Geeksexual

Kind of like heterosexual, homosexual and metrosexual, geeksexual is a term that I like to use (actually I just made it up about ten minutes ago) to describe the sexual proclivities and orientations of that rapidly-expanding sub-culture of Geek.

Back up a second…where the hell did this come from? Well, if you have your finger on the pulse of geek culture, you have probably heard the recent rumblings about the misogynistic trolling over the relative hotness of “geek” girls and women (or chicks, as I like to call them). Basically, when a truly hot girl shows up at a convention like Comic Con, wearing a costume, the majority of hardcore geeks (once they wipe the drool from their chins) start ranting about how she isn’t really a geek-girl, but rather a hired model.

Unfortunately, there is some truth to this. As someone who went to the San Diego Comic Con for 10 years straight, I can assure you that many of them are hired models. However, not ALL of them are. There really are cute girls who dig on comics and RPGs and Anime, and who wear some pretty spiffy (and sexy) costumes. The problem is, Trolls see women in two categories at Cons: Real geek girls, the ones who may be pretty, but are varying degrees of less than perfect; and Hired Models, sent there to sell shit to hormonal geeks. And why do they think this way?

I think High School is the answer.

High school is where our opinions, likes and dislikes are sometimes formed, but always cemented. So, think about the people you went to high school with. Think about the five prettiest girls in your class. Not just the ones you had a crush on because of your particular tastes, but the ones who are classic expressions of “beautiful.” The hot chicks, the “mean girls,” the popular ones. Now, of those, how many of them do you think played D&D? Read comics? Played video games? Statistically speaking, probably less than 1%. The overwhelming majority of the “beautiful people” we all openly hated, but secretly envied, had no interest in anything traditionally “geek.” Certainly nothing that would be featured at Comic Con or Gen Con.

As a result, we are programmed to believe that beautiful people don’t like geek things. Now, flash forward 10 years. You have lived your life embracing your geek loves, and you are geek from your ragged hairdo, to your beat up running shoes and ill-fitting clothes. Suddenly, while at your local comic convention, you see what appears to be one of the beautiful girls from your graduating class dressed up as Rogue. What? She can’t be real. Because beautiful people don’t read comics. So, what else would she be doing here in that getup?

“But more people are playing video games than ever before!” you say? Very true. And I bet that the cheerleader at the local high school probably logs into her Xbox Live account and kicks ass on Modern Warfare 3 at least a few nights a week. Things have changed. More and more people from all walks of life, are embracing Geek. Because they are learning what we have always known: That Geek Culture is about playing and having fun.

Unfortunately, just like other cultural stereotypes, geek (and anti-geek) ones are perpetuated from one generation to the next. That 16-year old D&D player is trolling because he learned from his 41-year old D&D playing father that cheerleader-types don’t like our kind. That all they like is shopping, make-up, an making out with the quarterback.

If you think about it, the opposite is also true. That guy in the gym with the perfect hair? Yeah, he goes to Comic Con dressed as Batman every year. Why? Because he gets paid to flex in spandex? No. It’s because Batman inspired him as a scrawny kid to hit the gym and make something of himself. Same goes for the girl in the aerobics class who dresses as Princess Leia. She loves Star Wars more than anything, and it has inspired her to make something of herself beyond what she was as a kid.

So, what’s the answer? Well, there isn’t one. Not a fast and hard one, anyways. Geek girls need to continue to fight for their right to be geeky without prejudice, just like gays are fighting for their right to marry, and blacks and women had to fight to vote. It’s just a minor, sub-cultural revolution. But not every revolution has to change the world.

Speak Out With Your Geek Out – Day 5

So, here we are, the final day of my blog series for the Speak Out With Your Geek Out event. I’ve tried to bring some new ideas to my blog, and avoid the tired subjects that have been staples of mine for going on three years now. So, what should I talk about today?

Honestly, I have no idea. I guess I’ll just ramble in a geeky way.

Last night I was thinking that maybe I would talk about the old animated series Gargoyles. There was a time when that was my absolute favorite show. It was during my first year of college, less than a year out of the Army. I was taking Summer classes in 1996, and I would leave class each day around noon or 1:00, pick up my daughter from daycare, and go home to watch an episode of M*A*S*H and then Gargoyles. It was a ritual. Later that year I was introduced to the World of Darkness games, with a Vampire campaign run by my new friend, Chris Blanchard. Interestingly, I could not wrap my head around vampires being the “good guys” in a story, so my first character was a Mack Bolan/Frank Castle-type who hated vampires almost as much as he hated being one. I was the combat monster in the group. It was pretty fun, for the most part.

Anyways, back to Gargoyles. Sometime in 1997 I had the brilliant idea of adapting them for the WoD setting. So, I set about doing just that. The final product was pretty good, considering it was my first attempt to write anything RPG-related beyond a D&D adventure. Gargoyles: the Awakening borrowed a lot from Werewolf, actually, but it was compatible with all of the 2nd Edition WoD stuff. I recently discovered that the whole thing is still available online here (my crappy old website).

Interestingly, if you want to see what kind of stupid shit I used to get into, that website is kind of embarrassing. I should probably just delete the whole thing. But, there’s stuff I want to keep there. Like the Gargoyles game supplement.

Also, you can see the website I built for our long-running Stargate RPG campaign. I loved that game. Chris really outdid himself, and I have often pondered writing some fan-fiction based on those events. But, because I’m a stickler for technical accuracy, I have a hard time coming up with ways to make it fit seamlessly into the show. This idea has been on my mind lately, and I am considering trying to figure out a way to adapt it to an original setting, without referencing the show or Stargate in general. We’ll see.

Well, there you go. A relatively short end cap to the week. I enjoyed this, but I doubt I could sustain this momentum for long. As evidenced by this post.

Live long and prosper.

Speak Out With Your Geek Out – Day 3

Guess what, folks? I’m still not going to talk about RPGs today. Ok, that’s not strictly true. I’m not going to talk about tabletop RPGs. Rather, I’m going to talk about Massive Multi-player Online games, aka MMOs. Now, while I have some pretty good experience with them, I’m by far no expert. So, take what I have to say about them with a grain of salt, and know that this is based solely on my own personal experiences, and a little bit of research.

What is referred to as an MMO today has its roots in the games played on the old Bulletin Boards of the Internet’s early days (usually called MUDs, Multi User Dungeons). In fact, the BB game has kind of split into several variations, with the Forum-based RP threads being closest to the original. Now, take a quick step to the right, and think back to the old SSI video games based on D&D. They were first person games (meaning what you saw on screen was what your character was supposed to see with their own eyes). The graphics were primitive, and the game-play clunky, but the stories were excellent, and like the old “choose your own adventure” books, you could have multiple variations on the same adventure, based on your choices.

Well, sometime in the late 90’s, someone had the idea of combining the MUD with the graphic-based RPG game. There were many types and variations of this, like Ultima Online (an extension of the old text-based adventure game). But the field really changed with EverQuest in 1999. From there, MMOs of all genres, some based on established IPs, others wholly original, have sprung up. Though the most popular ones are pay-to-play, there are actually scads of free-to-play games out there. And even some of the P2P ones are developing F2P variations (like City of Heroes).

Dynamo-Man (me) and
Masked Revenger (Chris Blanchard).
I made this based on a picture of
Power-Man and Iron Fist.

Personally, I have played in four MMOs with any regularity. I started with City of Heroes, an original superhero MMO. I still play it today, and am somewhat active in the forum community (funny story, I met my wife on that forum…yep, she plays too). I have also played World of Warcraft quite extensively, and for a long time I would split my time by playing CoH for a few months and then playing WoW for a few months. Both are P2P, so I could never justify paying a fee for both games at the same time. Generally, the P2P games run about $15/month, plus the cost of the initial game and, as in the case of WoW, expansions.

I’ve also played Warhammer Online, though it feels like a graphically superior, yet content-inferior version of WoW. Similarly, I recently spent a lot of time playing Sony’s DC Universe Online. But, like WHO to WoW, DCU felt like a graphically superior yet content-inferior version of CoH, but with the added bonus of including iconic DC superheroes like Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman.

One thing that separates MMOs from computer/console based video games is the social factor. During play you can chat with other players, as if you were right there with them. This gives you a very immersive experience when teaming up. Traditionally, this has all been type-written interaction, with voice interaction being an option as well. Although it is sometimes harder to type while playing, especially in the middle of a combat, typing gives you more freedom to Role Play your character. For instance, if I am playing a female superhero, typing what she says is more believable than hearing me say such things. This is actually the biggest weakness of DCU. That game was developed with the PC and PS3 in mind, so it is geared towards voice-chat, which makes it more of a tactical game like Gears of War, but with superheroes.

All-in-all, MMOs are a wonderful distraction. But, make no mistake, they ARE a distraction. If you have a busy schedule already, adding an MMO can be dangerous. However, if you are into role-playing and exploring fantastic worlds first-hand, then they are amazing experiences.

Speak Out With Your Geek Out – Day 2

I’m sure most of my loyal minions…er…readers expect me to talk about Role-Playing Games today. But, in looking back a few pages, I think I’ve said all I need to say about that. For now.

So, today let’s talk about Stargate SG-1. For those who don’t know, this show began as a feature film released in 1994 titled simply Stargate. It starred Kurt Russell and James Spader. Ok, right there you should be hooked. Kurt Russell in a sci-fi action movie? Genius awesome. The premise was that archaeologists found this giant metal ring buried in Egypt during a dig in the 1920’s. It took them 70+ years to figure out what it was, what it could theoretically do, and how to control it. Then they bring in a young archaeologist with wacky theories named Daniel Jackson (Spader) who proceeds to solve the last piece of the puzzle with a sort of book-nerd distraction. What ensues is a trip across the galaxy and a battle with an alien posing as an ancient Egyptian god, in a city of people who were taken from Earth and enslaved millennia ago.

If you’ve seen the movie, you know the details and how it all ends. If you haven’t, I highly recommend doing so. We’ll wait, but hurry back.

Ok, you’re back. Cool, wasn’t it? But didn’t you find yourself wondering what came next? Well, in 1996-97 Showtime started producing a weekly show called Stargate SG-1. The “SG-1” came from the designation given to the first team of explorers to begin using the Stargate on a regular basis, after the whole thing (which had been mothballed after the events of the film) had been “restarted” by another alien/god/being looking for slaves. The team consisted initially (by the end of the pilot) of Col. Jack O’Niell, the character played by Russell in the film, now played by Richard Dean Anderson (TV’s McGuyver), Michael Shanks taking over Daniel Jackson’s character from James Spader, Amanda Tapping as Captain Sam Carter, and Christopher Judge as the alien warrior/defector, T’ealc.

The show ran for ten seasons, surviving several casting changes and a network change (from Showtime to SciFi Channel). It spawned three spin-offs (including a Saturday morning cartoon) and two direct-to-DVD movies. Unfortunately, due to studio decisions, the property is officially dead on-screen. There have been novels, comic books, video games, and even a highly detailed RPG (which I played for quite some time…someday I’ll tell you about Col. Matthew Valentine and SG-4). There are still novels being written, at least I saw one at B&N the other night on the “New Sci Fi” shelf.

So, why should you watch this show? After all of that, you still need to ask? Fine. I recommend it because it is a good sci-fi show, with plausible science, accurate technical details, exceptionally well-conceived and executed characters, and, unlike many sci fi shows, it evolves. The humans of Earth begin as very “young” and “naïve” in the show, but grow through the course to become a major player in a huge universe. It involves military action, ancient history, theoretical physics, and damn good storytelling and character development.

And as a bonus, if you are a fan of Star Trek, you will no doubt recognize many of the plot devices and tropes. I think many of these were included as an homage to the granddaddy of all space exploration shows. Well, the one that really put the genre on the map, anyways.

So, there you go. All of the seasons are on DVD (maybe Blu-Ray, if not yet, then soon I’m sure), and are currently available for instant view on NetFlix. If nothing else, watch the pilot episode. Oh, and then skip to season four for the episode entitled “Window of Opportunity.” If you do not laugh and cry during that episode, something is wrong with you.

Geeking Out

Ok, I started writing a long, detailed blog about geeks and geek culture, building up to the week-long event going on next week called “Speak Out With your Geek Out”, but I soon realized that every other geekblog was talking about the same thing (a nice, succinct summary can be found here).

Instead, I plan to blog an unprecedented five times next week. Each blog (Monday thru Friday) will feature me talking about a specific geek hobby I have or had, and why I think you should have it too (though many of my readers and casual lurkers will already be involved in one or more of them, I’m sure).

So, what are my topics going to be? I have no idea yet. Well, I have ideas, but nothing concrete. Here is a list off the top of my head of things I could write about:

• Role-Playing games – A geek standard. This is the mother of all geek hobbies, IMHO.
• Comic Books – Probably the second-largest geek hobby, but also probably the most closeted.
• Collectible Card Games – For a while I played a few of these obsessively.
• Video Games – Probably my weakest geek subject. But I guess I could concentrate on MMOs.
• Star Wars/Star Trek Mania – Each of these could be its own subject.

There are probably several other subjects I could come up with, if I gave it some long thought. But, I’m thinking I might just start with a general entry about what it means to be a geek, and how it is (mis)represented and stereotyped.

So, what do you guys think?