The best part about being a gamer is community. As nerds, we love the things we do. We are passionate about our games, the characters, and the time we devote. Even with single-player, remote games, we devote hours to creating walkthroughs and lets plays so that we can share what we love with others.
Online interaction is a wonderful step towards equal opportunity gaming. Without a body and face to attach to the avatar in play, there’s a chance to drop the prejudices created by society and just game. But acceptance doesn’t come through anonymity, and one of the most rewarding ways to play will always be in person, with other warm bodies around enjoying, celebrating, and lamenting your successes and failures. Charity drives like Extra Life offer incentives for local gamers to band together and play for 24 hours, but there’s something to be said for a regular, set hang-out.
And I think that’s what I loved the most about visiting the AFK Tavern in Seattle. It’s a gamer haven. Tables were selected for their size and accessibility while gaming. There was plenty of space for dragging tables and chairs together to create new, larger places for gatherings. Walls divided sections, but were low enough that neighboring parties could peer over and join in the conversation.
Earlier this week, just wandering around Pike Place, I overheard one self-proclaimed “geek card holder” lamenting how Darth Vader is “suddenly popular.”
“Every time I see someone wearing a Darth Vader t-shirt, I challenge them to Star Wars trivia, and they can’t ever keep up. If I ever wear something I don’t understand, they should revoke my geek card.”
This is what group spaces like AFK can help stop. More than the amazingly nerdy decor and the wonderfully named (if overpriced) drinks, gaming spaces make fellow gamers more real. They aren’t some avatar and disconnected voice to be insulted indiscriminately for being a girl. And if someone is arrogant enough to start a gamer media quiz, there are others around to call bullshit on that elitist, exclusionary behavior. It turns gaming into what it always was and still should be – a community activity.
…plus, there’s something amazing about trying a real-life Pan Galactic Garble Blaster and living to tell the tale.
2 thoughts on “Travel Post – Seattle, Gaming Communities, and General Nerddom”
” If I ever wear something I don’t understand…”
Understand and “know every fact about” are not the same thing, argh!
I know. It took all of my will power not to inject myself in that conversation to tell him exactly what I thought he could do with that so called “geek card.” But I take comfort in the fact that more and more people I know are just as upset at statements like that.