back in the day, if someone was into video games, or anime, or even fucking WARHAMMER and D&D nowadays, you could safely say that they were a weirdo just like you were and you would find mostly common ground with them. because they weren't into it because it was popular, they were into it because they really enjoyed it. you might be treated like a loser by the popular kids but at a certain point most of stopped giving a shit because there were enough people that enjoyed what we did to have a nice little community, and the creators were still giving us what we wanted to play/watch.

now, you're still treated like a loser for liking them because you like the ones that the "popular kids" don't like. it's the exact same shit as it always was except now the companies are making stuff for the popular crowd because they're brainless and it earns them a shit ton of money. it's worse than it ever was.