I would posit the theory that Dan is much more clever than we might give him credit for in terms of claiming he hates things. I think it's basically just a move to make sure that he polarizes people so they'll still listen to his opinions or pay attention to him.
He frequently talks about how much he loves being the heel, even to the extent of taunting children at a wrestling match.
I think that much - not all - but a huge chunk of his immediate "I haven't played it so it sucks" or "It's different so it sucks" is a practiced attitude because it gets him exactly what he wants - attention. I'm not saying that's even bad. Dan's a self-made man who works really hard on making opportunities for himself. But if he just agreed that something was good, or left it at a "normal" level of, "I usually don't like those so I never thought to try it", the conversation is over and nobody engages him.
But when he says that game/band/movie/anything is outright "the worst", "terrible", that it "sucks", etc, and immediately references that he hasn't played/heard/watched it? He's obviously trolling.
Some of us here are probably familiar with this - I used to roll onto forums and try to break up arguments with posts that were like, "Hey, both sides here have good points, and I'm sure we can all see A, B, and C." Typically, when one or more people start posting that way, a thread dies immediately, unless it's already at maximum rage level. Dan doesn't want that - to keep succeeding as a video content star, wrestling "promoter", author, etc, he needs you to pay attention to him and his opinions. Again - I'm not saying it's bad. In fact, I'm saying that when he's "off", I bet Dan isn't nearly as irritating, because he doesn't need to be.
It's weird to me, for sure, especially given how genuine he seems to be sometimes when he's just being...Dan, and also in contrast to the other GB staff, who all seem to pretty much just be themselves most of the time. But after listening to him for nearly a year and a half, I really do think that a lot of his dismissive or negative behavior is practiced, if not necessarily intentional, because it gets him what he needs.
inspectorfowler's comments