Dyson's Fear 3.0

Covert geekdom

Here's an example of why I don't like to talk geek in public:


There is no way to talk about things like miniatures games or roleplaying games without coming off like a complete dork. To make matters worse, the people who do champion it tend to be the lunatic fringe, Matthew Lillard being the only exception (I'd say Wil Wheaton, but he played Wesley Crusher), and really do harm to those of us who just do this as a way to have fun with our friends.

I feel sorry for the guy in the video, as he really thinks that he's doing his hobby a favour, but all he does is drone on for 3 freaking minutes. While I understand what he's saying, owning the game and a couple of add-ons myself, a lot of what he says is meaningless to someone not familiar with the game. The whole concept of 'expensive units' and 'points' is just confusing to someone who hasn't played one of these miniature games. Again, I know what he's talking about, but I'm betting that the average PBS viewer would be lost.

The place where I found the video, Heroscapers.com, is cheering this TV clip but all it does is paint geeks into the same geek corner that we're always painted into. This doesn't show that us as normal people. It just shows us as the quiet weirdo in the corner, even if it is mostly accurate. The vocal geeks on a message board, are usually quiet and easily intimidated in the real world, or else they're absurdly obnoxious as they have no concept of social grace. I think that's why I've now sworn off a certain message board, hopefully once and for all. (Coincidentally, the site had a disc error today, and now it's gone teats up.)

As an aside, okay, other than Spammers, who's reading this blog?

Labels: geekdom

posted by Jason @ 11:16 AM