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Gamers? Geeks or Sexy Studmuffins? You decide!

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12:29 / 30.04.02

I thought gamer girls were scrawny bitches like Callista Flockhart, Haus.

12:33 / 30.04.02

"I'm going to do all I can to introduce my girlfriend to the pleasures of the d20. As well as being interestingly knobbly, it can produce all sorts of entertainment beyond the physical"

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHAHA

haha. *wipes eyes* hahaha

12:35 / 30.04.02

But, remember kids, safety first -

There's nothing more embarrassing than visiting the emergency room with a D20 lodged where the sun don't shine.

pointless and uncalled for

12:40 / 30.04.02

You've obviously never come into close and intimate contact with a d30

12:44 / 30.04.02

And safety first. If more than one person is going to handle your d20, make sure you use a fresh condom each time.

Some people say they don't roll quite as well with condoms on, but going bareback is positively suicidal in this day and age.

ONLY NICE THINGS

12:52 / 30.04.02

If there was a "not taking the bait" prize, Todd, you've won it. Nice one.

12:57 / 30.04.02

Straight from the fridge:
" Being a comics or star trek anorak or a gamer, though, means you're identifiably part of a subculture with its own strange behaviour patterns. You're also associated with childhood - sad culture that we live in, the idea of playing and fantasising is seen as immature. So you've got not only outsider status but also are apparently unwilling to grow up and be a proper adult."

There's no reason for this, though. In my eyes being obsessive about details and fantasising is part of both football and 'car' culture. What football fan doesn't dream of playing with his favourite team? And being obessed with cars is inherently childish. Boys with toys. I think any divisions are totally arbitrary.
Except, of course, for Star Trek fans. They deserve to be shunned.

13:31 / 30.04.02

Haus! Where'd you get the pics of me and the wife?

Zoom.

Matthew Fluxington

13:35 / 30.04.02

Well, what about obsessive music collectors? Very few people ever look down on them, usually they are held in high regard. It seems to me that on the scale of things, the fatbeard comics/gaming/scifi type is at one end of the spectrum, the car/sports/outdoorsy people are in the middle (which would be accepted, but generally quite mundane), and the music/movie/book obsessives are on the other side, generally given some level of special respect if just for being an 'expert'...

13:39 / 30.04.02

youve put far too much thought into this

pointless and uncalled for

13:43 / 30.04.02

It's a strange phenomena but I think that it can be explained by accessibility. The sport/driving/etc anoraks occupy geekiness in a very common, everyday, highly accessible/identifiable field. The film/book/music anoraks are in a less accesssible field yet still common and identified with intelligence. Fatbeard/comic/gaming geeks are in a field of anoraking that is somewhat inaccessible, in part because of stigma and in part because of required effort.

Apologies for rearranging your sliding scale.

13:44 / 30.04.02

Me and Flux are geek-geeks. We obsess about geek subcultures. How very pomo.

13:46 / 30.04.02

More people have a passing interest in football, cars, music, films etc than in rpgs or star trek... so being an anorak about the former is more understandable to the general public. Even if they think you go too far you still share some characteristics with them.

Noticed how, as star trek has got more popular in general, being a trek fan seems to have become much less sneerworthy? All sorts of people admit to it quite openly. A few years ago it would have been social death. Similarly with being a net freak; as more and more people use the net, you're less likely to be seen as a complete outsider, except by columnists in the Telegraph.

Geeks may be inheriting the earth etc, but I don't really see RPGs as ever becoming mainstream, not when there are computer versions that are more immediately attractive. (That's another example. Play Baldur's Gate II and you're pretty normal. Play AD&D round a table and you're a bit of a freak.)

13:51 / 30.04.02

Isn't the Geek Spectrum at least partly related to sexy, super-shiny technology? It's okay to be obsessive and lactosiferous if you've devoted X thousand on a Pentium XII, a Bang & Olafsen music system or a Ferrari or whatever - because in order to earn enough to afford that type of financial outlay you've got a 'proper job' which is, in itself, 'grown-up'. Sitting around a table is, by comparison, low-fi, 'cheap' and is therefore perceived as more geeky / less desirable. Is it okay to play games as long as they're expensive games?

13:51 / 30.04.02

and i cross posted that with potus

oh well

14:17 / 30.04.02

what's also interesting is that the fantasy/gaming routine is different say in cultures like Japan where it's not played out as immature, but a natural and healthy extension. Thinking of ganguro girls toting dreamcasts strapped to them like backpacks...hmmm...

14:21 / 30.04.02

Two words:

Robot Wars.

ONLY NICE THINGS

14:35 / 30.04.02

Noticed how, as star trek has got more popular in general, being a trek fan seems to have become much less sneerworthy?

Not.....really.

17:14 / 30.04.02

So now that I've gotten people to admit their geekiness, has anybody here LARPed or done anything with the SCA? Is it any fun? I'm pretty sure there's a LARP group around here and I know there's a shire(?).

There's a gaping hole in my life. A gaping hole caused by the fact that currently I have no legal reason to beat someone senseless with a wooden sword.

pointless and uncalled for

17:18 / 30.04.02

Not done LARP or anything with SCA but there seems to be a certain attraction to it. It's doesn't seem like anything that I would be willing to devote a great amount of time or funds to because what happens in my head while I'm in full KODT mode is so much better.

Molly Shortcake

20:25 / 30.04.02

Information about Ulillillia

"He has managed to unleash a point of view so powerful and chaotic upon the web that no one, not even the greatest of philosphers or scientists could even begin to understand. This spazz-tard of a man has figured out a way to translate our entire lives into video game terms, making it far more interesting, fun and meaningful. I am sure that we are all now looking at our daily trials and tribulations and the pain they bring us as a way of building AP to buy a shiny new ability(I personally want Ultima 6) to assist us in the future." - Shortbus.exe

Home Page:

http://www.angelfire.com/journal2/ulillillia/information/aboutme00.html

Status System:

http://www.angelfire.com/journal2/ulillillia/features/statussystem/statussystem4.html

20:44 / 30.04.02

Sweet holy jesus! Is that a picture of a geek on that page? I...I'm frightened.

20:55 / 30.04.02

Hmm, just a few things to say...

You are in an 8 by 8 room, there is a treasure chest and an orc.

(Sorry, it always makes me snicker!)

And whats with the 25 stone wife with nasty leatherettes on? I'm not 25 stone! (how much exactly is a stone? Something like 8 lbs?) I'm 5'8" and 125 lbs. and I look great in my leatherettes!

(Thus dispelling the geeks never get any fable)
Oh, and Zoom, thanks for jumping to my defence, guess who's not getting any tonight?

Reason

Molly Shortcake

20:56 / 30.04.02

Don't be so shallow. Foget about the mans looks. I am in complete awe of his work.

Quote:

"ATK: (Attack) The maximum amount of force, in newtons, one can use with force in any physical attack. What this means is that if you can punch something with 600 newtons of force, your ATK will display 600. ATK only refers to all physical attacks, and has nothing to do with weight lifting or usage of SP and the MAG stats and/or limit breaks to boost it. However, weight lifting can slightly increase ATK. Sports such as baseball, football, soccer, boxing, wrestling, etc. all use ATK. Why is ATK usually higher than STR? Two possible reasons: the minimum value it can reach due to STR which is added to your main value it would be, and second of all, limit breaks are the release of excessive anger with a powerful physical attack, usually caused by the equip effects of the limit break. With stronger limit breaks, ATK raises even more. If you are aware of physics, you'd understand the formula F = .5 m v2. If you increase your speed from 5 mph to 10, you'll have 4 times the energy, and enforces ATK. With a speed at 3/4 the speed of light, nothing much could stand in your way (except maybe a furnace like the sun, or a huge planet, or a black hole). ATK and SPD are very closely tied together when you use it."

21:02 / 30.04.02

Ok, fine I was shallow. So what? Most people are. Dude says he has no friends, anybody care to guess why?

ONLY NICE THINGS

06:52 / 01.05.02

Hmmm...on closer inspection this seems to be either a pisstake or pretty ill. But then, maybe any personal quality, extended too far, becomes a pathology.

I'd better roll d10 against my INT to see if that thesis is correct.

pointless and uncalled for

11:37 / 01.05.02

No need to get cyberpunk on us.

Molly Shortcake

12:24 / 01.05.02

I present to you all....Veon Prism

http://www.veonprism.com/what_our_motivation.htm

http://www.destinyconquest.com/new_page_95.htm

http://www.destinyconquest.com/new_page_137.htm

http://www.destinyconquest.com/walkthrough_page.htm

Enter at your own risk.

13:18 / 01.05.02

I present you with this—The Geek Hierarchy Chart—to settle forever the question of "who's geekier than who."

Oh, and Flux...

Well, what about obsessive music collectors? Very few people ever look down on them, usually they are held in high regard...

*snorts derisively* Wanna bet?

Watched Ghost World or High Fidelity lately? Films made by people sympathetic to the mindset—hell, Terry Zwigoff admits that Ghost World's Seymour is based on himself—and obsessive music collectors still come off as dicks.

To be fair, I personally find hardcore RPG geeks no creepier than I find bibliophiles who natter on about intact spines and such, or hardcore stamp collectors, or people who memorize baseball statistics, or classic-car fetishists—which is to say, I find all of them pretty fucking creepy. Moderation in all things, folks.

13:41 / 01.05.02

Anyone remember Knightmare?

Elijah, Freelance Rabbi

13:50 / 01.05.02

i find myself to be a geeks geek
i play pen and paper
i read tons of comics
I play Fucking EVERQUEST
my computer gets upgraded more often than my hair gets cut
i work at a call center

i would pants me if i knew me in high school...

Molly Shortcake

17:30 / 02.05.02

Tri, the kid is autistic and suffers from OCD. I can't get enough of his site. It's brilliant.

He's begun posting in the POE Forum: http://www.portalofevil.com/wc.dll?poe~showforummsg~000017090~394005~PORTALOFEV

"I can use any value as long as I get a certain amount of anger. When my mom threw water on me [due to my weakness against cold] after about three to four minutes of warnings [I say something like 'you know what'll happen if you throw that on me, do you? If you don't, I have a limit break that you wouldn't want to find out what it does to you' and many times of 'go away' when I'm getting close to my level 1 activation point.]. She has done it twice and she paid the consequences of ignoring my warning. I call my limit 'rapid scatter attack' as I attack at a very high rate and scatter all over [in attempts to find weak spots to deal criticals], and the level 3 limit does about (2.5K) to (4K) depending on her DEF and where. Often, I avoid the weak spots and focus toward strong spots. After a while, it may be about an hour or two before I can get warm enough [yet, I'm over a 140 degree heat duct and it still takes that long [the actual temperature ranges from 120 to 160 [surprising that I can stand that for seven minutes and not break sweat!]]]. My mom smokes, so her DEF is much lower due to the bad status effects that are caused from it. I estimate her DEF at 50, nearly 26% of my value or so. This Status System of mine has helped me with bullies and fending them off."

21:06 / 02.05.02

I am 33, have a girlfriend, haven't lived in my parent's house since high school, and yes, I play dungeons and dragons. I've played D&D since 4th grade. I've also played Traveler, Call of Cthulu, Deadlands, Gamma World, Vampire, Werewolf, Wraith, Mage, and probably 50 others that I can't remember.

There have been times where I thought I was too cool for D&D. Years at a time. I was also too cool for comic books during those times. Heck, I was too cool for school... But that was just a phase, I was devoting my time and energy to making new kinds of friends, learning how to date, learning how to drink.

But I always went back to it when I found a group of friends who were smart and creative and committed enough to make playing worthwhile. And everyone in my group is either married, divorced, or engaged, so I have to say, the image of the lonely, pimply geek rolling dice in his parents' basement is only a distant (cherished, actually) memory.

--gridley

12:59 / 03.05.02

Sorry to move from the joys of the D30 (Mmmmmm...) but we did use to be sad geeks with no lives. It's true.

However we grew up and moved on. We still roleplay but we also have girlfriends (well I did until a week ago anyway), we drink, smoke, party hard, talk to real people, you know the usual laddish culture informed by libertarian sentiment. I'm going with reasonably attracive, funny, erudite (maybe), and I'm sitting here in jacket, button down shirt and slacks, I've lost all my Gencon t-shirts unfortunately. We do still roleplay though, not just on the computer like Silent Hill, but in real life. We gather together and relive old times, we have a chat, and play Warhammer or something interspersed with deathmatch Perfect Dark (for instance).

We do discuss this as being sad again. And we love it. We are however still geeks, and not just because of that. We like obscure bands, films and books. We talk about science (well time travel and teleportation and stuff), we watch a lot of sci-fi, we swop quotes and play the Bacon-Erdos game, we are geeks but geeks with lives.

Personally I think this makes us better people than those who clame to have lives and just go out and drink and screw and go to Ibiza. This is not an accusation I'm leveling at any one who has posted here, by the way, in fact many people on Barbelith could well be said to fit many of the requirements of Geeks (comic books, ninja versus pirate discussions (ninja win except for Shaolin), sci-fi, the very fact of posting on a website) but that's probably why I enjoy being on this site. Geeks are cool because they know stuff you can have weird conversations about, unfortunately they just don't talk to people...All of my best friends are geeks in one way or another, it's just that they have got away from it and can interact with life (albeit in odd ways...).

14:25 / 04.05.02

I just want to go on record as saying I don't think just because someone does RPGs they're in the serious geek squad. One of my old boyfriends was a big gamer - I'd never played before - and I did some role playing with him and with some of his friends, and I enjoyed it. I had a lot of fun creating a "Donna Troy" character for a DCU Mush while I was dating him, too. But at heart I don't think I'm really a gamer. Still, it has its merits.

That said, I did meet a fair amount of folks who fulfilled the geek stereotype. But whatever. I'm a geek myself, just not so much of a gaming geek, more of a media/theorybitching/music geek.

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