Nerdom: What is it? Why it matters.

Defining our terms 

Nerd

    Common

: a person devoted to intellectual, academic, or technical pursuits or interests

also: a person preoccupied with or devoted to a particular activity or field of interest

here's the erroneous part of the textbook definition, though it is not always false.

: an unstylish or socially awkward person

Gift Horses

Nerdom has very commonly been seen in a very narrow manner. The definitions are important, which is why we're here. Nerdom is under a multi-pronged attack. Some say that you are a devil worshiper, others call you racist, a basement dweller, and the list goes on. The front lines these days are where people call you a racist basement dweller, the attack here is a pincer attack. They are attacking you from within and from the outside. The gift horse was let in long ago but our walls also partition the garden off as well. 

Stories, Games, and cultural influence

I've been running D&D, OWoD, and Solo campaigns for a long time. First started in 1999 or 2000, stopped playing with other people in 2004, and still ran my scenarios for almost the entire time I took my leave from behind the screen. Started playing 5e again in 2018, and I came back to the mainstream to find that I was now a racist, and a whole lot of other things for the way I played the game. The game is in a sad state, though I also found that we have tourists who claim nerdom because they played once and created dozens of characters. Very odd concepts, but I figured that was the way the game was played now. Boy was I wrong... Kinda. I needed to educate myself and get the lay of the land. We need things to change.

Soon after running my first short camping, I realized that the same rot that has taken over the broader culture has taken over the game that I've been playing in my own little corner on a grand scale. Safely tools, political correctness, and bankrupt moral grandstanding by modern-day Bible thumpers.

We need to save whatever we can of value and jettison the burnt engines. The art of storytelling is a dying art and we allowed it to happen. Tabletop role-playing games are more than just games like video games are, each and every table has a game designer which doesn't happen in any other medium. You have a player that gives feedback in real-time, problems are solved quickly, and the player beta tests mechanics to such an extent that calling it “stress testing” would be a massive understatement. Players naturally learn to break the rules set by a designer on a nightly basis for some tables.

That was a bit of a long-winded introduction, but here's the payoff for bearing with me on that.

Nerdom is under attack and we must understand why we should be defending this. I talk primarily about Tabletop Role-playing and video games, however, this goes beyond that. Movies are an important part of it. Telling stories, teaching life lessons through said stories, and practicing math are important. Kids make spreadsheets with item locations and draw maps to said items for subsequent replays. Others sit down and design traps for their players, puzzles for them to solve. We did it when we were kids and played games back then. We went through something similar with the satanic panic and in video games we went through it several times with “violence in video games” and we go through it with “misogyny in video games” today. We're better equipped now and we're doing nothing but ducking away from the problem. Segregating ourselves from the mainstream was a personal mistake and it will be a mistake if we do it collectively. 

Movies are maybe shifting back to the center, though Hollywood has always had a certain lean and usually corrects itself within a few years. That's not to say that we don't defend our Fandom there. Trekies and star wars fans have been fighting this in their own right, as have Tolkien fans, and many others. I focus on the tabletop because we tend to keep our heads down and we're not particularly good with confrontation. Make the arguments for why you should continue to play the games you want to play.

People are starting to realize that we have to create our own things. Detractors, infiltrators, and manipulators are going strong and erasing our games and media. Show the world as they do, why you should be heard. There are many ways to help. I've seen people alright creating things I believe will help significantly. Watched a video of a guy doing skits, another that does his solo plays on camera, and there are others who teach mechanics. We still need more, we need people who will make their own magazines, novels, or whatever other media they want to see.

The offer

The opposition has learned something very important that we dare not touch on significantly. We need to get more of the youth into the hobbies. Offer to host game nights at the local youth center, and library, and host movie nights. Donate a copy or two of your favorite TTRPG, movies, video games, or whatever nerd niche you are in. Buy a set of dice and play Theater of the Mind if it's all you can afford. Younger people are where the real threat is, teach them, sway them. Will kids eventually move on to their own hobbies? Absolutely! As they should, but by then, you will have hopefully done a good enough job at cultivating a healthy mentality for that.

There are places we've stayed away from, due to cultural decorum. Your enemies don't play by the rules anymore, you shouldn't either. Do better, teach the youth to fend for themselves as we do everywhere else in life. Hobbies and Fandom's are important. Entertainment is necessary for many reasons, some of which I wish to have touched on here.

In the meantime, the manipulators, and detractor pundits will be on the defensive. Don't let up until Nerdom has come to the center. Stay vigilant for others to come after. On that note, I will see you around on social media and at the table. This will be revisited at a later date and in another piece. Until next time and in the words of the wise professor. May all your rolls be 20s.