Geek Culture is just Pop Culture: a Caffeine Rant
Hey there, remember me? You probably don't since no one really reads any of the posts on this blog. However, in the event that I somehow do attract some form of an audience with my awful grammar and incessant need to sound like I know what I am talking about than perhaps I should do a small preface to this article here. Since we last met ( if you've even been here before) I've gotten fatter, am now a father, will be a married man in five months time and have become extremely disillusioned with the entire Hollywood system. So I guess what I am trying to say is howdy, sorry I've been gone here is some drivel for you to read.
So I got loaded up on caffeine (can't be a parent without it) and wrote a stream of thoughts down. I was going to just delete this and be done with it, but then I remembered that I had this blog. I honestly thought the last thing I posted was back in 2015, imagine my shock when I wrote a review to a horrible movie from 2017 that I never remembered writing, life is weird that way. Any way enjoy this random rant that shows my spiral out of control as I came to the epiphany that most of stuff I loved as a kid and claimed to have molded me as an adult do not matter. That it's been thrown into a corporate blender and is now a facsimile of what it once represented.
PS. we all know this little bit here is a poor excuse for my awful attempt at forming a coherent thought using the English language.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This year's E3 has been for me personally a pretty big disappointment. While I haven’t been that excited for most of the things that were announced during the hoard of live streams, news articles and interviews, there was in fact one video game announced that did catch my attention. Final Fantasy VII Remake. A game that was for a time as elusive and mythical as Half-Life 3 in its status in the world of “Geek-Culture” or Geekdom. Here was a game only rumored about during most of my high school life, and now here it is with an actual release date. March 03, 2020. And as this game was announced I noticed something that I haven’t really taken into account at all during my 27 years as a certified “geek”. The minute the game was announced up for preorders I blindly went and purchased the “deluxe edition”. After I had successfully preordered the $124 game bundle and allowed time to take its course I had an epiphany. This was a game that sure I was excited for and was planning on buying down the line once it hit store shelves. However after I watched the new trailer and saw that PreOrder Now screen appear I had a compulsive need to make sure that I had my copy. That if I didn’t have this game on lock that I would be somehow missing out on a collective experience that I needed to be in.
I noticed that I, and many others had been duped for decades. Geekdom is just another form of consumerism, and once I had that thought planted in my mind I began to see all the things that I loved as a child and still do to an extent to this day in a different light. These films, books, comics, and games that I thought helped mold me into the person that I am today. Were they really the symbols of being a geek? Of being part of some subculture? I took a deeper look and realized these things I thought were niche and geeky were no longer what they were. “Geek Culture” As it exists in 2019 is just Pop Culture, and did it ever really exist in the first place?
As far as my life is concerned I believe that the term geek and nerd no longer has a place in modern day society. I was born in the year 1991 and by that point the very label didn’t even exist anymore. I and many others of my generation were just too young to notice it. The damage had already been done a decade earlier, when television shows in the 80s were specifically designed to get children to buy toys.The best example of this is the television series Transformers and it's first theatrical film, Transformers: The Movie. This was a film that's soul purpose was to "kill" most if not all of the original characters to make way for the new toys. If you don't believe me than watch the special features on the actual dvd, they flat out say it. So with the death of Optimus Prime kids were expected to buy Hot Rod/Rodimus prime. Of course the original Transformers cartoon was before my time, however kids of the 90s have their own perfect example of a cartoon being designed to turn them into mini consumers. I'll give you a guess at what it is, it's catch phrase which so eloquently proves my point is "Gotta Catch Them All". And if we look even farther than the cornucopia of intellectual properties of the 80s that are now labeled as nostalgic icons of years gone by; we can see that even now their purpose is to sell more toys. Now we can see that which made someone a Geek back in say the 50s does not in any way correlate to it’s modern day equivalent.
The Nerd and Geek that comes into most people's minds represents the exact opposite of the traditional male figure. They are not athletic, are socially awkward, and above all else value things that may not have been represented as the norm for most boys. Now something has happened over the past few years where to be labeled a geek really does not mean what it one was. A geek was the social outcast, now they just represent their knowledge of the history of Azeroth. I had my fair share of bullying during most of my school life, I used to think it was because I was a geek, however was that really the case? I was a fan of Star Wars, the most successful film franchise of all time. I read books like Harry Potter and Dune, one of which is the most popular children's book series of all time with a highly successful film franchise to back it up. The other is the best selling science fiction book of all time with a movie made in the 80’s, a video game that helped create the RTS genre, and a new star studded film due next year . And here I thought they were stories that weren’t for those that consumed “popular media’ whatever the hell that means. They are even selling Harry Potter Vans shoes now.
Do you ever remember being picked on for enjoying Pokemon when literally every kid on the playground was collecting the cards and playing the games? How is that not part of the mainstream media? Why would I think I was being picked on for enjoying things that those who were picking on me actively took part in and enjoyed? I was most likely picked on for being the antithesis to what the high school hierarchy considered to be the male figure (being fucking weird). And when you look at it that way it does make more sense. A fringe product cannot be in its basic form niche or nerdy when everyone else enjoys it, it’s transcended into the popular culture the same way kids just know that Darth Vader is Luke Skywalker’s dad without ever having watched the Empire Strikes Back. People label themselves as geeks for watching shows like Game of Thrones, True Blood and Doctor Who when they literally are some of the most popular and most watched shows ever broadcasted on television.
actual picture from a Game of Thrones watch party at a bar
When we look at films we can see the same thing, every single blockbuster from the past decade have been based on intellectual properties that are supposed to be considered nerdy but are in fact some of the best selling films of all time. People scramble to see the latest MCU film, with films like Avengers Endgame making over $2 billion at the box office and series like Star Wars getting rabid responses from it’s audience and tickets getting sold out the day they are released online. There was a time when films like these only came out every few years, now we can expect a new Marvel film every few months like a fast-food chain with the same cookie cutter plot being recycled again and again. Of course reusing plots and themes is not a radically new idea in cinema fun fact, that thing you like be it movie or book, probably isn't as original as you think it is.
We have been conditioned to love things with no real critical thinking involved. As long as it is connected to a franchise that we identified with as a child we can overlook the glaring issues with the plot in films like the Last Jedi, and Transformers and attack anyone who would dare speak out on having a different opinion than our own. If we are to dislike something we are told before the movie even comes out that we are to hate it by YouTube movie reviewers and news outlets. This just puts into our minds a preconceived notion on how a movie should be before we even step foot into the theater. Sure you are most certainly allowed to think a movie is bad art is subjective, but you cannot deny the negative press around movies like Batman v Superman and X-men Dark Phoenix before they even hit the big screen.
Videogame companies are more than happy to sell us the next installment of our favourite games, however you better be prepared to play extra for features that should be included in the game. Companies like Nintendo hide game features behind their Amiibo figures, and fans will eat it up .Some paying ludicrous prices from scalpers for tiny plastic figures defending the most asinine business decision that companies like Sony or Microsoft would be crucified for, but brand recognition and nostalgia are a potent mix. Even companies like Square-enix who are releasing that Final Fantasy game I so eagerly preordered have released games missing key features only to patch them in the game later or force you to pay for the full story. Toy companies release con “exclusive” figures and toys, only to be hoarded by fans who will gladly attack each other to get a limited edition Storm Trooper figure.
Games like Magic the Gathering are specifically designed for you to spend more money on the latest packs, and to get the best cards. With rules changing almost daily, so that the cards that you do own cannot be used in competitive play. Magic is played by a large majority of people, some you wouldn’t even expect to enjoy. Out of all the trading card games that exist it has the largest competitive support, with live events streamed and cash prizes to be one. It’s basically it’s own legit sport, as can be said about some egames like League of Legends or Star Craft. Egames even had a spot in the 2016 Olympics.
Walk into a Hot Topic or an EB Games and you are immediately flooded with sensory overload on products that are based on our favourite things. What do we do? We buy,buy,buy. The Nerd Culture is one of never ending spending and consuming. To be a nerd in the modern age is to buy into a corporate machine that sells products. We are all the perfect consumer. We are being sold on our nostalgia for things we enjoyed as children and we act like it’s our identity. That if we buy a Star Wars toaster our lives will somehow have purpose and meaning with some imaginary “Geek Cred”. Even things considered to be the absolute lowest nerd denominator have been repurposed and packaged to us. Dungeons and Dragons used to be seen as one of the nerdiest things you can do, however we see people playing the game now thanks to shows like Stranger Things and celebrities confessing their love for the game. Even the movie the Last Witch Hunter starring Vin Diesel is based on his D&D character. When can we just admit that the things we perceived as nerdy are now part of the common mainstream collective? When things like the Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time, Star Wars, Star Trek, and Game of Thrones all have merchandise that can be purchased at your closest Walmart is it really that far off to think that maybe things that are geeky never really were to begin with for our generation?
I am very guilty of this
Of course you are allowed to still enjoy these things. I never would advocate to take enjoyment from someone else (a certain youtube video of me from 2008 would dictate otherwise). You can still go and watch the new Avengers and Star Wars Film just be aware that you are being sold a product not watching a film.Watch something that actually gets you to discuss the plot, themes and motives behind the characters, to try and gain an understanding on what the creators are trying to say with their stories.
Something happened in the last 30 years, a paradigm shift where nerd sphere merged with pop culture, and the geek became just a regular everyday consumer. In the end I've obviously realized that I am also to blame for actions such as this. I would be a hypocrite not to point out the fact that I've been to cons and paid money to get someones name on a picture, I've taken the fact that I saw a movie the night it came out and maybe a few hours earlier than my friends as a means to feel superior. It's a facade and for those who say Geek Culture needs to die, they need to open their eyes and take a look at the walking obituary of a subculture. It's been dead for years now and we are all to blame for allowing others to dictate it's future.
So I got loaded up on caffeine (can't be a parent without it) and wrote a stream of thoughts down. I was going to just delete this and be done with it, but then I remembered that I had this blog. I honestly thought the last thing I posted was back in 2015, imagine my shock when I wrote a review to a horrible movie from 2017 that I never remembered writing, life is weird that way. Any way enjoy this random rant that shows my spiral out of control as I came to the epiphany that most of stuff I loved as a kid and claimed to have molded me as an adult do not matter. That it's been thrown into a corporate blender and is now a facsimile of what it once represented.
PS. we all know this little bit here is a poor excuse for my awful attempt at forming a coherent thought using the English language.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This year's E3 has been for me personally a pretty big disappointment. While I haven’t been that excited for most of the things that were announced during the hoard of live streams, news articles and interviews, there was in fact one video game announced that did catch my attention. Final Fantasy VII Remake. A game that was for a time as elusive and mythical as Half-Life 3 in its status in the world of “Geek-Culture” or Geekdom. Here was a game only rumored about during most of my high school life, and now here it is with an actual release date. March 03, 2020. And as this game was announced I noticed something that I haven’t really taken into account at all during my 27 years as a certified “geek”. The minute the game was announced up for preorders I blindly went and purchased the “deluxe edition”. After I had successfully preordered the $124 game bundle and allowed time to take its course I had an epiphany. This was a game that sure I was excited for and was planning on buying down the line once it hit store shelves. However after I watched the new trailer and saw that PreOrder Now screen appear I had a compulsive need to make sure that I had my copy. That if I didn’t have this game on lock that I would be somehow missing out on a collective experience that I needed to be in.
I noticed that I, and many others had been duped for decades. Geekdom is just another form of consumerism, and once I had that thought planted in my mind I began to see all the things that I loved as a child and still do to an extent to this day in a different light. These films, books, comics, and games that I thought helped mold me into the person that I am today. Were they really the symbols of being a geek? Of being part of some subculture? I took a deeper look and realized these things I thought were niche and geeky were no longer what they were. “Geek Culture” As it exists in 2019 is just Pop Culture, and did it ever really exist in the first place?
As far as my life is concerned I believe that the term geek and nerd no longer has a place in modern day society. I was born in the year 1991 and by that point the very label didn’t even exist anymore. I and many others of my generation were just too young to notice it. The damage had already been done a decade earlier, when television shows in the 80s were specifically designed to get children to buy toys.The best example of this is the television series Transformers and it's first theatrical film, Transformers: The Movie. This was a film that's soul purpose was to "kill" most if not all of the original characters to make way for the new toys. If you don't believe me than watch the special features on the actual dvd, they flat out say it. So with the death of Optimus Prime kids were expected to buy Hot Rod/Rodimus prime. Of course the original Transformers cartoon was before my time, however kids of the 90s have their own perfect example of a cartoon being designed to turn them into mini consumers. I'll give you a guess at what it is, it's catch phrase which so eloquently proves my point is "Gotta Catch Them All". And if we look even farther than the cornucopia of intellectual properties of the 80s that are now labeled as nostalgic icons of years gone by; we can see that even now their purpose is to sell more toys. Now we can see that which made someone a Geek back in say the 50s does not in any way correlate to it’s modern day equivalent.
The Nerd and Geek that comes into most people's minds represents the exact opposite of the traditional male figure. They are not athletic, are socially awkward, and above all else value things that may not have been represented as the norm for most boys. Now something has happened over the past few years where to be labeled a geek really does not mean what it one was. A geek was the social outcast, now they just represent their knowledge of the history of Azeroth. I had my fair share of bullying during most of my school life, I used to think it was because I was a geek, however was that really the case? I was a fan of Star Wars, the most successful film franchise of all time. I read books like Harry Potter and Dune, one of which is the most popular children's book series of all time with a highly successful film franchise to back it up. The other is the best selling science fiction book of all time with a movie made in the 80’s, a video game that helped create the RTS genre, and a new star studded film due next year . And here I thought they were stories that weren’t for those that consumed “popular media’ whatever the hell that means. They are even selling Harry Potter Vans shoes now.
Do you ever remember being picked on for enjoying Pokemon when literally every kid on the playground was collecting the cards and playing the games? How is that not part of the mainstream media? Why would I think I was being picked on for enjoying things that those who were picking on me actively took part in and enjoyed? I was most likely picked on for being the antithesis to what the high school hierarchy considered to be the male figure (being fucking weird). And when you look at it that way it does make more sense. A fringe product cannot be in its basic form niche or nerdy when everyone else enjoys it, it’s transcended into the popular culture the same way kids just know that Darth Vader is Luke Skywalker’s dad without ever having watched the Empire Strikes Back. People label themselves as geeks for watching shows like Game of Thrones, True Blood and Doctor Who when they literally are some of the most popular and most watched shows ever broadcasted on television.
actual picture from a Game of Thrones watch party at a bar
When we look at films we can see the same thing, every single blockbuster from the past decade have been based on intellectual properties that are supposed to be considered nerdy but are in fact some of the best selling films of all time. People scramble to see the latest MCU film, with films like Avengers Endgame making over $2 billion at the box office and series like Star Wars getting rabid responses from it’s audience and tickets getting sold out the day they are released online. There was a time when films like these only came out every few years, now we can expect a new Marvel film every few months like a fast-food chain with the same cookie cutter plot being recycled again and again. Of course reusing plots and themes is not a radically new idea in cinema fun fact, that thing you like be it movie or book, probably isn't as original as you think it is.
We have been conditioned to love things with no real critical thinking involved. As long as it is connected to a franchise that we identified with as a child we can overlook the glaring issues with the plot in films like the Last Jedi, and Transformers and attack anyone who would dare speak out on having a different opinion than our own. If we are to dislike something we are told before the movie even comes out that we are to hate it by YouTube movie reviewers and news outlets. This just puts into our minds a preconceived notion on how a movie should be before we even step foot into the theater. Sure you are most certainly allowed to think a movie is bad art is subjective, but you cannot deny the negative press around movies like Batman v Superman and X-men Dark Phoenix before they even hit the big screen.
Videogame companies are more than happy to sell us the next installment of our favourite games, however you better be prepared to play extra for features that should be included in the game. Companies like Nintendo hide game features behind their Amiibo figures, and fans will eat it up .Some paying ludicrous prices from scalpers for tiny plastic figures defending the most asinine business decision that companies like Sony or Microsoft would be crucified for, but brand recognition and nostalgia are a potent mix. Even companies like Square-enix who are releasing that Final Fantasy game I so eagerly preordered have released games missing key features only to patch them in the game later or force you to pay for the full story. Toy companies release con “exclusive” figures and toys, only to be hoarded by fans who will gladly attack each other to get a limited edition Storm Trooper figure.
Games like Magic the Gathering are specifically designed for you to spend more money on the latest packs, and to get the best cards. With rules changing almost daily, so that the cards that you do own cannot be used in competitive play. Magic is played by a large majority of people, some you wouldn’t even expect to enjoy. Out of all the trading card games that exist it has the largest competitive support, with live events streamed and cash prizes to be one. It’s basically it’s own legit sport, as can be said about some egames like League of Legends or Star Craft. Egames even had a spot in the 2016 Olympics.
Walk into a Hot Topic or an EB Games and you are immediately flooded with sensory overload on products that are based on our favourite things. What do we do? We buy,buy,buy. The Nerd Culture is one of never ending spending and consuming. To be a nerd in the modern age is to buy into a corporate machine that sells products. We are all the perfect consumer. We are being sold on our nostalgia for things we enjoyed as children and we act like it’s our identity. That if we buy a Star Wars toaster our lives will somehow have purpose and meaning with some imaginary “Geek Cred”. Even things considered to be the absolute lowest nerd denominator have been repurposed and packaged to us. Dungeons and Dragons used to be seen as one of the nerdiest things you can do, however we see people playing the game now thanks to shows like Stranger Things and celebrities confessing their love for the game. Even the movie the Last Witch Hunter starring Vin Diesel is based on his D&D character. When can we just admit that the things we perceived as nerdy are now part of the common mainstream collective? When things like the Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time, Star Wars, Star Trek, and Game of Thrones all have merchandise that can be purchased at your closest Walmart is it really that far off to think that maybe things that are geeky never really were to begin with for our generation?
I am very guilty of this
Of course you are allowed to still enjoy these things. I never would advocate to take enjoyment from someone else (a certain youtube video of me from 2008 would dictate otherwise). You can still go and watch the new Avengers and Star Wars Film just be aware that you are being sold a product not watching a film.Watch something that actually gets you to discuss the plot, themes and motives behind the characters, to try and gain an understanding on what the creators are trying to say with their stories.
Something happened in the last 30 years, a paradigm shift where nerd sphere merged with pop culture, and the geek became just a regular everyday consumer. In the end I've obviously realized that I am also to blame for actions such as this. I would be a hypocrite not to point out the fact that I've been to cons and paid money to get someones name on a picture, I've taken the fact that I saw a movie the night it came out and maybe a few hours earlier than my friends as a means to feel superior. It's a facade and for those who say Geek Culture needs to die, they need to open their eyes and take a look at the walking obituary of a subculture. It's been dead for years now and we are all to blame for allowing others to dictate it's future.
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