14 replies to this topic

[Radspakr Wolfbane]

Lately I've been thinking about how the "nerd culture" has evolved in recent years.
From isolated pockets of people bound by fringe interests and the small communities they create to what it is today.
Now there is a supposed Nerd/Geek culture of large amounts of people with similar interests.
Fanboy/Fangirlism seems to have merged into what was once nerd domain.

Personally I saw it first when Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter first started showing in the movies and they became mainstream.
When nerds became "chic" in girl magazines and guys like Elijah Wood and Daniel Radcliffe became teen hearthrobs.

Can you really be called a nerd if you like Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Call of Duty when they are so mainstream?

I was watching this video that was posted on a friend's facebook wall and it got me thinking.



It's a well known fact that professional models are hired as cosplayers at Cons to advertise various products.

Cosplaying has now become a primary focus of media for these events and distorting the perceptions of those who go to these things.

A lot of the traditional game genres liked by nerds have fallen in recent years you don't see as many JRPGs other than Final Fantasy on consoles now,the RTS genre is all but dead, there are only a handful of successful Western style RPG series around and FPS games have become mainstream taking in the market that would normally be dominated by casual games like racing and music titles.
Fighting games have only the handful of series around now.

The term Nerd is no longer an insult and the game seems to be happening to Geek (which I still consider an insult).

I think I'll term myself a Counter-Nerd and will mock the Nerd and Geek Culture as a real nerd does.
In essence internet forums are bastions for fringe interests since they still seem to repel the mainstream "nerds".

What do you guys think of this "culture"?

[Radspakr Wolfbane]

A second thought:
Nerdiness in it's original form could mean something different than what most think of it.
Not the interests but the effort.
A nerd could be into the same things as other people like fighting games which I'm sure a lot of people have played (often while drunk) but a fighting game nerd is someone who actually studies the game.
Maybe the mainstream "nerds" haven't earned the name maybe we should just call them mainstreamers.

[Irenë Hawnetyne]

Yeah, I'd agree with the latter: Nerds, as a culture, generally are people who like mainstream and otherwise subjects, but specifically they read into it so much they become the subject expert. Though, then, I suppose Revora's a nerd network, from that perspective.

[Pasidon]

First world problems.

It's a generational thing. People used to think people who use computers in general were nerds... now it's culturally demanded that you use computers. But really... the term 'nerd' is pretty much dead, or void. You choose. A guy who knows the name of every crew member on the USS Enterprise is considered the nerd, but the again, on the opposite end of the stereotypical culture, a guy who knows the name of everyone on a sports team is.... erm... what? Captain smart dude? Pretty sure that constitutes as nerd too... the definition really only means someone seeming overly passionate on a subject. Why is that a bad thing again?

And that pink lady needs to be thrown into a pit of badgers. I despise people who try and be inspirational... and who get emotional while trying to be inspirational.

[Radspakr Wolfbane]

So it's misusing the title.
I'm going to start calling them Mainstreamers though maybe it'll catch on and then can actually mean something again.

She's not really helping her cause is she?
She was dead wrong in her opening line.
No such thing as Fake nerd my ass.

[Pasidon]

Mainstreamer could work. Or 'bandwagoner', as it is scientifically. But using any of these terms negatively is hypocritical since everyone is a 'nerd' about something. Unless you're not... then you're culturally void and dull.

And yea, there really is such a thing as a fake nerd. She may qualify. She tries so hard to be the generic geek, it's blinding. Not trying to compete for male attention, eh? Bull spit. The only reason you make yourself blindingly synthetic with pink hair and big eye-lashes is to gain favor with potential mates. It's like those women who have dem shirts that say, "I Girl Gamer!" It's like acid to Pasidon...

[duke_Qa]

I'm just happy the human condition is expanding into more sensible topics than MTV, fashion and sports and into brainier topics. Why would you need to demean someone for being new/not deep enough into it? that's Taliban-talk in my opinion.

[Radspakr Wolfbane]

How are they brainer?
The issue here is that they aren't investing time and effort into these things instead preferring the superficial side that will only dilute and change the culture and not for the better.
We've seen the shift already towards mainstream gaming and some genres are practically dead now like the RTS which is down to only 2 or 3 major titles CnC may be dead as we know it instead going the way of AOE with a online store based game leaving Starcraft which has only had 2 titles and Total War.

The casual mainstream push out the hardcore.

[duke_Qa]

I think the kickstarter trend and the indie development is a reaction to what you define as the "pushing out of the hardcore". By massively increasing the amount of casuals that are potential "hardcores", you allow small time developers to create games of a more niche standard and make a profit. The mid 00s up to now was the dark ages, now we are getting back through digital distribution and media exposure beyond media monopolies.

Also, hardcore players are usually those around 12-18 years old. They got the time and money to buy and play these games for as long as you need to. Once they get into higher education or work/family, they stop playing as much. I suspect your thesis that mainstream pushing hardcore out has little to no causality.

[Radspakr Wolfbane]

We don't know if the Kickstarter trend is working there have been a few games that have raised money but I don't believe any of them have been finished yet (don't quote me on that).

The problem is most companies can't compete against juggernauts like EA and Activision with their massive sales.
There are only a finite amount of sales to be made and if people are spending more on blockbuster games and all the DLC for it.
Sales drop for the mid range titles the companies start losing money and these days game companies always seem to switch to mobile gaming when they are trying to survive.

[duke_Qa]

It certainly is getting enough press to defend it not being a temporary thing. And as long as those who consider themselves "hardcore" chip in a few dollars here and there on projects that are close to their hearts, I'm sure it will continue to work. How many can be angry if they lose $50 on a kickstarter that looked potential but failed? First world problem perhaps but that's about half a day of work for most of us.

On the topic of successful computer game kickstarters, we do have FTL. Beyond that I'm not sure they are all completed, the kickstarter wave isn't that old yet.

Anyway, sure the big businesses are hunting down all them casuals with their smartphone apps, but what just happened to Zynga? I think I recall that they practically imploded and fired 3/4th of their staff. I suspect Gabe with his new tv-oriented steam computer is closer to what gaming future is about than massive exodus to mobile gaming.

I also suspect that every 5% of casuals, there's a potential "hardcore" gamer that would be willing to buy one of the more niche games.

[Radspakr Wolfbane]

Unfortunately there's been a lot of layoffs for a lot of game companies.
In my State there was close to a dozen companies in the last 5 years almost all of them have folded and I think it's down to 2 studios one has shifted to mobile the other to educational games.
This in a time when sales records are being smashed by the big titles.

In all honesty I worry about the direction of the gaming industry I think it's gone even further than Hollywood in it's "big budget" direction.
Those massive budgets are going to force up the costs of the things indie developers need to make games.
Hurting not only diversity but also potential game developers.

(It occurs that I've slowly shifted this topic's focus towards the problems in the gaming industry)

[duke_Qa]

It's all related really, I think you are more likely to find the troubles in the economic situation we are in than in some cultural shift of hobby-interests. since the mid-90s, big firms have bought up the smaller but self-sufficient companies to make more money, which now in economic tough times proves to be an economic bubble.
Right now most are just creating game studios with hopes of being bought up by the giants and make a quick buck, not going into it like Valve for the art and the community. Even Blizzard is probably in for a fall there, once they understand that their employees are only good at creating WOW expansions and not new concepts.

All in all, game development have been struck by the same sort of logic that most entrepreneurial firms in the US and the West have been living off the last 20 years: Create a firm, make that firm worth a lot of money, sell it to fill up your and your investor's bank accounts, throw the employees to their new owners or the wind, firm loses faith in its purpose, firm fades away, original creators still rich but never again trusted. 30 silver coins more or less.

[Radspakr Wolfbane]

So who knows it might be good for the hardcore to hope that the bubble bursts forcing the industry to either return to it's roots or to evolve.
Jobs are being lost either way.
In all likelihood we'll see more game dev jobs being outsourced to China and so on in the same way that animation jobs were.
A good way to drive down the budgets but making it harder to get into the industry the old fashioned way with fewer jobs available in the west and only for the higher end jobs.

[duke_Qa]

Compared to the film industry, game development is relatively expensive and knowledge-based. But even if games have higher standards for creation, the proportion of niche-games isn't proportional to the movie industry niche movies.

I'm hoping that this is about to turn with indie development and a generation grown up on games figuring out that "Hey, we can make a basic living as a mid-sized company selling our games online with no publisher breathing down our backs".

Remember that the film industry have been through tons of ages and phases and economic turmoils themselves. Game development have had quite a few themselves, but they have been much shorter and they've all been happening in the age of neo-liberal capitalism and rapid economic instabilities. Within 20 years I'm sure we will see many different ways to develop games and many different ways to fund them.