From myself on Discord:
I wish AGDQ wasn't so ... bland. It feels soulless; all the little things that were there to make the event really feel like a large gathering of people all coming together for a cause ... just gone.
Also, the whole layout tried for a tech-y theme and ... it just looks tacky as hell.
But of course, all this gets overshadowed by Twitch edgelords complaining about muh censorship and bullshit because they can't be racist transphobic assholes.
@KS I get what you mean, but sadly when you're as big as GDQ is now, you're basically covering your own ass the entire event so you don't piss off sponsors or the charity.
A more "friendlier" gathering would have to be a smaller event, but that leads to the edgelord problem you mentioned.
@KS Like last year there was a North American Speedrunning event that was smaller but had nothing but edgelords and people doing dumb memes like it was 4chan culture and it was garbage.
Bonus: Some of the runners were people who got banned from GDQ for being dumbasses during it.
@KS as a first time viewer, I found the techy layout to be in line with what I expect of the event; felt a good match for the content. I don't know what I'm missing, but I don't mind what I have.