In Defense of Our Culture

Why video games shouldn't settle for being relegated to condescension and pithy references.

By: Seth Macy January 18, 2013

I think we deserve better as nerds. While I don't self-identify as a nerd per se, I do exhibit many behaviors that are considered nerdy. I like to play video games, tinker with computers, and drop Simpsons quotes in casual conversations. I enjoy fantasy novels and losing myself in thought as I imagine a world of wonder unfolding before my eyes, when I should instead be listening to someone talk or yielding to pedestrians.

Perhaps you have some nerd tendencies or actively call yourself a "nerd." I have to imagine you enjoy gaming, seeing as how you're reading this site, and so for the sake of ease, I will refer to us as "nerds." I believe that while society is actively marketing nerdery as a desirable trait, we are still seen as frightening or pitiable outsiders, hacking away at credit card information from our basement strongholds. It seems like nerd culture has taken center stage in the past few years, and yet nerd acceptance has gained no real ground whatsoever.

There is a lot that has been written about the show The Big Bang Theory, some of it positive and some of it negative. In this tumblr piece, the author gets to the bottom of what I also feel is the main problem with the show: it's not celebrating nerd culture, it's putting it on display and mocking it. Yet I know many nerds who tune in faithfully each week. Neil deGrasse Tyson, one of the smartest human beings alive, not only praises the show but did a cameo appearance in an episode. Why does the show have so much traction within the realm of nerdery? I have a theory, one I've written about before on my own blog: The Will & Grace Effect.

For those of you unfamiliar, Will & Grace (or "Dubn'Gee") was an NBC sitcom that featured characters that were homosexual. Gay characters were nothing new, but before they were normally secondary characters or exhibited stereotypical characteristics, but were never "outed." Not so with Dubn'Gee. The show was about two gay friends and it grew to become the number one show on television. The problem was -- it stunk.

Will & Grace wasn't clever, nor was it well written. My theory is people were so excited and liberated by the idea of a show featuring gay main characters that their vision became clouded. They didn't pay attention to the fact that while the show made important strides for the gay community, it was really not a very good sitcom. In some ways it relied too heavily on the on the sexual orientation of the characters. "I kissed a man I barely knew last night!" one character would quip, and the audience loved it, even though there was no joke; just a stereotype being reinforced.

BBT suffers from this same weakness. Smart people are so excited that there's a show where the characters are scientists that they don't pay enough attention. Sure, they may be scientists, but as characters they are two-dimensional stereotypes (who are also scientists). Don't we deserve better? There is no humanity to the characters. It doesn't seem like the writers are sympathetic to what it's like to be a nerd. It's as though the writers are trying their best to write characters that make people think "Yes! That is exactly what a nerd is like!" But The Big Bang Theory is just one example of the continued marginalization of nerd culture. Wreck-it Ralph is another.

I was so excited to take my kids to see Wreck-It Ralph. From what I gleaned on Twitter, it was the best movie ever made by human hands in the history of the universe. But as a gamer going in, I felt very early on that this was not a loving homage to gaming but rather another cash-in on the popularity of nerd culture. Don't get me wrong, I thought the movie was enjoyable enough, and my kids didn't hate it, but I found it lacking depth in the references. The gaming nods were many, but they barely scratched the surface of our medium. I don't purport to be the most knowledgeable gamer out there, but practically every gaming reference was simply a "Hey, look! It's [that game]! Neat!"

The nagging feeling I had, that the gaming references in the movie were there solely to appeal to people who self-identify as gamers, began in the scene where Ralph is in a support group for other gaming villains. I was a little confused by the inclusion of Zangief; I didn't remember him being a villain, just another world warrior trying his best to defeat M. Bison. Of course, Bison was there so I rolled with it, but there is a line in that scene where, after Ralph begins to entertain ideas of leaving his game, Bison asks him if he's thinking about going "Turbo." At first, I straightened up in my seat and tried to figure out how Ralph was going to go "Turbo." Having Bison deliver the line brought immediately to mind Super Street Fighter II Turbo, and so I was wondering what it meant. Was Ralph going to try to release incremental upgrades to his game? No. Spoiler alert: Turbo is a character in the movie.

In the few seconds it took for my brain to reconcile, then reject that reference, I got the nagging feeling that the people writing the movie had only a superficial understanding of games. This one tiny part jarred me out of whatever nostalgia-filled trip I was prepared to undertake up Mt. Reference with Ralph as my Sherpa guide. "Hey look, there's Q-Bert! He was in an arcade game once. Remember that?" Wreck-It Ralph was not the gaming movie I was looking for: it was just another pandering attempt to get our sweet, sweet nerd money. The shallowness of the references shows that Hollywood believes that nerds are easily enticed by shiny things with which they are familiar. Granted, the box office returns show that Hollywood is largely correct, but I feel like there was so much opportunity squandered with that film. It could have kept the exact same plot, and many of the easy references, and added a few nods to the more dedicated gamers out there and it still would have done gangbusters.

Of course, the negative or flippant attitude toward gamers isn't strictly bound to the world of entertainment. Whenever possible, political groups use video games or video gamers as convenient scapegoats. The tragedy of a mass shooting immediately strikes fear, revulsion, and anger into the hearts of most everyone, but as the grieving process moves forward, we as a society quickly scramble to find some all-encompassing group or movement on which to hang the blame. After the Columbine shooting in 1999, the media was quick to report that the shooters played Doom. There were false reports that the two murderers had constructed recreations of their school in the Doom level editors, and that the game may have influenced their unthinkable behavior. The most recent tragedies in Aurora, CO, and Newton, CT saw the blame shifted towards gaming once again. The Vice President met with representatives from the video game industry in his crusade to understand and hopefully prevent future gun violence. Here we are, again, being treated like potential murderers with mental instability.

Blaming games as the reason behind violence shows that society still believes us, nerds, are potential time-bombs. Each time we play an online match of CoD or wander the great expanses of Skyrim, we are simulating crimes and unspeakable acts. Why, it's just a matter of time before the fragile basement dweller is so aroused by what he is seeing on his TV as to rise up and commit real-world crimes. It's nothing new, when I was a kid in Gifted and Talented, I almost had my D&D-clone; shut down as my final project because the school board had heard that D&D; caused a group of college kids to dress up as their characters and commit a murder (I got out of it by saying my game was nothing like D&D;, only it totally was).

There is still a fear of nerds, a fear of the outsider, which is baseless and shows a complete lack of understanding as to both why games are violent and why people play them. Games are violent because society is violent, and commercial art is simply a reflection of the wants of consumers. People play them because there is a clear and obvious disconnect between scoring a point on a screen by clicking the trigger button at the appropriate time, and actually harming another human being. Someone likely to harm another person will also perhaps play games, but not necessarily the other way around.

If you want tangible proof that the negative attitude towards nerds, especially gamers, still lives on, take the curious case of Colleen Lachowicz. A social worker for 25 years, she decided to run for public office for the first time in her life in 2012, for a seat in the Maine State Senate representing Maine's 25th District. "I've always been a person interested in health care and mental health care, working with people who need help either mentally or physically," she told me when we spoke over the phone. "I decided to run for office for the first time in my life because I saw things getting worse for middle-class families in particular."

Her noble aspirations may have won her the seat, but her hobby was used to try to paint her as a potentially violent caricature of what is a not uncommon view of gamers. Colleen is not just a caring knitter and foster parent, but she also spends some of her free time playing the dreaded World of Warcraft. While she and her opponent in the race had an amicable relationship, someone at the Maine GOP decided to exploit the fears of those who know little about the game. Someone at the GOP set up a Twitter account, a website, and produced a flier. The information presented was nothing more than her guild affiliation, her character name, and some out of context quotes attributed to her. But its intended effect was immediately evident: This woman plays a game, and therefore she is unfit to hold public office.

Leading up to and even after the election, she had little time to even think about playing the game. "I logged in to say 'hi,' and check my in-game messages, but other than that I've been too busy to play the game," she told me. Her commitment to her campaign trumped her desire to play WoW, but the case quickly gathered national media attention. "Someone called me and I thought it was a joke at first," Colleen said regarding the campaign against her. But she "felt the issues were too big to just delve into this silliness." She is, of course, correct, but the fact that her case gained such widespread attention means that there's still a novelty behind the idea of a woman running for office who also plays games. Colleen won her seat with 52.7% of the vote, but it's hard to say whether the campaign helped or hurt her.

So is being a nerd "cool?" It depends on the context. Gamers are still viewed with a cautious contempt, as can be seen in the NRA's questionable comments following the school shooting at Sandy Hook. The smear campaign against Colleen Lachowicz shows that people still believe that playing an MMO is not just a harmless hobby but an all-consuming way of life. The shallow references and patronizing pandering in The Big Bang Theory and even Wreck-It Ralph show that we're still not taken seriously by Hollywood. Nerds are people passionate about things that usually fall outside of the mainstream. And rather than attempt to understand what motivates a nerd to such passion, popular culture and society still focus on what it is that nerds do that make them different. Guys, we really deserve better.

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• Nerd and Proud

  Posted: 6 hours ago by  Nightmare_Omega
  

  I do agree with a few of the other commentors that part of being a nerd is being labled as an outcast, but since the Columbine incident video games have been getting a lot of flak from the media. We are being labled as "ticking time bombs," which simply isn't true. When Grand Theft Auto IV came out, 6 teenagers went around beating people with a baseball bat because they were bored and wanted to play "GTA." However, that game sold 3.6 million copies its first day. Statistically, that means that only 1.7% of the people who bought the game on the first day committed any kind of violent act, and that doesn't include the millions of people who have bought the game since then. However, the media exploded over the event, labling the game as an educational tool in violence and destruction. I don't care that shows like the Big Bang Theory give us a bad wrap, or that we are still considered outcasts in the eyes of the general public, but it is extremely unfair to stereotype us as trigger-happy basement dwellers on the verge of mental breakdowns.

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  • check your figures

    Posted: 4 hours ago by  benv138
    

    6 people out of 3.6 million is actually .000167%. If 1.7% of GTA day one players became violent we'd have about 60,120 people beating up people with baseball bats and that could pose a serious issue.

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• Shame

  Posted: 8 hours ago by  FlamingBlueJay
  

  It's a shame we nerds aren't taken seriously :(

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• No defence needed -

  Posted: 10 hours ago by  220hertz
  

  Don't concern yourself with self-identification.

  Doing so implies that have a desire to conform to a group which the public at large defines, not you.

  It does not matter if you are a nerd or not.

  Problem solved.

   

  EDIT: The author does point this out - on the whole, I agree with the article.

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• Great Article

  Posted: 11 hours ago by  warriorcaste
  

  .......but Wreck it Raplh couldn't have been THAT good. Could it?

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• Saw that earlier..

  Posted: 17 hours ago by  nipsen
  

  "and some out of context quotes attributed to her. But its intended effect was immediately evident: This woman plays a game, and therefore she is unfit to hold public office."

  And thought that might have been the most hilarious rat*****ing campaign in the history of the United States. "Isn't it true, Senator, that you take pleasure from engaging in imaginary ritualistic behaviour with a group of friends and acquaintances every weekend!!". Or: "It is our understanding that this, this vile, terrifying WOMAN spends hours every week IMAGINING THE UNLAWFUL DISCHARGES OF WEAPONS!! Why, have you heard of anything worse in your life!? Dangerous thoughts! OUT! I COMMAND THEE; OUT!".

  I mean, most of these advertisement pushes tend to bank on that the ones on the receiving end of it are the only ones who understand the message. While the opponents/allies of the advertisement push, who really are hit the hardest, either didn't notice, or are too dumb to be affected by anything.

  So it could have gone either way for her on this one. It was, on the other hand, one of the better opportunities for a campaign to answer directly on a noise-campaign, and tresh their counterpart with it - savagely. Had they done that, it would have been news.

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• No, not really

  Posted: 18 hours ago by  Nothing371
  

  "Nerds" are getting more mainstream media attention than ever, yet you find that disagreeable?  I think it's great that modern media gives us more recognition.  It's the thought that counts. You just seem offended that the class you put yourself in has become generalized in certain situations.

  I completely disagree with you in regards to 'The Big Bang Theory'.   I really don't like the show and can't stress that enough.  The characters are over-the-top obnoxious and sterotypes personified. I hate it. But you couldn't be more wrong with your conclusion.  The show has increidbly good writing.  The dialogue and cheesy punch lines are top-notch.  Pretty much everything Chuck Lorre touches turns to gold.

  A few years ago a movie like 'Wreck It Ralph' probably would have never been made.  How can positive media exposure of your subculture be a bad thing?  Of course the gaming references were not deep.  Those people are cartoonists and movie makers, they are not gamers or video gaming journalists.

  The whole article comes off as cynical and awfully defensive if you ask me.  If you are comfortable enough with your own preferences and lifestyle, ignorant people making generalizations from a mass media point of view should not bother you as much as it apparently does.  You should feel honored and accepted through the recognition received.

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  • I mean...

    Posted: 1 hour ago by  TheDirector
    

    it is defensive, hence the title of the piece. As a person who has never seen BBT, I feel far more convinced by the author's description of the show that your description, which is just a collection of generalization. The problem with generalizations is that they hinder any sort of discourse on a subject. The author is trying to explore these generalizations because he is passionate about what it means to him and to people like him.

    And I don't know how the NRA's accusation, Vice President's Biden mission to study video games and violence, and this Maine campaign conflict are things to feel honored about.

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• not sure if out of context...

  Posted: 22 hours ago by  asrealasitgets
  

  but I cringe whenever I watch that new arrow show, no it's not the watching part that makes me cringe, but they have this Computer Tech Girl in the IT Department that's pretty stupid. They keep her in the basement, which is usually pretty dark, and she's a nerd because she wears glasses of course, but I swear the frames and the lighting make her look like she has a unibrow. Also she uses Windows 8, and she's always using "Bing". This is just too unbelievable. Everybody knows that IT people use Linux. Duh. Like I said misrepresentation.

  Evidence.

  

  "Would you like me to 'Bing' that for you? Oh and I recovered the data from that bullet riddled laptop with my windows 8. derp."

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  • those sound like...

    Posted: 20 hours ago by  slack_21
    

    shameless product placements. but you're right, no one uses bing. NOT ANYONE

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  • Promotional consideration

    Posted: 12 hours ago by  Captain_Gonru
    

    Microsoft paid for their stuff to be all over that show. It's in the credits. Everyone has Microsoft everything, phones, tablets, computers. It isn't a new idea. Apple does it, too, on other shows. So does Purina and Cheerioes.
    All that said, I'm hopeful that she has a moment of "Clearly, I'm far less clueless than every major character on this show thinks I am". Sadly, they probably won't ever elevate her above "plot device #7".

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• Overall, correct, yet still...

  Posted: 22 hours ago by  Error_Code1337
  

  I mean, overall I'm with the message you're giving us:Nerds play a large role in media-and seemingly-the world these days, but overall we're still lokked on as a hilarious stereotype and a source for entertainment or misunderstood fear. But a lot of your supporting evidence...doesn't really support that claim. I don't see at ALL how Wreck-It Ralph did anything negative for the gaming community, nor how it was a just a cheap cash in. I think the set up for the game they created in the movie, "Fix it Felix" only reflects how MUCH the producers/directors/writers understoof games (I've had at least a dozen close friends/family ask me if that was at one point an actual game). If anything I'm glad the movie only dwelled slightly on the game references. "Oh look, Sonic giving a Public Service Announcement! Now back to our OWN story". It helped th emovie stand on its own more but had enough moments to keep me chuckling to myself. Will And Gracem though before my time slightly, I still have seen plenty of it and while I won't bother arguing whether or not it was a GOOD show, as for being a show that purely stood on gay stereotyping, I absolutely disagree. You are correct in the early years as with dealing with Columbine and some recent events that yes, games are quickly looked towards to blame, and maybe it was more severe back then, I feel that today, while they are still looked to as part of a problem, I don't think it's nearly as severe as it used to be, personally (but feel free to argue that, i would love some more input). Overall I do think you're correct, it's time for this silly faux-nerd culture and stereotypicla nerd culture in the media to stop, but I think some of the places you're looking for to blame...you're a bit off the mark.

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• You miss the point of being a nerd

  Posted: 1 day ago by  NinjaKaos
  

  Being a nerd is being an outcast. Let them deride us, let them ignore us. Look what happened to our hobby in the past few years since crap like wii and COD brung casuals in.  Nerds dont get respect, that is part of being a nerd.

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  • 

  • But -

    Posted: 20 hours ago by  Woodcutter
    

    I'd say feeling like an outcast is a state of mind anyone, of any place or work or hobby can have.  People have identified as nerds for many different reasons, not just because there is some feeling of being against the grain.  Feeling against the grain is a very common experience for humans of all walks of life.

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• "Wreck-It Ralph" looked like "Captain N: The Movie" to me

  Posted: 1 day ago by  manoffeeling
  

  You know, occasionally you get a movie that's about loving movies -- something like "Cinema Paradiso" -- , comics that're about loving comics, and even games that're about loving games, but I think it can be pretty tough to really capture what's so great about one medium by talking about it in another (and kind of misguided).  I don't know how cynically the "Wreck-It Ralph" people approached the making of that movie, but it's no surprise if they hit a number of false notes even with the best of intentions.

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• 

• Great Article

  Posted: 1 day ago by  MikkiSaturn
  

  I feel like you kind of bring up two points though.  The first, regarding the use of shallow references to "nerd" things in mainstream pop culture and the second much more serious point about how people don't understand and then fear that same culture, as evidenced by people's reaction to acts of violence, etc.  That second problem is frustrating but also something that I know will work itself out because after all time marches on. Right now politicians don't understand games or gaming culture but in 25 years I'll be 50 and the guy running for president will be my peer and will know as much about games as I do (well, probably not as much as I do, but you know what I mean).  Of course by then we'll all be concerned about how these dang holodecks are ruining the kids minds and in my day sure you pressed a button to "shoot" a guy, (I mean where's the harm in that?) but these kids today actually feel the gun kick and the blood splatter and that's just bound to be much more damaging isn't it?  I mean it just has to be right?  No I don't need evidence, thank you, etc, etc.....
  
  On that first point though, I've noticed it too but I'm not sure what I think about it.  Like, take Big Bang Theory.  That show at it's core has a very conventional premise - guy, guy's wacky roommate, guy's other wacky friends, cute girl, implausible occurences = hilarity.  This is basically the formula for all sitcoms.  Within such a conventional premise what more could they do?  Yeah the references are shallow and often go nowhere... but is there a way around that anyway?  Doesn't it almost have to be that way since the core of the show is so formulaic?  

  Are there any examples of pop culture products that present true celebrations of nerd culture?  Off the top of my head Scoot Pilgrim comes to mind.  I loved both the comics and the movie.  Other than that though?

  Lastly, in Wreck It Ralph, there is a great reference right near the beginning, when the camera is swooping through the tunnels (where the wires go) leading into the big open hall where you can access all the games.  It's graffiti on the wall to the right.  Who else caught it?  I won't spoil it if you haven't seen the movie and want to go looking for it (probably not showing anywhere now I guess) but it was my favorite reference in the whole movie because it was so subtle. 

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• Agreed, except...

  Posted: 1 day ago by  jparish
  

  ...I strongly disagree with your criticism of Wreck-It Ralph. I actually thought the movie's non-gaming references were a lot more shallow and perfunctory. Stuff like the Mentos & Diet Coke geyser and the random Beard Papa cameo (who the hell even knows what Beard Papa is if they don't live in Tokyo, LA, or San Francisco?). The game references were handled far better than I expected. Do you think Who Framed Roger Rabbit was a cynical abuse of classic cartoon characters? Because it treated its old cameos the same way the Wreck-It Ralph did -- as a means by which to provide context and background for the real story with blink-and-you'll-miss-it visual gags. You'll notice that in both of those movies, the references and cameos fade back to leave room for the characters' actions, which exist on their own. That puts Wreck-It Ralph on a much higher tier than crap like Family Guy, where the entire joke really is "Hey, remember this one thing?" as opposed to "Hey, remember this one thing? Here's a bunch of characters who live in that world and have their own ambitions and desires."

  You're totally right about Big Bang Theory, though. That show is just straight-up trash.

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  • Yeah

    Posted: 3 hours ago by  omegawyrm
    

    That's actually a much more measured version of what I wanted to respond with. Thanks Jeremy!

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• 

• I've felt the same way as Seth before

  Posted: 1 day ago by  Articuno76
  

  When viewing programmes like those mentioned I've sometimes felt that as well.  It would be all and well and good if we were simply viewing a mainstream take on a sub-culture, but when consider all my friends are gamers of some kind (and the are from all walks of life and run the range of intro-extrovert spectrum) to some degree it seems jarring.  Gaming IS mainstream culture among people my age (twenties).  So who is this 'cool mainstream' of non-gamers that doesnt' seem to exist?  Seems to me it is those people who are in the minority and in fact 'out of touch'.

  Things will change: Sooner or later politicians are also going to realise that a majority of those partaking in the much maligned hobby are themselves gamers of some description.

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• 

• Wonderful article!

  Posted: 1 day ago by  DJ_Caesar
  

  Everything you said was woefully true.  I wrote a piece for my blog here on 1up (shameless plug, everybody!) about the new TBS show King of the Nerds which, to a shorter length, hit on some of the same points you made: using nerds as/for cash but still skewing their collective perception by playing on old, marginalizing stereotypes.

  Also, I'd read this article about reasons why nerds hate Big Bang Theory, and I think the best way to describe that style of humor is "pulling a Family Guy."  It relies too heavily on making references, and expecting that to be the source of comedy even though there wasn't even a joke made.  Surely, the laugh track in BBT doesn't really make it much better.

  I think things like these need to be written and published more often, because this kind of crap just doesn't seem to die; it only gets recycled year after year, often to the detriment of all.  It's a great read, and I would advocate stealing more hands in order to give it more thumbs up.

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• 

• great article

  Posted: 1 day ago by  jamie2013
  

  like that you all are original in your content.

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• I read and enjoyed your article.

  Posted: 1 day ago by  darrinA
  

  Games aren't real but the act of playing them is.  Imagination and roleplay is healthy.  The difference between making a game about shooting up a school and actually shooting up a school is clear.  But stupid people get scared.  They think if you like violent fantasy, you like real violence.  The problem is everybody likes violence, but some people are in denial of that fact.  Like, when homophobic people are scared because of their own attraction to the same sex.  People become afraid of things they do not understand.  However, fear is the beginning of wisdom.  Beginning to know something you know nothing about.  BBT puts peoples fears at ease by showing that smart people can be FUNNY and have HOT girlfriends.

  Something that also needs to be said is that gamers, especially young ones, ARE ticking time bombs.  Without exposure to the REAL world they cannot understand it, and begin to fear it.  Yoda says "Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering."  Video games are a COMPLETE WASTE OF TIME, because they are an entirely different universe.  An illusionary universe.  A fake universe.  If you don't make the fake universe part of the real universe, you are just throwing away real life XP. 

  Just the other day I heard someone make a comment about Tarantino being a "sick freak".  They are projecting they're own insecurities.  If they can't admit that they think cutting a guys ear off to the tune of Bob Dylan isn't fucking awesome, they're the one who is sick.

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  • WTF are you talking about?

    Posted: 1 day ago by  NinjaKaos
    

    Fake universe?  most people live in a fake universe without video games. they believe their government never lies to them, that they can live forever with the same person, they think that justice is fair, and not influenced by money, fame, and power.  F-ing sheep like you are ina fake world.

     

    If people are vulnerable to media in which they consume then explain hitler, ghengis khan or the spanish inquisition or christians giving blankets infected with the pox to natives or slavery ?  There was way more f-up sht in the past before video games.

    There are far more love/comedy movies than violent movies. why are we not  loving each other?

    If illusionary universes are worthless then I guess imagination is worthless, like the imagination Einstien used to come up with his theories. i guess all fiction is worthless too.   EVERYTHINGIS FAKE U F-KING SHEEP THE ONLY REALITY IS LIFE AND DEATH.

     

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  • 

  • Sure is entry-level philosophy around here.

    Posted: 21 hours ago by  DJ_Caesar
    

    What are either of you talking about?  If video games are such a waste of time, then what are you doing on this site?  And how are gamers, regardless of age, "ticking time bombs" or somehow less able to grasp reality than non-gamers?  That's ludicrous.  Also, fear is the beginning of wisdom...but Yoda says otherwise?  Where were you going with any of that?

    Yes, culture and society shape people and perceptions, and you end up getting nasty things like stereotypes blocking how people can and/or will interact with one another.  But the idea that gamers somehow can't differentiate reality from fantasy is something you're more likely to see on a crummy crime TV show than in real life.  But at the same time, no one benefits from hearing or throwing out blanket statements about history's "lies," the human condition, social schemas, or whatever I was able to salvage from what either of you wrote.

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