The Graying of Fandom

The knowledge that there is absolutely zero difference between sitting three feet away from somebody playing Halo and playing Halo with headsets in different states – this is what makes [Major League Gaming] so sad.  -Nugent

The difference is that you generally get an entire television to yourself playing online rather than sharing the space. Looking past that, Nugent is talking about something he calls “the graying of the old-school nerd” or “the graying of fandom.” There is apparently a concern that many activities that were considered popular for nerds, such as reading sci-fi and going to conventions to talk about the sci-fi novels nerds read, is disappearing and being replaced by a new set of nerds. Nugent writes:

“Now, of course, the middle-aged and the elderly are the rank and file, and the high-school-to-college demographic is a fringe. The people who would have been voracious readers of sci-fi and fantasy in previous generations are spending their time other ways. Computer and console games offer the same themes (adventure, battle, groups of heroic characters with diverse abilities on a quest to thwart a force of evil). They demand less time than books, they link hundreds of thousands of players through the Internet, and they are increasingly portable. The clubhouse has become endangered.”

In the same way that part of Roger Ebert fears the rise of the video game industry because of his close involvement with the film industry, the old-school nerd is threaten because their numbers are diminishing. Nugent is right; video games are the status quo. It is much easier to play video games in the quiet of your own home, potentially with thousands of others, than go to big conventions and meet to talk about the nerd-o-scape. Video games even allow people to hide their nerd tendencies, something that may be important to younger people that are trying to maintain an air of cool so as not to become outcasted in an increasingly judgmental and alienating social system known as high school. Your peer group doesn’t have to know you’re in a World of Warcraft guild or Call of Duty clan. Video games also let people connect over similar interests regardless of geographical location; a group of videogamers can be transnational, and people can group together over what they want to do fictionally without ever seeing each other. For all of these reasons the traditional nerd is graying.

But the concept of nerd may also be evolving. Traditional nerds may be holding onto a system that no longer has any market value; in order to gain new members, organizations have to offer something that is valuable. Maybe traditional nerd structures are having trouble doing this. If it’s more valuable to hide nerd tendencies while connecting with like-minded individuals than go to public conventions and display the ultimate nerd in you, than video games will inevitably be more popular.