Words are, without a doubt, the MOST powerful weapon in human history. Words are responsible for every war on the planet, and probably every crime that’s ever been committed (in a roundabout way). Words can also make the worst situation seem bearable. It doesn’t even need to be a rousing speech or damning diatribe, either. Singular words can have as much of an impact as the Gettysburg Address.

One word I heard a LOT of when I was a kid was nerd. It was usually derogatory, and intended to cause distress. The funny thing is, as time has passed, being a nerd has turned out to be preferable to almost anything else. It’s also become more of diaphanous term which can be applied to anyone who is focused on a particular bit of ephemera.

Since we talk about gaming here, I want to talk about gaming nerds. Gaming nerds can be many things, depending on your point of view. From the point of view of the mainstream media, gaming nerds are psychopaths in training who use video games as “murder simulators” (thanks to JT for THAT nugget of wisdom!). From the perspective of the non-gaming public, gaming nerds are wasting their lives indoors, rather then getting outside or – even better – getting a date (never mind that women make up a very, very sizable chunk of the gamer demographic).

From the gamers themselves, however, we have quite a different view. Non gamers and the media can be excused for perpetuating stereotypes that went out of date over 20 years ago, because they are known for sensationalizing anything they come across for the sake of response, but gamers themselves are one of the most delusional group of humans you’ll ever see.

Nerd Cred

A lot of gamer nerd behavior is actually pretty typical of what you might expect to find on the basketball court or in the rap music industry. There’s a lot of swagger, a lot of posturing, a lot of smack-talk. Thankfully, instead of drive-bys, we have tea-bagging in Halo 3 (which, in retrospect, might not be actually better then a drive-by).

For a demographic that the mainstream media consistently paints as “anti-social”, gamer nerds are insanely connected to other gamer nerds. Gaming alone, “in your parent’s basement” is no longer the way it’s done. Now gamers play with and against millions of others online. Amidst that interconnectivity, there’s a lot of swagger, a lot of posturing, and a lot of smack-talk. This is not the kind of thing you’d expect to see in a demographic that is generally portrayed as “socially awkward”. In fact, calling someone a “douche bag” over Xbox Live doesn’t strike me AT ALL as “socially awkward”. Socially retarded, certainly.

Nerds desire respect from fellow nerds. In gaming circles, this comes in two forms: skill, and knowledge. Skill can be trained, and knowledge can be accumulated. If you can run a Halo 3 multiplayer map and destroy the competition without breaking a sweat, you’ve got the skill. If you can recommend a video card to a friend without having to look up benchmarks, you’ve got the knowledge.

Like any other tribal setup, though, there’s always one-upmanship going on. Nerds are always trying to top each other, and unfortunately, it sometimes results in “flame wars” which feature foul language, insults, sarcasm memes and – more often then not – very poor grammar. Wandering into a gamer nerd forum which is in the throes of a flame war can put someone off very quickly, so God bless the intrepid Community Manager who dares to tread that path.

The Fallout

So nerds are territorial? So what?

This post was actually spawned by another discussion that branched into the use of the terms “hardcore” and “casual”, and how they’re used by marketers to pigeon hole certain segments. I take issue with these terms, personally, because I don’t feel that they are ever applied correctly, but they’re used to allow marketing dollars to pinpoint a group to market to.

The thing is, no gamer nerd will ever cop to being “casual”. They are almost always “hardcore”, and they’ll let you know it by trying to out-do, out smart, out fight, out race, out level and out…sarcasm…their fellow nerds. To a nerd, no one is as “hardcore” as he is.  To him, everyone else is “casual” (at least on the forums…in-game might be a different matter, but nerds are good at weaseling out of putting their money where their mouths are).

This comes out in public when you see gamer nerds complain that developers, publishers and hardware manufacturers have forgotten their “core” audience which is, of course, them.

Take, for example, Nintendo. The N is the poster child for “core” fan disappointment, compliments of the Wii. Since the Wii’s uptake by mom and grandma, Metroid, Zelda and Mario fans have felt slighted. They believe that, since they have been supporting The N for years now, that they’re being left behind as The N chases down this untapped and lucrative market.

Wait…what? Since when did The N owe these nerds anything? Since when did the nerds snatch up anything Nintendo and expect a direct line to the higher-ups so they can let the executives know how they should be running the company?

Oh! That’s right! It’s nerdism! Unfortunately, sometimes this gamer nerd mindset spills outside of it’s forum containers and onto Main Street, where it’s reported by gaming websites covering E3, GDC and other events. See, somewhere along the line, these gamer nerds believe that they have jumped that exclusive velvet rope that separates the common consumer (you and I) from the industry movers-and-shakers. They cannot fathom that the industry would make a move without consulting them, or without catering to them.

Gamer nerds, meet capitalism. It’s a place where  you’re just a wallet* – a willing wallet, since you’ve been purchasing goods and services in the false belief that for every dollar you have spent, your “hardcore”-ness will impress one industry executive enough to see things your way.

It’s quite a rude awakening to find that your self image is merely the result of an insular merry-go-round that feeds off of other similarly disillusioned nerds. Of course in the gamer nerd’s mind, in the end, it’s not the fact that they have an overinflated sense of self, it’s the industry’s fault for not catering to them. Somehow, denial is a concept that never caught on in the gaming community.

 

* To be fair, there are many developers who take their community input very seriously, but even still, in the end they must make money in order to pay their developers and artists, to get the product out the door, and to support it afterwards. Their decisions, for better or worse, are their own, regardless of how the community feels about them.