Your thoughts on... Nerd/Geek culture of today.

Parasondox

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The Underdog stories are always the best stories. Gives the little puppy a chance to fight the big wolf and gives the hopeless a little bit of hope to climb that big wall. Never Give Up.

Nerds!!

*Applause*

Geeks!!

*Applause*

Fanboys!!

*Silence*

In the past 10-15 years, 100 years in internet years, the nerd/Geek culture has grown. It's more open, accepted, embraced. It's a lifestyle for some and just the part time norm for others but really, is it all looking good for "nerds" and "geeks" everywhere?

This is where you come in, Escapist. You know, Gaming/Nerd/Geek site that you are. What are the pros and cons of the current nerd/Geek culture? Is it all good now that you can be an open nerd and Geek.

Actually, what exactly defines a nerd or a geek these days? Big glasses and braces no longer count. I don't think. I haven't been in school for 8 years.

Or, this is strong here, should the whole nerd/Geek culture just die?
 

Casual Shinji

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It's a bit of an odd state, this geek culture in the internet space

On the one hand it's great that it creates a platform for nerds and geeks of all colours to come together and talk about their passion. On the other... the negative side of that passion can get extremely nasty in an online space with anonimity and no direct consequences.

I guess geeks and internet just don't go along too well.
 

Phasmal

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Eh, geek culture is a fuckin' dumpster fire in my opinion.

Too many people have defined themselves by how exclusionary it is. They feel constantly like underdogs, despite the fact that geek culture has never been more mainstream. They talk about how they suffered for being nerds while labelling people who get death threats from nerds as professional victims. There's always someone ready to tell you that the thing you enjoy is wrong, or you enjoy it in the wrong way, or you're not the right kind of person to be enjoying it in the first place.

There's a pushback against representing the world as it actually is, and it's framed as people encroaching on a space that never truly belonged to one demographic. And the problem with that is you will never convince those people they're anything but victims.

I remember being 14 and wondering how long it would be before using my microphone in a video game wouldn't be a big deal. I am nearly 26 now.

With the negative out of the way. I enjoy that more people are creating more things. Games are better, movies about nerd things are better. There is definitely a way to engage with nerd culture without dragging yourself through shit, you just have to not care about what others think very much. And don't define yourself by the things you enjoy, then you won't feel personally attacked if they receive criticism.

And as for what defines a nerd or geek? Nothing, except the things they enjoy, which is why a lot of people are mad.

(gets off soapbox)
 

WindKnight

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There is the idea because their not the jocks or the cool kids, they are inherently the victim or the underdog, and they simply can't be in the wrong or bullies.

On the whole I'm reminded a lot of the Jovians from Martian Successor Nadesico, who pretty much have taken a 70's mecha anime as their bible, and see their enemies as an 'evil empire' that deserves to be destroyed, and any action that leads to that is righteous and justified.
 

DudeistBelieve

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Well... if one chooses to wade into the muck of the GamerGate/Anti-GamerGate war, it gives the impression that it's pretty bad. And I do that, set up my lawn chair for a bit, but I'm a terrible person that just gets interested in stupid drama that doesn't concern me.

At the same time, I've met and am Twitter friends a variety of nerds, geeks, gamers. All very good people that I'm not ashamed of in the least of being friends with. They don't even necessarily have the same values as me, they're just not assholes and they have a sense of humor.

Here's what's good. I go up to someone around my age or younger (I'm 27) and say, "Batman right?" and regardless of the response it will never be what I've heard from some of the older guys I work with (40+) thinking I'm too old for that "kiddy-shit". It's more of a social stigma if you've abandoned shit you've enjoyed just to fit some odd ideal of being an adult that quite frankly never existed. You never stop being a child, your responsibilities just change, ya know?

A lot of the negative crap, from my perspective, are very loud minorities in terms of numbers. And I can fully understand people rallying against the SJ stuff, because the "SJW" folk really really do a shit job of enlightening people and really do come across as elitist. I say this all the time, I wouldn't understand it as well as I do now had I not had a really patient professor that could explain it and break it down without judgement.

Also when the hell did calling somebody a "Cuck" and "Beta" start being a thing? That has to been teenagers right? Because it sounds childish as hell, I can't take a person seriously if I see them tweeting that shit.

Phasmal said:
Eh, geek culture is a fuckin' dumpster fire in my opinion.

Too many people have defined themselves by how exclusionary it is. They feel constantly like underdogs, despite the fact that geek culture has never been more mainstream. They talk about how they suffered for being nerds while labelling people who get death threats from nerds as professional victims. There's always someone ready to tell you that the thing you enjoy is wrong, or you enjoy it in the wrong way, or you're not the right kind of person to be enjoying it in the first place.
Im Just using this as a jumping off point for a tangent Phas.

it depends on the genre of geekdom still I think. ProWrestling fans, Smarks as they say, are still looked down upon somehow and haven't gotten that mainstream acceptance like say... Anime is really starting to get now, and video games have had for a while.

Maybe thats why, somewhat ironically, Wrestling and Wrestling fans have been incorporating and been way more rapidly progressive than the other subjects. Check out the Wreddit, not a nerd on there is questioning the rise in the quality and prominence of Women's Wrestling lately.

On a side note, I think age might play something into that whole idea of being shunned and what not. Moviebob (Unrelated note, Fuck MovieBob) I know has spoken at length about that very feeling, and I recalled seeing it being displayed that way in media growing up. Ya know the whole reading comic books in the basement, Dungeons and Dragons bullshit. Actually Spoony also said he caught shit for being into D&D when he was in high school. But there is also a significant age difference between me and those guys, so at some point there was a huge culture shift where people stopped giving a shit.
 

Angelblaze

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Phasmal said:
Eh, geek culture is a fuckin' dumpster fire in my opinion.

Too many people have defined themselves by how exclusionary it is. They feel constantly like underdogs, despite the fact that geek culture has never been more mainstream. They talk about how they suffered for being nerds while labelling people who get death threats from nerds as professional victims. There's always someone ready to tell you that the thing you enjoy is wrong, or you enjoy it in the wrong way, or you're not the right kind of person to be enjoying it in the first place.

There's a pushback against representing the world as it actually is, and it's framed as people encroaching on a space that never truly belonged to one demographic. And the problem with that is you will never convince those people they're anything but victims.

I remember being 14 and wondering how long it would be before using my microphone in a video game wouldn't be a big deal. I am nearly 26 now.

With the negative out of the way. I enjoy that more people are creating more things. Games are better, movies about nerd things are better. There is definitely a way to engage with nerd culture without dragging yourself through shit, you just have to not care about what others think very much. And don't define yourself by the things you enjoy, then you won't feel personally attacked if they receive criticism.

And as for what defines a nerd or geek? Nothing, except the things they enjoy, which is why a lot of people are mad.

(gets off soapbox)
Literally exactly this. Every time I hear someone spout 'censorship' my eyes roll because its always either someone localizing the games, a sexy pose they like being removed or something that should never have been in the game to begin with and will not affect the core of the game when removed (see: Transphobic joke in PoE). It's never something that actually matters or has any bearing on the game at all.

The massive nerd 'pushback' against 'feminism' on the internet has always been both a source of laughs and frustration for me, especially given a large amount of nerd culture was, at one time or another, saved/created by these very same women. The 'SJW' crisis is coming to a close but by god what a time. It feels like these people are jumping from buzzword to buzzword. 'Feminist' then 'Femnazi' then 'Tumblrina' then 'SJW' and now 'Cuck' and 'Censorship'.

In addition, nerd and geek culture itself is hysterical. The very thought that it is one solitary thing is ludicrous; is it manga, anime, tv, movies, music? The escapist itself can't decide but my god does the community love to draw lines in the sand.

The fact of the matter is that Nerd/Geek culture has always been a bunch of whiny crybabies claiming the world doesn't understand them and hates them. But now we have comic book heroes jumping to life on the big screen and these nitwits manage to whine more than ever. The culture itself seems based on the belief that no one else likes what you like and you like it so passionately if it came to life you'd fuck it right there and then, no questions asked.

Overall, I'm about read to set fire to it and let the ************ burn. Especially regarding this 'censorship' issue. Do you know how infuriating it is, as a writer, to see such blatant misuse of a term that could be better suited elsewhere? Is the greatest achievement of freedom of speech someone's ability to slap tits onto a bunch of pixels? Ugh.
 

Angelblaze

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DudeistBelieve said:
Also when the hell did calling somebody a "Cuck" and "Beta" start being a thing? That has to been teenagers right? Because it sounds childish as hell, I can't take a person seriously if I see them tweeting that shit.
While those words themselves have had varying meanings across history, the current insulting meaning of them come from a subset of men who are a part of a movement known as 'The Red Pill', based on the matrix movie. Yes. Yes. I know. (See: my post above, second paragraph and realize that The Wachowskis are both women now.)
 

DudeistBelieve

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Angelblaze said:
DudeistBelieve said:
Also when the hell did calling somebody a "Cuck" and "Beta" start being a thing? That has to been teenagers right? Because it sounds childish as hell, I can't take a person seriously if I see them tweeting that shit.
While those words themselves have had varying meanings across history, the current insulting meaning of them come from a subset of men who are a part of a movement known as 'The Red Pill', based on the matrix movie. Yes. Yes. I know. (See: my post above, second paragraph and realize that The Wachowskis are both women now.)
I mean I heard of the red pill bullshit before, but it's only recently I've heard people chucking those things around as insults.
 

Zhukov

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I like a lot of the stuff it produces.

I do not so much like a lot of the people it produces.

I love the idea of the underdog as much as the next person, but the reality isn't quite so sympathetic.

Turns out, if you gather up the outcasts, the misfits and the maladjusted and mash them all together the outcome actually isn't all that pretty. You get a whole lot of unhealthy, unhappy, immature, terminally bitter folks of questionable mental condition who never got over being bullied in high school and have chosen to define themselves by their preferences in entertainment media.

Many of them probably ended up the way they are through no fault of their own, but that doesn't make the end result any less unpleasant to be around.

This isn't to say "geek culture" is somehow worse than other cultures. I mean, people fucking die in riots over sport. It just means geek culture has its own brand of awfulness which I refuse to tolerate just because no corpses have shown up with "fake geek girl" etched into their foreheads... yet.
 

Casual Shinji

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DudeistBelieve said:
On a side note, I think age might play something into that whole idea of being shunned and what not. Moviebob (Unrelated note, Fuck MovieBob) I know has spoken at length about that very feeling, and I recalled seeing it being displayed that way in media growing up. Ya know the whole reading comic books in the basement, Dungeons and Dragons bullshit. Actually Spoony also said he caught shit for being into D&D when he was in high school. But there is also a significant age difference between me and those guys, so at some point there was a huge culture shift where people stopped giving a shit.
I'm 33 and I can't say I've ever gotten any real flak over being into videogames in high school. In fact I can't remember anyone at my school getting shit over being "a geek". Sure, people got called 'nerd' and 'geek', but mostly due to how they looked, i.e. ugly or stupid.

I always wondered if this was more of an American thing, seeing as D&D seems to be way more prevalent there.
Also when the hell did calling somebody a "Cuck" and "Beta" start being a thing? That has to been teenagers right? Because it sounds childish as hell, I can't take a person seriously if I see them tweeting that shit.
A lot of current lingo goes over my head. I hear terms like 'bae', and I'm struck by how old I'm getting.
 

Dragonlayer

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Hmmm, I wonder what the people of the Escapist, self-declared voice of the video-gaming generation and bastion of all things geeky have to say about nerd/geek culture!

*Sees majority of comments deploring what a rancid, filth-encrusted hellhole of disgusting subhuman scum nerd/geek culture is, desperately in need of destruction*

....

....

....


Huh.

*Looks at sports culture, where people are physically beaten to death for having the wrong coloured shirt*
 

Hawki

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I'm just...tired, more than anything.

What dominates geek culture nowadays? Well, it includes exclusionism ("casual" became an insult, you either have a PC powered by the ghost of Steve Jobs or you're not worth anyone's time, etc.), obsession (e.g. the superhero craze, and the laser-focus on treating it as the apex of fiction), haggling of anyone and everyone ranging from producers to consumers, etc.

And bear in mind, I don't think any of this is inherently harmful. But to me, it's become guilt by association. I can enjoy superhero movies by themselves, but I don't want to be associated with the people who'll crucify you for saying you're a wee bit tired of the genre. I have no interest in mobile games, but I don't want to be associated with those who treats "casuals" like they're the scum of the earth (it's also why I refuse to call myself a "gamer"). It's why I always make time to sit down and watch the news every night, because as apathic as I am of politics and the never-ending conflicts of the world, it would be a bigger crime to lose connection to reality altogether.
 

Breakdown

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Well, since we're dumping on the geeks and nerds, I've always thought anime is shit. And webcomics are the fucking worst, I mean really atrocious.
 

Erttheking

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Dragonlayer said:
Hmmm, I wonder what the people of the Escapist, self-declared voice of the video-gaming generation and bastion of all things geeky have to say about nerd/geek culture!

*Sees majority of comments deploring what a rancid, filth-encrusted hellhole of disgusting subhuman scum nerd/geek culture is, desperately in need of destruction*

....

....

....


Huh.

*Looks at sports culture, where people are physically beaten to death for having the wrong coloured shirt*
You know, if "At least we don't kill people" is a defense, then you're setting the bar pretty low. Yes, geek culture doesn't result in people being killed. And the WBC doesn't kill people either, so I guess they're not as bad as the Ku-Klux-Klan. Like I said. Setting the bar pretty low.
 

circularlogic88

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erttheking said:
Dragonlayer said:
Hmmm, I wonder what the people of the Escapist, self-declared voice of the video-gaming generation and bastion of all things geeky have to say about nerd/geek culture!

*Sees majority of comments deploring what a rancid, filth-encrusted hellhole of disgusting subhuman scum nerd/geek culture is, desperately in need of destruction*

....

....

....


Huh.

*Looks at sports culture, where people are physically beaten to death for having the wrong coloured shirt*
You know, if "At least we don't kill people" is a defense, then you're setting the bar pretty low. Yes, geek culture doesn't result in people being killed. And the WBC doesn't kill people either, so I guess they're not as bad as the Ku-Klux-Klan. Like I said. Setting the bar pretty low.
This is getting dangerously close to Godwin's law territory.

OT: pro is definitely the ease of finding people with similar interests to you. Con is that those groups of people often form echo chambers and will dismiss if not outright verbally attack others who are not of the same kind as them.
 

Erttheking

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inu-kun said:
To try to break away from what happens, Nerd/Geek culture of today is mostly good with the worst being either the "ones with no respect towards others" or the "it doesn't live up to my ridiculous standards so it should be destroyed", though I think it's a bit in danger these days due to popular culture latching on to it and making it shit for the lowest common denominator (see Bennet The Sage's Civil War review for reference), you've heard me right, if wanting movies and games to be better, more complex and not mired by political xenophobia (this game is right wing so it's like playing SS office!) makes me called exclusionary then exclusion all the way.
Doesn't live up to my ridiculous standards so it must be destroyed? I'm sorry, I see very few people advocating for the active destruction of something.

Also I think just about everyone wants games and movies to be better. People just get pissy when they disagree on how.