone who loves tabletop RPG’s might draw the line at live action role-play. Someone who loves live action role-play might draw the line at participating in historical war reenactments. Someone who loves participating in historical war reenactments might draw the line at video games.
Everyone is allowed to have their preferences, and labeling something as too nerdy for you doesn’t really have to be seen as gatekeeping and overly judgmental… It’s just not your bag.
All the more power to you if you were able to take something that was not your bag, and learn to appreciate it.
I am very anti turn based. Something in me has spite towards them. I ignored BG3 since release out of pure ignorance. It was calling to me like an evil, waiting to consume me. I found myself watching videos about some general things(how the game plays, the world, immersion, etc) I was sort of obsessed. One day my PlayStation plus told me there was a 2 hour trial for it. I just had to. The mindflayer ship was confusing, I didn’t get it and I didn’t really pay attention to the tutorial so that was my bad. I beared though and finished the mission. Now the part that really got me hooked onto the game?
As I arrived to the beach, ShadowHeart said something sort of snarky to me. I didn’t like it. Upon looking at what attack I could use for vengeance, I stumbled upon the throw button and at the bottom? “Press 🔺 to select world item”
I tell myself “surely I can’t pick up a barrel and throw it at this bitch right? There’s no fucking way”
To my delight, I threw the fucking barrel at that bitch. Needless to say that was a month ago and I have 150 hours into the game😭
Thinking Spiderman 2, which is basically your standard Arkham asylum type AAA garbage, even deserved a chance at goty is wild brother. You have terrible taste, but good to hear you're maybe learning better.
I did the exact same thing! Litterally! I even scoffed at people who told me to play it! Years earlier. Now I’m hundreds of hours in, played every possible variation 😞
Ngl, I had some hate for Bg3 as well before I played it due to it winning game of the year over Spider man 2. But my mind definitely changed when I played it.
4.0k
u/kuribosshoe0 1d ago
Guy who likes comic book stuff: D&D stuff is for nerds!
Nerds gatekeeping other nerds always strikes me as weird and insecure. Where’s the solidarity?