Brainstorm Idea/s

I'm pretty sure I will be making a essay about women in geek culture, and why there is such a stigma against them. I'll probably have some cause & effect elements, along the lines of why there is a stigma and how it affects the image of the culture.

However, I'm open for ideas.

Making of a Fandom

What exactly is a fandom? A fandom is essentially the fan base for any show, book, movie, comic, or even a game. The word is used on a daily basis in the geek culture, especially on the internet. What makes a fandom, though? More precisely, what effect does it have on the geek culture?

            Fandoms are subjective; Doctor Who may be one of my favorite shows, but someone else might find it boring. Although I and many other geeks find Twilight mind numbingly painful to watch, it still has a fandom and, technically speaking, is apart of the geek culture as it falls into the fantasy genre (albeit barely). Does that make it any less a fandom, since most geeks find it repulsive? No. Does it affect the geek culture? Absolutely.

            Perhaps you have heard of Comic-Con? It used to be what its name implied; a comic book convention. Nowadays it is a place for promoting the latest, greatest blockbuster movie or game that is being released. It has lost the feeling of being “geeky”, and now it is just another stage for game developers and the movie industry to promote their wares to the public. And yes, Twilight does have a booth at Comic-Con.

            The geek culture is growing; many geeks don’t understand that it is growing in nearly all directions, bringing with it both positive fandoms and negative fandoms.

Endless Blog Possibilities

Blogging to me is just another way to express one's self. If you're having difficulties in your life and you have no one else to turn to, just venting about your problems sometimes helps. Of course personal information should not be publicly shared, but typing out what is bothering you and trying to find the words to describe it is almost therapeutic. You don't even have to share that publicly; a blog could be a online journal if you really wanted it to be.

            Like many things on the internet, and the internet itself, a blog can be anything you want it to be. The possibilities are nearly endless. People that have gone through something similar to what you're going through might find your blog, and give you advice on how to deal with it. Or maybe your blog is focused on tabletop games like Dungeons & Dragons; D&D players will eventually find your blog, and you'll start to attract more of an audience if you're good. Eventually you might even attract such an audience that you will want to have a meet up and have a game night. Who knows?

Character Creation

Character creation is a fundamental step in your journey on any Massively Multiplayer Online game (or MMO for short.) Now if you're just starting an MMO, you may get slightly confused at the process. There are usually around five to seven steps to creating your identity, depending on each game's style. Some games may allow you to create a completely customized character, while others may only give you general adjustments such as eye color, hair color, body type, etc. This will hopefully help you in understanding the process, but actually making your character is entirely up to you.

            The first step is usually picking a "faction." Factions depend greatly on the game you have, and how differently they affect your experiences in-game. For example, Star Wars: The Old Republic Online (or TORO) has only two factions; the Sith Empire and the Galactic Republic. In some games you may change factions later on in the game, but in TORO and other games this decision is final. Be extremely careful and mindful when choosing your faction as it will affect your experience in the game, and also the next step.

            After picking a faction, you will need to pick a race. Just like the Factions, this will vary greatly from game to game. For fantasy games the usual roster will be there; Elves, Humans, Dwarves, etc. For Sci-Fi games it may be along the lines of Cyborgs, Humans, and whatever Alien species that are from that game's universe and timeline. Sticking with the TORO theme, and say we picked the Sith Empire faction, we will have Sith Pure Bloods, Cyborgs, and an alien species called Rattataki. These three species are only available to the Sith Empire. Humans are nearly always available to any faction regardless of the faction you picked, but not in every game. After picking a race you will need to decide if your character will be female or male. This decision, regardless of your own real-life gender, is usually a difficult one to make. If it is right to change your character's gender from your real-life gender, that is for an entirely different argument.

            After finally getting your basic character, you get to customize it. Like stated in the beginning, the customization options may vary from game to game. Some games may only allow you to change your hair, skin, and eye color along with body type. Others may give you full range of options. With so many different MMOs, it is almost impossible to advise you properly in this part. Many games will have sliders that change the settings, while others will have pictures of what they will look like on your character, like a small preview. This is the most basic advice that is without generalizing too much, so try to experiment with what you have.

            With your character the way you want it to look, you will need to pick its profession, also known as a class. This is arguably the most important part of creating a character; this will be how you level up, and how your experience in the game will be until you can afford to change professions (if it is even allowed.) For most MMOs there will only be combat classes, but a few MMOs will have some that are not combat related. Each profession will have different styles of armor, skills, combat styles, and weapons. Be extremely careful when picking a class; if you are just starting a MMO, do not pick a healing class. These classes are expected to know how to heal well in stressful situations. If you feel you would do well as a healer, create a secondary character as your healer. Focus on learning the game as a tank class, a class that can take loads of damage. When you have a group of friends who know you are starting as a healer, take out your secondary character and play that. Also be weary of picking a damage class; these classes are very weak, and are focused on dealing damage, rather than surviving a fight. If you're easily frustrated, this class may not be for you.

            Once you have decided on a profession, the only step left is naming your character. The only thing I can offer you for advice is this: Do not name it after yourself, your account's username, or anything relating to your password. This name will appear to everyone in the MMO, so be mindful of that. Now go, new adventurer! Conquer your enemies and make a name for yourself. Just remember there are people behind those other characters, too.

Are You a Geek or a Nerd?

"Are you a geek or a nerd?" It's an odd question. Is there any difference between the two? And if so, is it that much of a difference that it means completely different things, or can you use both geek and nerd to the same effect? The answer is as odd as the question.

            Looking back to the early nineteen-hundreds, the word geek had a much more infamous meaning than its contemporary counterpart. Strangely a geek in the early nineteen-hundreds was a carnival performer who's performance consisted of biting the heads off of live animals, mainly chickens. Nowadays, being called a geek leaves a slightly less disgusting taste in our mouths. If you look in any dictionary you will find the definition of the word geek with something along the lines of "socially awkward," or "unpopular." These definitions couldn't be farther than the truth, and it's the other definitions that are much closer to the truth; "interested in and knowledgeable in a certain field," "an enthusiast or expert in a field or activity." These are the definitions that should be focused on when someone is called a geek.

            But what about nerds? For some the candy with the same name will pop into their head, or for others you may picture someone with black-rimmed classes with a pocket protector. Luckily the history and origin of the word nerd is less graphic of an event than geek was, and it came about much later, nearly fifty years. The first known use was a creature from a children's book titled, If I Ran the Zoo, by Theodor Geisel. You may know him by his alias, Dr. Seuss. Amazingly, one of the most used negative labels in society may have been created by one of the least negative people in the history of literature. And what of the contemporary definition of the word nerd? "A person who behaves awkwardly around other people and usually has unstylish clothes, hair, etc." That is a direct quote from merriam-webster.com's definition of a nerd. Much like geek's definition however, a nerd is also interested in a technical field or activity.

            The only difference between being called a geek or nerd is how and why you are calling someone those two things. Are you calling them a nerd because they understand computers to a mind melting degree, or are you calling them that because they don't have perfect hair? How about calling someone a geek? Are they passionate about something, or are they shy and thus you assume they are socially awkward? Labels don't have to mean negative things; we choose to make them mean negative things.

Beta

Probably one of the most important stages in game development is the beta test stage. Beta testing is a simple concept; the game developers allow average players to play the game and report back any glitches in the game. However, it is much more than that as each game is different, and because of this each test is run slightly different, at different times in the test.

            For example, a game currently in development is the Elder Scrolls Online, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game, or MMORPG for short. The game is in its early stages, and because of this it is not in its public beta stage. To put it simply, it is strictly invitation-only, and you have to apply for an invitation. When games are invitation-only it limits the amount of population stress on the servers, which are where players actually play the game. The testing is focused more on the game itself than on how well it handles with large amounts of players on at a given time.

            Contrary to that, Battlefield 4, which just closed their beta yesterday, had a public beta test.  Releasing a public beta test is a double edged sword; it gives the developers a sense of how well the servers can handle the populations. Since it is a public beta, or open beta as some say, there are no restrictions on if you can participate and it is completely free. Those reasons lead into the second edge of the sword, which is the advertising. What better way to see if people will buy your game than allow everyone to play it for free? Because it is free, more people will have played the game and by the time the release date arrives, word-of-mouth will have spread like wildfire about how amazing the game is. Also, it gives you an edge on the other players who never got the chance to play in the beta.

            There are many other important stages to game development; such as the coding of the game, getting the right voice actors to give your game personality, and many other processes. The chance to be a part of the process of making one of the games you will be playing in the future, that makes the beta test priceless to an average gamer such as myself. 

Beneficial Games?

It is a largely debated fact that video games are beneficial. Just saying they are beneficial and actually proving it, are two different things. I personally believe games have the power to be extremely helpful, even educational, if used under the right circumstances.  I feel I have benefited from the various games I have played.

            One such benefit is the realization of the importance of team work and working together to achieve a goal. Many games have some form of multiplayer or another, and many of those require massive amounts of cooperation in order to win the game. Even in some single player games you are required to keep a team alive, and you will lose if something happens to the team. It installs a sense of responsibility in you; everyone in the squad is responsible for the other, and if you don't watch their backs you will lose.

            Another benefit, and this one I feel is the most important, is video games forcing you to think inside and outside the box. I can't tell you how many times I have been stuck on a puzzle or even on a boss. It's in the hundreds. No matter what, I always manage to figure out the boss' pattern, or solve the puzzle that plagued me in my sleep. Part of why this is the most important benefit is because this also gives you a cocktail of determination and relaxation. There have been many times when my mind is a jumbled mess of a dozen things and I can't focus on anything.  When that happens, I play a game for a while and focus on the strategy, and my mind gets straightened out.

            Of course everyone is different and games may not be beneficial to them, but to write off games completely would be missing a great opportunity. I have learned so much through playing video games, and there is so much more to learn from them if both gamers and non-gamers would open their minds to the possibilities.