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Ultimate Nerd Games
KeyScourge
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What are the games that truly make you labelled as a nerd if you are known to be playing them? Why? Do you play any of them? And if so would you consider yourself a nerd?
The one that always got me called a nerd during the time I played it (I had to stop due to account issues and crap like that, but I really want to get back into) is Lord of the Rings Online. Mostly because for some reason, despite the pure awesomness of the film trilogy and the book trilogy, fans of Lord of the Rings are stereotypically almost the equivelant of Star Trek fans. Labelled by everyone else as total nerds and most often virgins who have never even spoken to a girl. Which, for me at least, is untrue and I really hate the use of that stereotyping
The one that always got me called a nerd during the time I played it (I had to stop due to account issues and crap like that, but I really want to get back into) is Lord of the Rings Online. Mostly because for some reason, despite the pure awesomness of the film trilogy and the book trilogy, fans of Lord of the Rings are stereotypically almost the equivelant of Star Trek fans. Labelled by everyone else as total nerds and most often virgins who have never even spoken to a girl. Which, for me at least, is untrue and I really hate the use of that stereotyping
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If I had to point the finger at anything, I'd say LARP.
See how many books I've read so far in 2010
LARPing (RenFest, if in-garb and in-character, counts as LARPing)
Tabletop games
Pen-and-paper RPGs
CCGs
RenFest if you're just there for turkey legs, beer, and chicks with huge lucious boobs about to pop out of their tops ...
...
Where was I?
Can trade TF2 items or whatever else you're interested in. PM me.
Hell I get called a nerd for writing short stories
All the non nerds laughed until halfway through the first game.
See how many books I've read so far in 2010
I think I'm pretty damn good at games in general but Mancala is one I can't wrap my mind around. I suck at it so hard.
Nerdy games: any board game with a complicated ruleset based on a science fiction or fantasy franchise. Bonus points if it comes with a map of a fictional continent, little pre-printed cardboard pieces that you have to punch out of an 8x11 sheet the first time you play, and any dice with non-numeric symbols on them.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
Playing with edible lives is the only way to play.
"YES! Ten levels, I w... wait. Why do I only have eight levels?"
This is funny because I'm pretty good at Mancala but terrible at most other games. It's just that Mancala comes down to some pretty simple algorithms towards the end.
Back when it came out in '94 or so, it wasn't all that nerdy. I never got into it, but I had friends who weren't nerds who used to play. It was after a couple of years that only the nerds were playing it. Although, I guess you can say that about a lot of things. Nerds have the intensity to stick with things long after others have moved on.
LARP
SCA/Renfaire
Miniatures/Warhammer/etc
CCGs
Pen and paper RPGs
Boardgames (Like Settlers/Carcassone and whatnot, not like scrabble, though that can get nerdy if taken to an extreme enough level)
MMORPGs
Other computer games
Console games
I should mention that the nerdiness of any activity is directly proportional to the degree of seriousness at which it is taken. Renfaire etc is not nerdy when it's just some people dressing up and eating food, it's nerdy when people start getting mad about using cellphones. Similarly it's completely possible to play Magic: the gathering casually and just mess around with it and not have it be nerdy, it's when people take it seriously and actually act like a tournament or something matters that it enters into nerd territory.
Similarly, things like say Scrabble or Boggle or whatever are ordinarily totally non-nerdy in their usual context, but there are crazy scrabble people who play tournaments and shit, and at that point it transcends into serious nerd territory. Smash Bros is another good example of this, etc. Taking something that should be just a trivial casual diversion very seriously is nerdy.
Oddly enough there seem to be some activities which this should logically apply to, but which it doesn't, like say golf.
Knowing the lyrics to that wacky Dota youtube video?
Yeah, actually MTG is pretty much the only nerdy thing I do these days.
Phallas are pretty nerdy too, I think my girlfriend considers those nerdier than when I play Magic with friends.
yes! but where in the heirarchy? I'd say more nerdy than boardgamers but less nerdy than people who dress up for ren-faires
Also Phalla. Phalla is so nerdy.
Well I usually post from work.
Except for now, because I need to check up on the Phalla game...
So...........
Well I'd say it depends on the subject of the forums. I'd say that we here at Penny Arcade are pretty high up on the forum nerdiness scale, but Gaia Online, for example, is way further up there.
Also, Magic the Gathering, Pokemon, carrying either my psp/ds wherever I go. I also always have a book or graphic novel with me.
As far as the Ultimate Nerd Game...I think LARP'ing might have the crown as of now.
And playing warhammer and stuff like that, anything requiring a shittt ton of rules and models which you could just play as a more simple version via RTS.
LARP is by far the Nerd King, with math enthusiasts being somewhere way up there. War gaming is awfully nerdy, too.
D&D....it's hard to say. It's the classic go-to nerd stereotype but it has secured a place in pop culture. I'm simultaneously drawn to and repelled by the idea of roleplaying.
Before I got into M:TG, though, was the original Star Wars CCG. I only ever knew one kid beyond my brother and I who collected and played the game, and that kid was a nerd, and I wasn't much better. I still have a ton of the cards, but haven't played in years.
I'm sure there are certain things that are going to be considered more of a "nerd game," but the difference to be me comes down to passion. Fantasy baseball on a casual level isn't much to think about, but the people that take it really seriously are certainly nerds about it. The differences between pen and paper wargames/role-playing and fantasy sports (especially baseball) are not that vast.
From least to most
Major consoles and PC gaming: FPS games
Major consoles and PC gaming: everything else, like MMORPGs, RTS, etc
Handheld gaming
Board games
Trading card games
Pen and paper games
Buy little mans and paint them games
That's how I think about it anyway, but it's all cool to me so I don't really classify nerds as nerds unless they are wayyyyyyyyyyyyy into one of those things.
I spent $1000 on Warhammer 40k
I'm a big nerd by your definition
Someone needs to set up some sort of Axis & Allies game (or set of games) like the Diplomacy players have going at the moment. I've never actually be able to play real people before as I can't get enough people interested to play.
I used to love to "LARP" in elementary school. My friends and I would act out adventures during recess. Of course, we never dressed up or anything and it's not really nerdy for kids to do it.
I was sure that was going to be LIGHTNING BOLT.
You have disappointed me.
Doom the boardgame
LOTR Online
The Star Wars RPG
Thud (the dwarf/troll board game played in the Discworld series, a set of which is on my desk as we speak)
My friend can also lay claim to the single most nerdy game of all time, as she created her own version of Monopoly, using concepts and places from the areas studied in our degree. Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic is possibly the most nerdy degree possible to do in the arts, so Asnacopoly must therefore be the nerdiest board game ever. I think anybody who can actually finish a game of even basic Monopoly must have some nerdy tendencies.
Certain types of games too - mostly RPGs. Neverwinter Nights is pretty nerdy, but fun. That's another one my friends would have no idea about.