All geeks are pretty weird to those who haven't been enlightened. But even amongst our own, there are some things that are seen as too weird even by our standards. Bronies get about as much negativity as furries, and even some games are seen as too extreme. For funsies I thought I'd lay out my darkest gaming secrets - let's see if anyone is brave enough to beat them.
- I still keep up with Pokemon news. I haven't played a full handheld game since Pokemon Emerald (2004) or Diamond (2006). I've played up to Pokemon White a year or two ago, but the Pokemon have gotten out of hand (there's an anthropomorphized ice cream cone... seriously). Still, I pay attention to upcoming releases, I've tried to get my kids in to the movies (no go), and I even played the beta of the Pokemon Online TCG. But if I'm perfectly honest, if they released the original Pokemon game as a mobile app... I'd stomp the Elite 4 once again (and can you imagine how easy trading would be?!)
- LARPing (aka Live Action Role Playing) looks cool. In a nutshell you take part in a fantasy-based, unscripted Civil War reinactment where you throw spells, chug potions, slay orcs, and defend the kingdom. Or you're an orc who kills the king and tries to rule the kingdom. When I first saw this on the show Wife Swap I thought it was the absolute goofiest thing on earth. People were throwing bean bags and pretending they're lighthing bolt spells... what?! But if you can really get outside yourself and invest in the world, like we do when we read a book or play a video game, it looks like it could be the ultimate immersion. I'm not enough of the thesbian to get outside myself and ignore the fact that it's all make believe, but even my wife thinks it's something I'd enjoy.
- I fully plan to brainwash my son in to liking Legos so I can buy him a ton of Lego sets. A buddy of mine had one of those giant Star Wars Star Destroyers, and I poked fun at him because I'm not a Star Wars fan. But secretly... I wanted to build stuff like that because I never really had them as a kid. If Legos doesn't take off (or even if it does), K'nex will be next!
- I could see model trains being fun. My son is really in to trains, I dig making terrain, and my daughter would be in to both. By our powers combined we could have an awesome model train set running through the entirety of our house. I remember going on a trip with my youth group and stopping by to see the youth leader's dad on our way to a college, and he had a huge model train area set up with trees, a stream, hills... it was intense. I'm not sure I could ever be obsessed on the level of those who find Train Simulator fun, but it's a hobby with a huge following, and there has to be a reason for it!
Other than that I think you guys know all about the geeky things I actually do. I sometimes run an RPG, I won't play unpainted models (something I'm finding very limiting with my back log of work), and I run a blog where I talk about gaming every single day.
So be honest... what's the geekiest thing about you?
See you tomorrow!
So be honest... what's the geekiest thing about you?
See you tomorrow!
Well....in the words of Usher..."This is my confession...."
ReplyDeleteI fell in love with video games when I was between 8 or 10 years old and I expressed that initial geekiness on the families Commodore 64 with awesome games such as Raid on Bungling Bay and Space Taxi.
My brother brought home our first Nintendo and I played that VERY often with great games like Contra and Tecmo Bowl. My cousin told me that he had the highest score that no one could beat on Contra. I proceeded to play the stage that you jump up the level that has falling rocks that keep coming and just sat there for at least 6 hours just blasting the rocks that keep falling until I had quadrupled the score he said was unbeatable.
Video games continued on and on and on.
My brothers and I overheated my first PS playing Vandal Hearts because my PS never quit running for 4 days solid.
Through high school I was only ever found working, going to school, going to church, playing video games at a friends house, the arcade, or table top war games like Warhammer Fantasy.
I will say this generation will sorely miss the joy of watching your opponent pump dollar after dollar into a fighting game to beat you after you kick their butt for 20th time.
MMORPGs came along.....
My friend and I got tired of constantly looking for a tank and healer in Everquest so we just started extra accounts, power leveled a tank and a healer and started "2 boxing". My friend would run the healer and the slower, and I was running a DPS and the Tank.
I have played World of Warcraft a lot and was part of a regular raiding guild with set raid times. If you know anything about the time commitment involved in that stuff you realize it is on the super geeky fringe.
And I find ultimately when I watch Big Bang Theory I laugh because I have lived that geekiness when others laugh because they are so geeky.
I find to this day even though my geekiness is much less time consuming I will get ousted as a geek if the subject of super heroes, or video games comes up in a group conversation.
There is so much more but those are some of the highlights.