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Post by zargon on May 5, 2016 20:48:14 GMT -5
Not a serious topic obviously, but I've been noticing lately that you'll see businesses or whatever using words like "nerd" and "geek" to describe things featuring and for the types who tend to be the anti-nerds. Popular people, athletic people, ladies men, people who generally would shove a guy in a locker for liking things like comic books and video games. Just as a quick example, I recently went to a bar with a couple friends, that was doing this thing called Geeks Who Drink. Everyone else there seemed like they were dressed for a frat party where they were waiting for the keg to get there. A lot of backwards hats, t-shirts featuring the names of popular mainstream bands you hear everywhere, and lots of alcohol-fueled shouting and cursing. You turn on TV and you see a video game channel featuring people who clearly know less about games than they do the lyrics of a Limp Bizkit song. I get some of it is just a realization by businesses that these people have money, but I'm wondering when it apparently became cool for people to call themselves by these words, after decades of shunning the types who fit the definition. Hell, the definitive nerds are still incredibly unpopular, if the people I saw around college were anything to go by. Is it that things certain things that used to be considered lame like video games and comic books (or at least comic book movies) became cool, or are people just attracted to the words themselves now?
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Post by JDarkside on May 5, 2016 21:29:15 GMT -5
Normal people like things we like now. That's it.
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Post by Kubo Caskett on May 5, 2016 21:55:34 GMT -5
I don't have any objections to the mainstream spread of nerd culture but I am bothered by the large amount of those POP figures; god why do they exist? Are there no such things as Nendoroids?
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Post by Deleted on May 5, 2016 22:00:46 GMT -5
Look up the entomology of "punk".
This isnt a new phenomenon
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Post by GamerL on May 5, 2016 22:15:26 GMT -5
I don't have any objections to the mainstream spread of nerd culture but I am bothered by the large amount of those POP figures; god why do they exist? Are there no such things as Nendoroids? Yeah, those things are so lame, who would want to clutter their home/office space with that crap? Anyway, mainstream culture always tries to co-opt things that were once underground, there's upsides to it happening to nerd culture, I like being able to buy Star Wars shirts or whatever at Target, but something can't become "mainstream" without also getting watered down a bit. I'm honestly kind of glad that anime and manga fandom for example remained an underground thing. |
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Post by Allie on May 5, 2016 22:30:45 GMT -5
Normal people like things we like now. That's it. There's no such thing as normal. But all that aside, wealthier and wealthier people have co-opted the interests of less-wealthy nerds. Partially to make them keep chasing the Coder Start-Up dream, and partially for reasons it's best I don't get into. |
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Post by GamerL on May 5, 2016 22:40:03 GMT -5
I'm imagining an alternate universe now where it was anime and manga fandom that went mainstream instead of comic book fandom.
Imagine if that live action Evangelion movie they planned came out in 2008 instead of Iron Man and was a huge hit, would people be obsessed over a live action JoJo Netflix show instead of Daredevil? Would dudebros be sporting DBZ shirts?
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Post by Allie on May 5, 2016 23:17:48 GMT -5
I'm imagining an alternate universe now where it was anime and manga fandom that went mainstream instead of comic book fandom. Imagine if that live action Evangelion movie they planned came out in 2008 instead of Iron Man and was a huge hit, would people be obsessed over a live action JoJo Netflix show instead of Daredevil? Would dudebros be sporting DBZ shirts? Dudebros? No. Hipsters? Not even a question. |
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Post by 🧀Son of Suzy Creamcheese🧀 on May 6, 2016 4:48:16 GMT -5
Normal people like things we like now. That's it. I feel like the bar for calling oneself a nerd/geek has just been lowered these days. It's almost kind of becoming a meaningless term. I've had people refer themselves to as nerds for reasons such as 'I remember a lot of old Pokémon names', 'I watch a lot of Youtube videos' and 'I binge-watched House of Cards'. All real examples. Not that it really matters. Kinda the same how every person I meet who calls himself a gamer, has like, Assasin's Creed, FIFA and CoD on his PS3 and that's about it. That actually does bother me. |
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Post by Scylla on May 6, 2016 8:03:57 GMT -5
Unless you're still in high school, I honestly don't see why anyone would even care. I haven't built up some sort of "identity" as a nerd nor do I have any nerd "pride". Could not possibly care less about the concept of "nerd culture" or who is claiming to be a part of it. I am who I am, and I like what I like. If other people want to apply labels to me based on that, that's their prerogative, but it's of no concern to me. When I go to cons, most of the attendees I see seem like true blue fans of games, anime, etc., but at the same time, a large percentage also seem like people I wouldn't remotely want to hang out with, even if they happen to like many of the same games or shows or whatever. When there's somebody I like to talk to about my hobbies, it's because, in my opinion, they're a cool person with an interesting perspective on things in general. It's more a matter of who they are innately and if that clicks with me or not. I'm not going to automatically feel a kinship with people just because they can mark a checklist of similar interests.
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Post by nightdreamer on May 6, 2016 10:16:33 GMT -5
I don't have any objections to the mainstream spread of nerd culture but I am bothered by the large amount of those POP figures; god why do they exist? Are there no such things as Nendoroids? POP figures are popular because they are the most accessible type of toys based on pop culture icons. Except for a select few rare figures, they're mostly affordable, and they also feature a wide variety of characters that go far beyond comics/manga popularity (it even has Muppets, Game of Thrones, and Back to the Future). I never bought any of them but I really like its Guardians of the Galaxy set, especially Groot on a pot, which looks super adorable. Nendoroid, while detailed and really well designed, cost like 2-3x more, and they mostly only feature anime and vidya characters. |
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Post by Maciej Miszczyk on May 6, 2016 11:03:27 GMT -5
the real problem with nerd culture going mainstream is not that more people partake in stereotypically nerdy activities. it's that the more dedicated fans are becoming a minority within their own communities which in turn leads to creators shifting their focus from dedicated fans to a more mainstream audience. it's not so bad with video games now because of crowdfunding and medium-sized studios and some parts of the indie scene still give us some more niche content but in general, I think it's not unreasonable to be worried about dumbing down (or 'streamlining') trend in AAA releases. the solution, of course, is to keep smaller, more hardcore fan communities alive.
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Post by Weasel on May 6, 2016 11:59:26 GMT -5
Look up the entomology of "punk". what does punk have to do with small insects (kidding of course, but the word you're looking for is "etymology" not "entomology") |
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Post by Échalote on May 6, 2016 12:00:38 GMT -5
#StopCulturalAppropriation
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Post by Sac (a.k.a Icaras) on May 8, 2016 8:33:15 GMT -5
I sometimes wonder at this, when I see trendy jean shops selling t-shirts with retro games and tv shows on them....but the sizes are generally small and the fabric super cheap, so unless you're a runty stick man/girl, you probably wouldn't want to wear it no matter how big a fan you are.
Or maybe I'm just being a snob and the shops are crap because they buy printed t-shirts made from cheap crap fabric, heh.
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