Dungeon Crawler Carl is one of the few of the LitRPG genre that has transcended to the mainstream, and as it got its success, author Matt Dinniman tried to cancel Critical Drinker joining a leftist mob calling him an “edgelord douchebag.”
Pathetic. I'm not the Drinker's biggest fan since he's very milquetoast and often misses woke propaganda in the things he reviews, but this author just self-reported to be a woke clown. He didn't mind using CD's popularity to sell his book, but now he tries to play the leftists who will never forgive him. To hell with him.
I was on reddit for a while. It is the gathering place for sheep who need their worldviews provided to them and then reinforced. I have seen more provable, objective truths downvoted on reddit than in any other capacity or format. Absolutely pathetic.
Thanks for the post, it helped me to make the decision to continue supporting the author and the book series. I didn't know anything about Dinniman before getting into DCC so I was concerned that he might be a part of the pedophilic conservative party in the US but it warms my heart that he's not.
I 100% agree with Matt, I was also surprised to see his name attached to one of my favourite series. His voice totally fits with the character and that’s as far as I took it. I can separate the art from the “artist” but that guy(critical d) and his opinions are not in the book so… and if his name and voice is taken off the audiobook will make no difference to the final product.
How is this a cancellation? There are pretty clear cases of cancellation like being kicked out of a tech conference for getting overheard saying something silly to a friend and then losing your job (slip up / disproportionate consequence), a writer losing an important promotion for something she wrote on social media when she was 15 (unintentional errors of youth / changing mores ) or getting caught on camera unintentionally making an okay sign and losing one’s job ( misunderstanding / disproportionate consequence / hysteria). Being called a douchebag isn’t cancelling. It isn’t even problematization. It’s the persona the person in question actually cultivates and makes money from. There are real people who had their lives ruined through ostrasization in the 2014-2024 period due to leftist zealotry, gate keeping and paranoia. You cheapen that when you use the term loosely like this. This isn’t that.
Thanks for reporting this. I have a number of audible credits and was contemplating spending them all on the Dungeoncrawler series, thinking it was just honest entertainment. But if Dinniman hates the Drinker, who exists only to point out woke propaganda, that means Dinniman loves it. No thanks. I’ll spend my credit elsewhere.
"If a thread turns into some sort of political fight, then we're going to lock it because that's not why any of us are here. There are plenty of places on Reddit and the internet as a whole where you can uselessly shriek at each other and not get even close to changing each others' minds about what you're trying to say."
"I try to avoid talking politics, etc outside the book itself because I think it's dumb for artists to turn attention away from their art and to shine the spotlight upon themselves."
I highly doubt Dinniman was actively involved in selecting "the Critical Drinker" for a part in the audiobook. He says above that he thought a voice with a reasonably large following might be good for sales. His regret is that the individual annoys people in the audience on the basis of politics, because that's just a mess he doesn't want to be involved with after working for years to build said audience.
From what I can discern, Dinniman is left on the spectrum, but I doubt he's blindly so. The above quotes are definitely not within range for a rabid woke liberal. They all tend to think that the whole point of being a writer/artist/actor/musician is to whine about politics.
Dinniman is speaking as a capitalist entrepreneur above (whether he likes it or not), recognizing that a choice in casting had negative impact on a portion of an audience, and he wishes it hadn't happened because it stole attention from the novel itself.
Overall - a lot of noise over nothing. Critical Drinker was cast in a bit part in one book as a "celebrity" voice appearance to bump sales. I haven't read the entire series, but I don't think the character ever reappears.
As for me - I decide based upon quality what products I support. DCC is fucking awesome. Especially the audio performance by Jeff Hays.
Pathetic. I'm not the Drinker's biggest fan since he's very milquetoast and often misses woke propaganda in the things he reviews, but this author just self-reported to be a woke clown. He didn't mind using CD's popularity to sell his book, but now he tries to play the leftists who will never forgive him. To hell with him.
Pathetic is right.
Reddit, like Bluesky, is just a cesspool of the identity-politics-obsessed. They wait for some target to be pointed out, then pile on like lemmings.
Never bow to them. Never give their opinions any credence.
I was on reddit for a while. It is the gathering place for sheep who need their worldviews provided to them and then reinforced. I have seen more provable, objective truths downvoted on reddit than in any other capacity or format. Absolutely pathetic.
What a snake, removed his books from buy list. Too many other authors who are good!
Looking for more of those pedophile books your people love?
Thanks for the post, it helped me to make the decision to continue supporting the author and the book series. I didn't know anything about Dinniman before getting into DCC so I was concerned that he might be a part of the pedophilic conservative party in the US but it warms my heart that he's not.
I 100% agree with Matt, I was also surprised to see his name attached to one of my favourite series. His voice totally fits with the character and that’s as far as I took it. I can separate the art from the “artist” but that guy(critical d) and his opinions are not in the book so… and if his name and voice is taken off the audiobook will make no difference to the final product.
How is this a cancellation? There are pretty clear cases of cancellation like being kicked out of a tech conference for getting overheard saying something silly to a friend and then losing your job (slip up / disproportionate consequence), a writer losing an important promotion for something she wrote on social media when she was 15 (unintentional errors of youth / changing mores ) or getting caught on camera unintentionally making an okay sign and losing one’s job ( misunderstanding / disproportionate consequence / hysteria). Being called a douchebag isn’t cancelling. It isn’t even problematization. It’s the persona the person in question actually cultivates and makes money from. There are real people who had their lives ruined through ostrasization in the 2014-2024 period due to leftist zealotry, gate keeping and paranoia. You cheapen that when you use the term loosely like this. This isn’t that.
Thanks for reporting this. I have a number of audible credits and was contemplating spending them all on the Dungeoncrawler series, thinking it was just honest entertainment. But if Dinniman hates the Drinker, who exists only to point out woke propaganda, that means Dinniman loves it. No thanks. I’ll spend my credit elsewhere.
"If a thread turns into some sort of political fight, then we're going to lock it because that's not why any of us are here. There are plenty of places on Reddit and the internet as a whole where you can uselessly shriek at each other and not get even close to changing each others' minds about what you're trying to say."
"I try to avoid talking politics, etc outside the book itself because I think it's dumb for artists to turn attention away from their art and to shine the spotlight upon themselves."
I highly doubt Dinniman was actively involved in selecting "the Critical Drinker" for a part in the audiobook. He says above that he thought a voice with a reasonably large following might be good for sales. His regret is that the individual annoys people in the audience on the basis of politics, because that's just a mess he doesn't want to be involved with after working for years to build said audience.
From what I can discern, Dinniman is left on the spectrum, but I doubt he's blindly so. The above quotes are definitely not within range for a rabid woke liberal. They all tend to think that the whole point of being a writer/artist/actor/musician is to whine about politics.
Dinniman is speaking as a capitalist entrepreneur above (whether he likes it or not), recognizing that a choice in casting had negative impact on a portion of an audience, and he wishes it hadn't happened because it stole attention from the novel itself.
Overall - a lot of noise over nothing. Critical Drinker was cast in a bit part in one book as a "celebrity" voice appearance to bump sales. I haven't read the entire series, but I don't think the character ever reappears.
As for me - I decide based upon quality what products I support. DCC is fucking awesome. Especially the audio performance by Jeff Hays.
Cry more