The Weirdness of Geek
Here’s a letter segment I cut off of a discussion on the Dark Dungeons e-mail discussion group…
“Yesterday I was talking to some neighbors and the topic of “Lord of the Rings” came up. I took the opportunity to mention my hobby: RPGs.
The response shocked me. They said to me “Hey isn’t that for nerds and weird people?”
I ended up showing my neighbors some of my D&D books and explained to them how the game works, then I asked them if they still felt it was geeky. They said “No”.
I think the major problem we gamers have is that we are closet gamers. When asked at work what our hobbies are we choke up, feeling that if we revealed what we do for fun we will be ridiculed or scorned.
WE seriously need to get out of the closet. There is nothing wrong with our hobby, trust me there are much worse things we can be doing.”
— Response…
“Yeah… like being Football fans, for example. Seriously, who ever started an inner city riot because their party killed an Ancient Red Dragon? How many bar fights erupted over someone backing the wrong game system? Yet sports fans can start a riot because “their” team wins some game or another and yet sports fans are considered “normal” and socially
acceptable.
I am totally in agreement with you. If we act ashamed of our hobby, people will assume that there is something to be ashamed of. Gamers do themselves a disservice by acting like they have something to hide because they’re gamers. It’s no more weird, significantly more positive, and considerably less dangerous, than being a devout sports fan. The
only difference is perceptions, and WE are completely to blame for those perceptions.
I wouldn’t have bothered with showing them the books. Personally, just asking them point blank “So, you think I’m nerdy?”
Assuming they said “No” then you just respond “Well, there’s your answer.”
I don’t think there is anymore I can add except my own experiences. I also tend to hide things I have done that others might consider geeky. I really don’t know why I do that. Well, maybe I do. Maybe it’s because of the world’s preconceptions.
For example, when people ask me what I’ve done in the army, I don’t tell them I was the battalion’s computer techie. Because they think that job is someone sitting at a desk, in some air-conditioned tupperware box who only plays with the computer and maybe answers the phone.
People have no idea that even that job, in a fighting battalion, means field work on outposts which are right on the fence, on tanks in convening territories, under time and precision pressure you could not believe because that APC has to go into the Gaza strip in less than 30 minutes and it must be in top shape or something could go horribly wrong. And if you don’t know what that means then it may mean lots of money in damages or it could mean someone might die.
I also don’t tell people a lot about my hobbies because the world has preconceptions. If I told my co-workers I played RPGs they’d stop talking to me. I sometimes ask them for ideas for stories I write and they have trouble saying anything. It’s just that some people think some things are weird and you can only work on one person at a time. You might convince you friend or your co-worker that there is nothing wrong with it but you have to convince the world.
There are also places where I feel completely comfortable with it. It’s all about the people. For example, a week ago on thursday, my brother and I went for a convention of FishEye. It was all completely natural. We sat there and watched a purposely made B-Movie and it was cool. Later on we just pulled out Grave Robbers from Outer Space and people actually gathered around to watch and play instead of jeering and saying it’s weird.
It’s all about the people. We just need to get the word out. Or, like Boojie said, we need to replace the people.
Oh, and I’d better get some of those weird links out of the way:
The Wooden Periodic Table of Elements
Insomnia? 30 Simple Tips to Help You Get to Sleep
The Invention of the Submarine
The Order of Perdition – To Preserve the Black Arts
The Ultimate Collection of Murphy’s Laws + Explanation on how it all began
Posted in Memes and Stuff, No Category, Role-Playing by Eran with comments disabled.