Nrrd Core Rising

Pocket protector no more! Haven't you heard? Geeks are the new cool

When I was a teenager, liking the things I did earned me a place among the legion of like-minded weirdos who took no small amount of abuse for our interests. That’s right, nerds—I was a nerd. Still am. In those days, a fondness for comic books, video games, Japanese animation, Dungeons & Dragons, etc. meant that one simply wasn’t cool. The jocks derided, the hot chicks laughed and our closest friends were usually teachers or librarians or janitors. We were the kind of people who never heard the words, “I love you,” from a beautiful woman or, “You’re OK,” from a doctor. And yet, other than repeated failures on the dating circuit and the subsequent masturbation-induced carpal-tunnel from which many of us still suffer to this day, we didn’t actually care.

One of the true hallmarks of nerds is passion mixed with a complete lack of guilt for the worlds in which we invest so much time. We spent dizzying school lunches playing heated LAN matches of Quake Arena, and tense debates were held over the logic of Crisis on Multiple Earths or Hellblazer. Akira and Ninja Scroll held places of honor on the DVD shelf, and the so-called cool kids seemed to hate us for it. Kids are cruel, and when your favorite things are deemed dorky by society, those who don't understand tend to fear and hate them as well as those who hold them dear.

And then, suddenly, there was this weird shift. Superhero films were suddenly well-made and began to rise to prominence, and by extension, so did the comic books. Video turned more and more sophisticated, and as the Internet dominated the planet, so too did a strong interest in computers. Shirts emblazoned with "I <3 Nerds" appeared on babes, anyone who saw Batman Begins claimed a longtime affiliation with the nerd-squad and big-ass glasses popped up in record numbers. It came to be that those of us who hadn't deserved girlfriends or birthday party invitations or even a basic level of acknowledgment from our peers were suddenly ahead of the trends, and being nerdy was the coolest of super-cool lifestyles.

Now, as the subculture continues to grow and infiltrates more areas of shared culture, more options for nerdin' it up emerge, and Santa Fe is not immune. Our town has über-nerdy pockets everywhere; in fact, whether you're looking to revisit your roots, are curious about expanding your nerd repertoire or are tired of living a closeted lifestyle, these are the people, places and things that make up our vibrant, dorky underbelly.

The Video Games

Maybe your tastes in nerd-dom run toward the more virtual, and really, there has never been a better time to be into gaming. Yet, most who seem to oppose the medium generally regard the industry as an artless and violent means of psychosexual escapism, when the reality is that the artistic value has never been higher. Take, for example, the works of developer/writer Ken Levine. In his first commercial smash hit, BioShock, a mélange of anti-objectivism from within a dystopian Ayn Randian hellscape emerged, and the beautiful, crumbling art deco environments of the undersea city of Rapture were every bit as important as the narrative. Or look to the thinly veiled and brilliantly written critique of organized religion, zealotry, blind faith, classicism and racism found within the floating city of Columbia in the series' third iteration, BioShock Infinite. These are not simplistic concepts by any means, and we've only just scratched the surface of two titles found within the mainstream. Dozens of other titles across countless genres excel in the art of storytelling, voice acting, music, proprietary tech and so much more.

We can also look to recent trends in indie development and see how small studios pop up almost daily. Free from the shackles of corporate handholding, these boutique companies provide us with gorgeous glimpses into sprawling deserts while asking the big questions of existence like in thatgamecompany's Journey. They teach us that narrative and moral choices are not to be taken lightly, like in Telltale Games' fantastic, episodic point-and-click adventure series, The Walking Dead. Or they challenge us to face the sometimes harsh and painful realities of everyday life, like in That Dragon Cancer, a Kickstarter-funded project that tells the real-life tale of Joel Green, a young boy who died of cancer, as told through the eyes of his developer parents. The bottom line is that video games have grown similarly to film, and they now include refined levels of storytelling and impressive visuals, to the point that just about anyone can find a reason to pick up a controller.

"People game to relax and have fun and also because they love the storytelling," GameStop Senior Game Advisor Gary Cordova says. "For me, and a lot of people, it's the story that grasps you, not just the visuals."

These are aspects that anyone, nerd or not, can enjoy, and there are now gamers of all ages and creeds throughout society.

"You'll see guys with teardrop tattoos or kids obsessed with Nintendo to run-of-the-mill teenagers and 20-something hipsters," fellow GameStop SGA Josh Ramos adds. "We have a woman in her 80s who comes in and buys all these Google Play credits so she can game on her phone and tablet."

Ramos brings up an interesting point. Certainly PCs and consoles are the most immediately recognizable gaming vehicles, but the rise of the smartphone and tablet means that even if you're simply playing Scrabble on your phone to kill a few minutes, you're still gaming. It all points to the inevitable fact that the industry is just plain not about stomping turtles anymore; it has become a part of daily life. One might even argue that Facebook—the world's most invasive and commonplace electronic/interactive platform—could be called a video game. As we speak, varying generations of artists, coders and engineers are at work, and at this point, those unwilling or unable to view gaming without judgment are missing out on some of the most high-concept storytelling and artistic achievements currently available. Or, to put it another way, it's like taking an interactive role in a cinematic experience, and isn't it better to interact with something on a screen than to simply sit there and stare at it?

Nerd Glossary

It can sometimes be daunting dealing with the secret language of the nerds, so here’s a handy-dandy mini-glossary for decoding some of the terms, abbreviations, acronyms and beyond found within the nerd world.

Hopefully it gives you a head start on your road to geekin’. Welcome aboard, friends, and good luck!

AD&D: Advanced Dungeons & Dragons.
AI: Artificial intelligence (as in the code that allows for enemy or ally behavior in a video game).
Cosplay: Costume play (like when people dress up as their favorite comic book character).
D&D: The coolest way to refer to Dungeons & Dragons.
DM: Dungeon Master, aka the guy who’s in charge.
Developer: The people who create the games.
IP: Intellectual property. For example, “BioShock is Irrational Games’ most popular IP.”
Indie(s): Independent games or comics studios such as Telltale Games or Raw magazine.
LAN: Local Area Network. Applies to LAN parties wherein friends gather to compete or just for fun, i.e., “I’m gonna pwn you tonight at the LAN party.”
NPC: A non-playable character found in a video game, like the old bastard in The Legend of Zelda who finally gives you your damn sword.
PvP: Player vs. player, as in a competitive match.
Publisher: The people who release the games and handle the marketing, etc.
RPG: Role-Playing Game.
Starter Deck: An assortment of cards for RPG gaming.
Trade Paperback: A collection of single comic book issues in collected book form.

The Quiz

Since 2006, Colorado's Geeks Who Drink has brought nerds together with a humorous and ribald take on the world of pub trivia. And though people may think such quizzes are about nothing but pop culture, Geeks actually touches on just about any topic one could imagine. With rounds on literature, science, art, history, film, gaming, geography, music and on and on and on, it is one of the more well-rounded pub quiz experiences out there and, as anyone who has ever been can tell you, a complete blast. Geeks Who Drink even goes so far as to host the most popular national event within the quizzing world, the annual Geek Bowl competition. The 2015 Geek Bowl took place in good old Albuquerque and featured more than 130 teams from all over the country. Now that's popular!

"I think it's partly because our questions have a voice which is irreverent and fun; it's not, 'What's the capital of North Dakota?'" Quizmaster-in-Chief John Dicker says. "I also think it's because it's written by a group of writers, graphic designers, etc…often when a quiz is written by one person, it lacks diversity and keeps coming back to the host's pet topics."

Geeks Who Drink is also the only quiz with dedicated audio and visual rounds in every single quiz, and this serves to break up the question/answer format with exciting variety, but the ultimate draw might be the opportunity for grown-ass nerds to revisit their more immature selves. Just as an example, team names are usually wildly inappropriate or fun plays on words. The 2015 Geek Bowl-winning team from Philadelphia was called Independence Hall & Oates, and other team names included Angela Lansbury Is a Whore, Double Entendre the Giant and Ewok Sex Tape. Basically, Geeks Who Drink offers a level of fun and accessibility that nerds have always thirsted for, and in an extremely professional setting.

"Other pub quizzes can have difficulty with their level of difficulty—some weeks are stupid easy while others are impossible," Mari Kempes of the team Georgia O'Queef says. "It's also a nice way to bridge the age gaps that are found naturally in the Santa Fe nightlife population."

Fellow teammate Amanda Mather agrees that Geeks is awesome and adds that, "They have drunken pub trivia down to a science at this point, and it shows."

I know what you're thinking—why have you been avoiding this? Well, the good news is that you can stop now, and that Santa Fe hosts three different quizzes at The Draft Station, Second Street Brewery in the Railyard and The Pink Adobe (see sidebar on the next page). That's three nights where you can win free drinks and cool prizes simply by showing off how damn nerdy you've always been.

The Comics

"I was totally the ugly duckling and the nerd, and the years I spent in junior high were emotionally the most trying in terms of bullying," artist Celia Santos laments. "So, one of the things I sought refuge in was X-Men…really deeply, because they were mutants, and they were different, and I think that this was something that showed people that they themselves weren't different."

Santos hits the nail on the head with this one, as X-Men was always a not-so-subtle allegory for civil rights and a call to common decency from the king of nerds, Stan Lee. But even this was much later in the history of comics. We could go as far back as brilliant newspaper serials like Little Nemo in Slumberland from the inimitable Winsor McKay (the first, by the way, to utilize animation to a successful degree with his Gertie the Dinosaur shorts) and the absolutely bizarre yet almost unfathomably creative worlds realized within. Certainly the medium has long served as an escapist fantasy, but with the advent of graphic novels like Watchmen, A History of Violence or the phenomenal Maüs, artists and writers like Alan Moore or Art Spiegelman proved that comics could tackle more realistic and mature themes head-on. Batman took a much darker tone, Sin City blew everyone's minds and the rise of Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead (note: Kirkman's Battle Pope is way cooler) means that even your mom has unwittingly become a fan of comic books.

"Comics are opening up to a broader clientele," Bram Meehan, Big Adventure Comics employee and professor of Creating Comics: The Design of Sequential Art at Santa Fe University of Art & Design, tells SFR. "To a certain generation, they're just another kind of book, and we're seeing a lot more fans who are just book people."

Meehan says that superhero titles may have once been the main inroad for creating fans, but the rise of trade paperbacks and ever-maturing storytelling elements have meant an infiltration into all walks of life. Additionally, to properly comprehend the medium, readers actually need a fair amount of brainpower.

"Cognitively speaking, there's an awful lot going on when you read a comic book, and I think on a baseline level, the engagement is really high," he says. "You're using two very distinct parts of your brain in order to digest both the art and the text."

If, as a society, we truly value the power of storytelling—which the evolution of television, film, books et al. has absolutely proven—does it matter how these stories are conveyed? Comic books have matured along a similar trajectory as games, and the dichotomy of visuals and text allow for an imaginative and exciting means of narrative-driven excellence. Look, just read Jeff Smith's Bone and try not to be riveted.

The Tabletop

Let's look even further back to the 1970s and the genesis of the ever-popular tabletop RPG. It's decades later, and millions continue to play the brainchild of Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, Dungeons & Dragons. It's changed in countless ways from the early years but is still one of the most widely experienced forms of entertainment on earth. But D&D was only the beginning. What began as three simple classes journeying and fighting through the power of imagination and friendship grew to spawn and respawn countless clones, innovative offshoots, new properties and a variety of card games, board games and hybrids.

The above mentioned local comics shop knows this all too well and provides Magic: The Gathering tournaments on the weekends (see sidebar, left) as well as a Monday night gaming event called "The Game Thing." There, fans of tabletop gaming can comingle and play in an environment of acceptance and encouragement. Anything from D&D to Warhammer and all titles and creations in between are played, but almost no IP has fostered or maintained quite the massive fanbase as the earliest and arguably most popular card-based game, Magic: The Gathering. According to local gamer/musician Zac Hogan, "It's an exciting, strategic game of knowledge, intellect, probability, psychology and simple mathematics, and all with an awesome D&D vibe."

Hogan says that he discovered the game during a period when he was abstaining from alcohol and credits Magic as providing a comforting substitute from more destructive pastimes. Within the world of friendly and/or highly competitive games and tournaments, he discovered a vast subculture of similar people who shared his interests, not unlike a surrogate family.

"Like most people who are into very specific microcosms or niches, they are really fucking into them," he says. "That's how they exist and stay alive, [and] each player loves the thrill of the chase and playing the game."

Hogan refers to people like Stephen Bohannon, Game Thing host. Bohannon clearly loves the thrill of a good strategy-based game but also espouses the social value of such products—a stance that opposes tired stereotypes of anti-social gamers sequestered in their parents' darkened basements somewhere.

"I believe that people are remembering how important it is to be around each other," Bohannon explains. "We are social creatures craving a good story, and board games give us the common arena…an equal playing field to spend our social currency."

This brings us back to what may very well be the most important thread that unites nerds everywhere. Perhaps you noticed that the themes of storytelling and social interaction popped up a fair amount throughout this piece, and these are important to us as creatures built with brains that crave altered states of reality and closeness with others.

Granted, this has only been a small cross section of the nerdly opportunities out there in Santa Fe, and finding these activities is up to you. There are nearly endless active and passive roles to play within the nerdscape, and most of them open the door to a vast world of creativity, excitement and camaraderie. Some of the strongest bonds and lasting friendships have been formed over a hand-drawn D&D map or when passing around a video game controller or trading comic books. Indeed, if the true hallmark of the nerd is unapologetic passion, and our days as a societal minority are behind us, then we are, fundamentally, curious explorers who share a desire to experience that which is exceptional.

The best news of all, however, is that we're just waiting for you to join us. It'll be fun. Promise.

Nrrd Compass

Where to find

Geeks Who Drink:

Mondays 8 pm

@The Draft Station 60 E San Francisco St., 983-6443


Wednesdays 8 pm

@The Dragon Room 406 Old Santa Fe Trail, 983-7112


Thursdays 8 pm

@Second Street Brewery (Railyard) 1607 Paseo de Peralta, Ste. 10, 989-378

Game Nights:

Mondays 6 pm @Big Adventure Comics
The Game Thing w/Stephen Bohannon
801 Cerrillos Road, 992-8783

Wednesdays 7 pm @The Realm of Possibilities
Yu-Gi-Oh
1700 St. Michael’s Drive, Ste. 118, 473-0544

Fridays 6 pm @Big Adventure Comics
Magic: The Gathering
801 Cerrillos Road, 992-8783

Fridays 7 pm @The Realm of Possibilities
Magic: The Gathering (standard and fast)
1700 St. Michael’s Drive, Ste. 118, 473-0544

Saturdays 6 pm @Big Adventure Comics
Magic: The Gathering
801 Cerrillos Road, 992-8783

Sundays 6 pm @Big Adventure Comics
Magic: The Gathering
801 Cerrillos Road, 992-8783

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