There was a post made on Twitter that went as follows, and had me nodding my head vigorously:
I responded:
Leaving out the fact that I used a period where I should have used a colon, I'm going to expand on that for a bit!
I was raised by nerds. My previous blog post covers what my parents did, and that pretty much led them right to nerd-dom, which they passed on to me. Back in 1980 D&D was NOT "cool". In NO way was it seen as a good thing to play D&D, or to play videogames. In fact even being around a computer made someone fairly suspect (though that was mitigated somewhat by living in the Silicon Valley as it was being born).
My father bought me my first D&D set when I was 10. It was the Red Box set with "The Keep on the Borderlands" module. After that he made sure that I had an Atari 400, then upgraded me to an 800 with a tape drive, then floppy drives, as well as books on how to learn BASIC. My school had been gifted several computers by Apple, but I did prefer my Ataris. Dad saw what was coming, and wanted me ready and comfortable around computers (he was brilliant).
I loved gaming from the start. I loved D&D, and I also loved playing Missile Command, Centipede, Space Invaders, Pac-Man, every game that I could get a cartridge for I played the hell out of. I played D&D with dad and a friend of his when dad could find time to DM, and loved it. The immersion, the amazing plots dad would develop, it was magical. He in turn played at work on his lunch breaks with engineers.
Even as a teenager I played furtively, not letting on to the "cool kids" that I was a nerd. Back then it was something to hide, especially because I was a female (it was so much worse back then, but I learned to give as good as I got, and FAST). I loved gaming, and I played every chance I got. I read nothing but fantasy and sci-fi, I dropped so many quarters into machines, it was kind of an addiction. I listened to metal, and I gamed. Yep, degenerate from the start!
When I married, it was to another degenerate - an engineering student who loved D&D and video games and was known mainly for hanging out at an arcade called "The Outer Limits". The nerd-dom continued in my kids, who were raised playing video games and D&D. My daughter took it to a new level by playing in 2 symphony orchestras and by becoming the youngest funeral director in the state before she got married (funeral directing is still seen as "out there"). My son is a culinary geek who creates amazing dishes daily - but he also spends a LOT of time on his computer, and I'm fine with that. It's how we are, as a family. We all love gaming. A LOT.
So when I see people gaming only for money, when they're not pulled in by a game or with any passion for it, it shows. The passion is real, and shows on the face of a true gamer. Intense concentration, strange facial expressions that can't be put on, truly quirky personality tics, it's all there. If a room is perfect, they're not a gamer. I'm sorry, it's true. I have never once in my life met a fellow gamer who has a perfect room. There are small messes, forgotten items, sometimes food and drink containers, it's all true and real. Sure we can clean up after ourselves now and then, but the mess always comes back when the game is too good and we'll get to the mess "in a minute". "Mount Laundry" is a thing for most gamers - laundry is done, then placed into a large pile to be pulled from when clean clothes are needed. Pajamas are IMPORTANT - anything comfy. Snacks are nearly a religion. And the biggest thing is PASSION for what you're doing. If you're not arguing at 3:00 am (games have weird sleep schedules) over whether a character's stats are wrong, or if a game needs to be nerfed in some way, or some small triviality that nobody will care about in 6 months, then you lack passion.
For a lot of people, gaming and being a nerd is a fad. My nieces have ZERO interest in the gaming world, they're both around 20. Most of their friends (of all sexes) have zero interest as well. They're aware of it and still lack any interest. I see more and more kids my son's age (also 20) going out again. They're going to stores, they're skating in the streets again in much larger numbers, they're going outside (and leaving their phones behind or off) more and more. They're aware of games and will play them as a sort of time waster, but they don't have the passion for games that a lot of people grew up with. They don't like "geek chic", and they're not being influenced by, well, influencers as much as they were even just 5 years ago. The fad is already passing, I see the signs all around. We may already have reached peak nerd (culture). I'm seeing all of this in the Silicon Valley and surrounds, it's probably happening faster elsewhere, or elsewhere will catch up quickly, one or the other. Seeing a full skate park all of the time kind of fills my heart with joy, actually.
But the real nerds will always be with us. We'll see who's still playing games with a passion in 10 years. We'll see who stuck with a game even when it had dry times, and who rode that game for money when it was popular (4e, anyone?). The gamers will have passion despite popularity, always. We did it when it was considered to be social suicide, and we'll do it when nobody cares anymore.
I'll just finish this off with a song by a nerd who made it big.. and that makes me smile a lot!
