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my nerd sense isn't tingling. so I have to say she's not a nerd. or even a geek.
I may be male but I have recently had a similar experience of this kind of geek prejudice towards outsiders. I have never really classed myself as a geek or a nerd and despite having a lifelong passing interest in video games never been into traditionally geeky things nor am I particularly clever or academically minded. Yet recently through some whim me and a good friend of mine (who had flirted with 40k very briefly as a teenager) decided to take up Warhammer 40k. This idea originated after enjoying the original Dawn of War series and the Space Marine game. So after getting ourselves established in the hobby we've recently started to check out local gaming clubs to explore the tabletop wargaming scene and maybe it's just us but we were a little put off. Now I am not expecting to meet a group of new 'best friends' but some our experiences were awkward to say the least. At one club we were met with sneers of derision after mentioning we only, for now at least, play 40k. "Oh, you just play Games Workshop games?" was one snotty response from one club member. There were several comments about our lack of 40k lore and general geek knowledge too. So my first opponent after spending minutes deriding my army list then went all out to completely annihilate my army and proclaim how great he was after his finely tuned army list demolished mine. Cue responses from others like "give up now" or "wow you really suck" and these weren't teenagers they were grown men. I don't consider myself sensitive but it felt awfully harsh and a little humiliating. It didn't make for a pleasant gaming experience and I know sometimes 'no one wants to play against the noob' but without 'noobs' where does the future of the hobby lie? Then at another club we were given, as is hinted at in previous posts, I would call a kind of geek test? What started as innocent questions became hostile interrogation as our lack of geeky knowledge became apparent to the group.
"What do you mean you've never seen Firefly?"
"You've never read Lord of the Rings? Why are you here?"
"You got into 40k from Dawn of War? Really?"
"You haven't read any of the black library books yet?"
These were the kind of questions and responses we received. It made for an awkward experience, sorry but I didn't know I had to of read/seen/done all that as prerequisite to play with toy soldiers. It led to us feeling kind of ostracised from the group and what we thought would be a journey into tabletop wargaming kind of turned sour. Of course there were some guys who seemed a joy to get on with but it still seemed hard to 'fit in' and enjoy some wargaming. We came away feeling we were not geek enough to enjoy the game at these clubs.
I can't work out if this is meant to be serious or not... :confused:
@ Godless Zealot - sorry you've had such crappy experiences. I've had similar with someone (about mid 40's) having a go at me for playing 5th and he started going on about how 2nd was the best edition blah blah this is why it was better. This guy was also meant to be the "welcome wagon" :rolleyes:
Exactly!Quote:
It didn't make for a pleasant gaming experience and I know sometimes 'no one wants to play against the noob' but without 'noobs' where does the future of the hobby lie?
Sorry to join in late...
But this to me is simply the nerd version of a jock labelling every girl who won't sleep with him a lesbian. There are jock nerds out there who feel that the scene needs to be approved by them.
I say sod it. And I reserve the right to be as awkward with geek girls as I am with non-geek girls. I want them, and I know I stand a chance, if only I didn't wuss out so readily.
@GZ, just find something to out geek them at, it'll really piss them off...
It's ok :). I'm over it now but I was just initially a little shocked at the treatment. It seems there are other clubs in my local area to try so hopefully one of those will be more welcoming! I am sure there are some great people to game against out there somewhere! It's just like online video gaming I guess there are always bad eggs.
That would of been fun, just a shame I couldn't find anything....Quote:
@GZ, just find something to out geek them at, it'll really piss them off...
It's a little bit of both. I've been around the varying degrees of "geek" and "nerd" all my life and I can usually pin someone's geekiness down pretty well.
Take you for example. You've been here, you don't write massively pedantic posts that take ten minutes to read (and sometimes fifteen minutes to understand) so I think I can say you're somewhere around 'functional geek'. That's someone who can pass for an average person but has enough geekiness to be interesting. Amirite?
The one in the picture? Self-advertising, lens-less glasses, and the duckface. Unless the world has completely inverted in the last five years, it comes across more of 'attention-whore' than true blooded nerd.
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Zealot's post reminded me of an acquaintance of mine, where when I told him I was a videogamer, he went right into the 'you're not a real gamer!' speech. I just stared him straight in the eye and said 'just because I play videogames and not all the tabletop games that you do, does NOT make me less of a gamer'. I think he gets annoyed at the fact that I can out-geek him on a lot of things where he can only out-geek me on just a few things. I call that a victory.
You're judging her entirely on her apperance. You can't see the problem with that, especially considering your reaction to that acquaintance of yours?Quote:
Originally Posted by Uncle Nutsy
Take your quote and sub in "just because I wear hipster glasses and pull a duckface" at the beginning of it for effect.
I'm not sure what your criteria for girls is so that they meet your standards of looking geeky enough (feel free to enlighten me on how geeks girls should dress, act and.pose for photos [though given your comment about advertising perhaps we're not allowed to be photographed]) but if you'd only seen a pic of me I doubt I'd pass your test.