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Griffiths / When the nerds blinked

SINCE August, so-called #Gamergate has been rumbling along and to the idiot, mostly white men, holding the world view in the quote at the top it’s a campaign to restore decency to the world.

John Griffiths
John Griffiths.
To everyone else it’s thuggish gangs of online lynch mobs denigrating specific women for perceived failings that, out in the real world, not two craps would be given about.

It all began with a jilted boyfriend making claims to the Kotaku nerd news website about the sex life of his former partner for no reason beyond a desire to hurt her.

One of the claims was that she’d slept with a game reviewer to elicit a favourable review for a game she’d made.

In a sane world that would be a matter for the journalist, his editor and, to a grossly lesser extent, the small number of people who played the game based on the favourable review and found the review wanting.

But no, the righteous fury of every insecure nerd desperately wishing any woman would ever love them has been unleashed and the spectacle to those watching on has been disgusting.

From the other side, the feminist industry has piled in blaming the patriarchy with some justification because threats to rape and kill people are not okay, ever.

Nerd/gamer culture is thus characterised as vicious, bigoted, furious, awful men. And at this point I throw my hands in the air and shout: “THIS IS NOT MY CULTURE”.

I’ve been a nerd since I started reading “Lord of the Rings” at age seven. I’ve watched the movies, played the games, read the books, and copped the schoolyard beatings for being weird and not into the same things as all the other kids.

And because we’re all a bit weird, and have the lumps to show for it, nerd culture, in my experience, has always been one of inclusion and acceptance.

Casting my mind back, it has never been all men. It was certainly male dominated back in the ‘80s, but there were always large numbers of women around.

They weren’t around at the edges either, they were the beating heart and soul of those groups. In recent years women have flocked into the culture and it’s hard to imagine that’s due to misogyny.

Part of where nerd/gamer culture has let itself down has been through over-acceptance and inclusion. In the late 1990s there were big problems at network parties (large numbers of nerds joining their computers up on  local area networks to games with each other, largely replaced by fast internet) with enthusiasts of child exploitation material coming in to swap their pictures.

They were oppressed due to the nature of their interests so, at first glance, looked and felt a bit like nerds one can imagine. Here in Canberra the organisers of these parties (that I knew of) very bravely set about rooting these people out of their groups and the police were most definitely involved.

Similarly, my fear is that the women-hating idiots of today have been overly accommodated at the fringes of nerd culture not due to nerds being exclusionary, but for being too forbearing of the eccentricities of others.

We stood up to the child abusers and cast them out. We can, should, and will stand up to the misogynists.

Because a nerd convention for the 30 years I’ve been involved with them would be nothing without proud, beautiful young women prancing around in chain-mail bikinis. Because they want to.

But as a white man, seriously guys, we need to work at our game. The world is changing, we had a stunningly good run and, for our own good, it’s past time we stopped making everyone else hate our guts.

John Griffiths is the online editor for citynews.com.au

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4 Responses to Griffiths / When the nerds blinked

Nerds ? Gamers (people who play games) says: 30 October 2014 at 7:46 pm

I’m leaving the #Gamergate topic alone here – I don’t wish to be caught up in that business. There is something more important in relation to this article.

“But no, the righteous fury of every insecure nerd desperately wishing any woman would ever love them has been unleashed and the spectacle to those watching on has been disgusting.”

Mr. Griffiths, you are a special kind of dunce. A “nerd” is not defined by playing games or not having a girlfriend – the world has changed considerably since you were gracing schools with your tunnel-vision views. Reading “Lord of the Rings” and doing other things related to it does not classify one as a “nerd.” Being beaten because you were different doesn’t classify one as a “nerd” – I could be a “goth” or simply a weak person and be picked on for that.

“In the late 1990s there were big problems at network parties (large numbers of “nerds” joining their computers up on local area networks to games with each other, largely replaced by fast internet) ”

The little tear in your belief of being a “nerd” just turned into a full rip down the front of your shirt. “Network parties.” Now, a true “nerd” would say – LAN PARTIES. Your lack of knowledge (sorry, plain ignorance) in this area is overpoweringly silly. A true “nerd” would always be up to date. Furthermore “Nerds” join together because they are “loners” right? Therefore, LAN parties are still common and therefore, you should know about them (as you are a “nerd”) and therefore, you would say LAN PARTIES.
Ok, time to really show that you are a complete DERP and therefore no “nerd.” (if you were a “nerd” you would know what DERP means.)
You said, a “nerd” (which you fully believe you are) is someone who plays video games. Firstly, do you even play video games? Furthermore, at least 50% of bullies, ruby blokes, jocks, whatever you want to call them, play video games. Therefore they are “nerds?” Are they people who are “insecure” and “wishing any woman would ever love them”???

There are now “nerd” women, but since you’re a “nerd”, you should know that.. right? Also, “nerds” are able to get a date these days whilst you, Mr. Griffiths, have unknowingly become a wannabe – maybe you always have been.
I’m actually defending the nerd team here Mr. Griffiths, to prevent any dunce like you ever trying to worm your way in. You have taken too many liberties here mate, insulting many parties and trying to trick the community into thinking that every single “nerd” as you like to call them, is a lonely, weak, idiotic man who has nothing better to do with their lives but write silly articles on their beliefs…. wait a minute, that is a perfect description of you! What a coincidence! So change nerd throughout this entire article to Mr. Griffiths, Andy etc. Oh, and you’re right, being a nerd isn’t your culture, being you is.

Sorry for being mean Mr. Griffiths, you just needed a solid ass-kicking to make you wake up 😛

From
A nerd who also isn’t a nerd, who is a nerd…. I don’t know any more!

Reply
Nerds ? Gamers (people who play games) says: 30 October 2014 at 7:48 pm

I’m leaving the #Gamergate topic alone here – I don’t wish to be caught up in that business. There is something more important in relation to this article.

“But no, the righteous fury of every insecure nerd desperately wishing any woman would ever love them has been unleashed and the spectacle to those watching on has been disgusting.”

Mr. Griffiths, you are a special kind of dunce. A “nerd” is not defined by playing games or not having a girlfriend – the world has changed considerably since you were gracing schools with your tunnel-vision views. Reading “Lord of the Rings” and doing other things related to it does not classify one as a “nerd.” Being beaten because you were different doesn’t classify one as a “nerd” – I could be a “goth” or simply a weak person and be picked on for that.

“In the late 1990s there were big problems at network parties (large numbers of “nerds” joining their computers up on local area networks to games with each other, largely replaced by fast internet) ”

The little tear in your belief of being a “nerd” just turned into a full rip down the front of your shirt. “Network parties.” Now, a true “nerd” would say – LAN PARTIES. Your lack of knowledge (sorry, plain ignorance) in this area is overpoweringly silly. A true “nerd” would always be up to date (they don’t have anything to do, coz’ they’re nerds! – a phrase you would use most likely.) “Nerds” join together right? therefore, Lan parties are still common – the sports captain of my school was discussing it with me recently.
Ok, time to really show that you are a complete DERP and therefore no “nerd.” (if you were a “nerd” you would know what DERP means.)
You said, a “nerd” (which you fully believe you are) is someone who plays video games. WRONG – at least 50% of bullies, ruby blokes, jocks, whatever you want to call them, play video games. Therefore they are “nerds?”

There are now “nerd” women, but since you’re a “nerd”, you should know that.. right? Also, “nerds” are able to get a date these days whilst you, Mr. Griffiths, have unknowingly become a wannabe – maybe you always have been.

I wrote an amazing section after this, but I’m afraid that it would be to “nerdy” for you.

Reply
Alex Satrapa says: 31 October 2014 at 7:50 am

John Griffiths is a genuine nerd. I can attest to this since I have many years of correspondence with him and have never met him in person (because no true nerd ever enters the big blue room). He was formerly responsible for The RiotACT, a local news site which has (since John’s departure) descended into mainstream-style opinion-as-news and gossip ragging. I’m not sure how much nerdier it gets than running your own web site.

As a writer and editor for a local newspaper, John needs to resort to certain linguistic and conceptual flourishes in order to make the article more readable to the wider audience who may not even have heard of “gamer gate”. Thus he (most unfortunately) uses literary devices such as stereotypes to communicate the nature of the argument.

Most readers are well aware of the stereotypes and can think for themselves: they can associate with the cultural stereotype and have a chuckle at the absurdity of the scenario.

The intelligent readers amongst John’s audience will have gathered the essential argument: one reason that “gamer gate” has gained traction is that nerds (as an oppressed class) have been too accepting of antisocial behaviour because they are motivated by a fear of abandonment. Thus John is calling for all of us to reject the most antisocial people in our extended circles, so that they will become aware that they don’t fit in, placing the onus on them to shape up or ship out.

In the meantime, I find it useful to understand that it is more important to look at the message, not the medium. I have learned that many people just don’t care about placement of punctuation in sentences. So I’ve learned to tolerate grocers’ apostrophes, misspelt words, sentences begun with conjugations and infinitives most bizarrely split. I’ve learned to tolerate the use of stereotypes to illustrate a point, and most importantly I’ve learned of the futility of attempting to call people out in public over perceived transgressions against the language, my culture, or humanity in general.

Suffice it to say that John is a nerd, a gamer, a husband, a beard-wearer, a boutique-beer-drinker, and a dog lover. He is not defined by any of these roles. He makes mistakes. But in general he gets his message across.

As to your polemic (which you apparently drafted in a fit of pique and accidentally posted at least once), you will understand (as a nerd yourself) what I mean when I say:

U MAD BRO?

Reply

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