The Nerd in the Herd…

Let’s be honest; being a nerd is no longer the stigma it used to be. Thanks in part to Steve Jobs, Big Bang Theory, Comic Cons and the like; Nerdom is enjoying a Renaissance of coolness that is unprecedented. It is easier than ever to find a sympathetic and obsessed ear. Hop on your computer and there are Meet-ups, and Nerd bars and Cos-play at the click of a button.

But, meanwhile, back in the real world, we still pull the hood up on our alter ego. We still trundle to work as Plain Janes and Joes because (honesty again) if we ever released our true inner geek with its lunatic fascination for zombies and the apocalypse, they would call out the National Guard. We can’t hide it completely, but we settle for the tolerated, even celebrated, ‘mostly weird’ and keep the balls-to-the-wall, totally out there psycho fan for our friends and fellow asylum inmates.

Despite our current trendiness, we still know we are outnumbered by the ‘Normals’; so when you happen to bump into a nerd in the herd, it is a moment to rejoice. It happened to me this weekend and it was glorious!

Set the scene…a Girl Scout outing to a dinosaur museum with giggling pre-adolescents and barely-know-each-other moms. Yikes! It is enough to send any true nerd diving for their inhaler or anti-anxiety meds…so you pop off an obscure movie quote under your breath and, Lo! The woman next to you giggles! She gets it! It is kismet!

I had talked to this mom briefly before. I was attracted to her batman earrings, but the true essence of our nerdiness we kept under wraps. I mean, how much geek can you reasonably slather on a person if you know you will have to deal with them on a regular basis? However, despite our reservations and looking up at a T-Rex named Stan, we finally let it fly.

She is a much bigger Dr. Who and Batman fan than I am, but that’s okay because I get it. I am a bigger table top role playing fan and am caught up in our A’Kyria world, but that’s okay because she gets it. We threw out movie quotes like confetti, wondered why Treasure Planet was so underrated, argued the virtues (or lack thereof) of Frozen, geeked out about the upcoming cons and waxed philosophical about books, movies and shows. I don’t know if we will become “besties” as my daughter calls it, but by the end of the day my little cup of nerdiness overfloweth. I had bumped into a kindred spirit, another nerd in the herd, and I was replete with all things geek. (Insert contented sigh here.)

We are Our Own Game Company…Playing for the fun of it!

Life is a Game, My Friend…

We all know the stereotype of a gamer: socially dysfunctional; lives in their parent’s basement obsessed with all things sci-fi and fantasy; only has a job so they can buy the latest updates on Steam…blah, blah, blah. For those of us who take the leap into game design, you would need to kick that stereotype up a notch. Now, you’re not just obsessed with games, you are obsessed with your game. It gets to the point where even your gamer friends (the ones you haven’t roped into helping develop the game) are putting you off. “Wow! Will you look at the time! I was supposed to meet Jared at the club for a game of racquetball. Ta-ta!” And before you realize that your friend doesn’t even know a Jared, he is off and running.

Beyond talking about A’Kyria, playing A’Kyria, developing pods for A’Kyria, drawing pictures and writing software for A’Kyria, and having Our Own Game Company meetings about things typically related to A’Kyria, we do stuff…life stuff. We have our J.O.B’s, spend time untangling our kids and their various paraphernalia, feed pets, liberate the chickens; the usual stuff. We keep on top of current events. We know that Scalia bought the farm and now Congress and the White House are going to start slugging it out again. We know that 150,000 penguins were wiped out of existence by a thoughtless iceberg. We know the Zika virus is poised to run amok in South America if it doesn’t mutate and kill us all. But our nerdy little hearts are singing for a joyously raunchy and irreverent Deadpool, that a new Star Wars movie is in production and the predicted chocolate shortage hasn’t hit us yet. Firefly is still a classic, Carrie Fisher and Stan Lee are going to be at the Denver Comic Con and all is right with the world.

Gamers of every stripe can appreciate a good obsession. While Our Own Game Company is firmly living in Nerd-dom, our obsession just happens to be something that everyone isn’t talking about…yet. Before you go off to find a Jared to play racquetball with, take a moment to check out the world of A’Kyria to see if “mi casa loco es tu casa loco”…my crazy house is your crazy house. You’re welcome!

We are Our Own Game Company…Playing for the fun of it!