This Week in Geek: ALL the Trivia!

A showcase of this week's finest geek and geek related activities for the week. Mark your calendars.

Or geekier, as the case may be.
(photo © BlackFinn American Saloon)

Wednesday

• Trivia - Trivia at BlackFinn with Geek Night Out - Bethesda, MD - 7:00PM
• Geek Night Out is making the trip up to BlackFinn this week. The trivia rules or rounds sound almost like a proctored collegiate test: five rounds, worksheets for bonus points in between, and a music round. Only difference is, at trivia night you’re drinking during the test, instead of just being hung over from blowing off steam the night before. Brush up on those VPs and get ready to grab a cocktail.

Thursday

• Trivia - ThinkGeek Presents: Trivia Night - Vienna, VA - 7:00PM
• ThinkGeek has some trivia of their own. If you’re up for another round, head to Jammin Java. Wait, nope, another sold out TG event. Yikes. As always, search around for drop outs. Teams are 6-8 and everyone (yes, even kidling infants) must have a ticket, so there may be a few people who couldn’t snag a sitter looking to fill their team spaces.
• Cult Classic - Dude Fest at the Drafthouse - Arlington, VA - 7:00PM (doors open)
• Wait, this event has trivia? Damn, sorry to strap you all with so much homework this week. However, this should be no challenge because the entire night (and presumably the trivia) are all related to The Big Lebowski. And around 8:45 the Trivia and Costume Contest winners will be announced before the 9:00 showing. The event is 21+ so everyone can grab a caucasian or three before the movie starts.

AM I THE ONLY ONE AROUND HERE, who thinks this is excellent?
(promo image © Arlington Drafthouse)

Friday

• LitGeek - Neil Gaiman at GW's Lisner Auditorium - Washington, DC - 7:00PM
• The event is sold out but guess who got tickets just in time? Yes, DC Geeks will be there. If possible to snap shots, and if not to at least get a few things signed (something Neil rarely does anymore), and brag cover the event. Keep an eye to the Twitters for last minute drop outs, but given that the ticket came with a signed copy of The Ocean at the End of the Lane, I don’t want to get your hopes up too high. Attendees, remember, the event is not at Poetry & Prose, it’s at GW.

Sunday

• Board Games - King of Tokyo Tournament - Washington, DC - 11:00AM
• It’s good to be the king. In King of Tokyo, you gleefully demolish the city in an attempt to be the monster/lizard/robot at the top of the heap (If you want the Tabletop episode for the actual gameplay: I've got you covered). Know what’s better than being the king? Being the king of kings after a tournament of destruction and mayhem. Know what’s even better than that? The winner of the tournament gets a free pass to this year’s Gen Con!!!

Did we miss something? If you have an event you’d like to promote that isn’t on this list, leave a comment or email us. Other weekly recurring events are listed on our website (such as Rocky, CCG tournaments, crazy themed happy hours). For more information, check out the calendars at DC Geeks.

Chris Hardwick: The Nerdist, Not Merely Nerdy After All?

by Gabriella Nicastro

Chris Hardwick (@nerdist) is funny: laugh out loud, gasping, hold your stomach, and think "I’m glad no family member is here and listening to this story otherwise it would be awkward" funny. I don’t know if that has always been the case. Is uncensored Chris Hardwick the best Chris Hardwick? Or did he just have an incredibly on night when he performed at the sold-out 9:30 Club this past Saturday, May 25.

By 5:30PM the line was around the block, reality
of first come first served seating (image by author)

This Chris Hardwick was different from the buttoned-up professional host we see on TV in shows Talking Dead and BBC's America’s The Nerdist. He was a bit closer to the host we hear on The Nerdist Podcast with his witty comments on everything from astrophysics to blow-up dolls. Actually, as a stand-up comedian, he leans more towards the blow-up dolls.

So much so that this author was wondering mid-way through the show how to share some of his jokes without having every other word translate to Morse code. And judging by the number of times he shared stories about his girlfriend Chloe Dykstra (@skydart), talked directly to her, and even brought her up on stage – this Chris Hardwick may also be in love.

But before the stand-up version of Hardwick took the stage, Chris Lamberth (@ChrisLamberth) opened. Coming on stage around 7:05, Lamberth did a great job warming up the crowd. He covered just about everything:

• Great Gatsby: “Jay-Z is officially everywhere. He’ll be producing music for a Diary of Anne Frank movie next (i.e. Star of David Swagger).”
• Phoenix Online University: “They make you feel anything is possible! In reality I have degrees from real schools and I’m still sad.”
• Even watermelon juice, Toddlers & Tiaras, and losing weight. 

Lamberth covered all these in 20 minutes or so.

The full impact of Lamberth's humor is lost in Bloggers translation.
(image by author)

Then, Chris Hardwick danced onto the stage.

He explained that the venue turns into a dance club later in the evening. Therefore, he felt it important to teach his audience how to dance so we could be prepared. Someone from the crowd asked, “How do you know we can’t dance, Chris Hardwick?” To which he quipped, “Because I know my audience.” He then proceeded to break down his dance moves, so that even his audience could do it. Words cannot describe it, but I am happy to brief anyone in an offline demonstration.

There were stories about his dad. When teaching him to text, “his grammar magically disappeared when he got a smart phone, and was replaced by that of a teenage girl.” And his dad explaining to the family over dinner how to sexually please a woman:

“When the phrase, 'No, hear me out!' becomes a bridge for 'I just said something horrible' to 'I’m going to make it a lot worse'.”

There were tales about "romancing" a blow-up doll on his 19th birthday (a pastime his father apparently shares), mirror-jacking at hotels (I can also provide offline briefings of his favorite phrases), and getting talked into buying and wearing kigurumi with Chloe. He is a purple wolf, and Chloe is a yellow fox.

He interacts with his audience. Throughout his set he would pause, go up to various audience members, and ask who they were and what they did. Chris stated it was one of his favorite things to do because he likes to hypothesize, based on their current careers, their chances of surviving the apocalypse. Sorry consultants and lobbyists, evidently we probably won't make it. One interviewee was an independent sex toy consultant, whose business card Chris asked to read aloud to the audience. Another was a woman who had made Chris a TARDIS plushy a few years back, which then featured in a home video of his.

Dancing hand-off between Lamberth and Hardwick. Note to self:
full impact of humor might not translate through phone pics.
(image by author)

Chris ended the show as he started with a refresher dance course. Overall, I was surprised that there weren't really many straight up "nerdy" references – not even Doctor Who or Star Trek. He made only one passing comment to The Walking Dead. Again, this Chris Hardwick was more appropriate for late-night Comedy Central than AMC. He was relaxed, a bit dirty, and embarrassingly funny. Perhaps it was because he didn’t have to be mindful of TV censors. Maybe this was a fun day of touring leading up to the show, maybe it’s because he’s in love. I just know the next time Chris Hardwick comes to DC, I’ll definitely be getting tickets.

Note: The only negative thing? The ridiculous seating arrangement by 9:30 Club. Chairs were so tightly put together that every time the person behind me laughed (which was often, because the show was hilarious), their breath moved my ponytail. Picture a typical airplane layout, now move everything 100% closer in every direction – in front of you, next to you, behind you. It was that bad. So our audience had some unnecessary bonding.

In Defense of the Casual Gamer

By Samantha Tynes

As a whole, I like to think that us nerds and geeks are pretty accepting of each other. We recognize and respect that everyone has their own flavor of nerd. Yeah, we do break off into mini-groups to celebrate our favorites, but we always come back together for things that are important. Like bad movie adaptations or banding together to protect the less socially-accepted subcultures of our group from the “normals”. But there is one sub-group within the nerd culture that still has a lot of haters.

The Guild is © Knights of Good Productions (watch here).

Casual gamers.

When players are accused of being “casual,” the connotation is nearly always negative. As if they are less worthy of being included, like they lack some fundamental aspect of being a nerd. Some feel that casuals don’t even qualify as nerds or geeks in the first place. Casual gamers are treated as impostors in gamerdom. They are talked down to, teased, raged at, and trolled relentlessly.

Thankfully, this attitude is mostly confined to video games (I’m looking at you, comic geeks). You will be hard pressed to find this sort of behavior in things like miniatures gaming, or tabletops. Even if you don’t pump in as many hours as the most hardcore of participants, it’s implied that these hobbies already require a certain level of dedication to be involved in the first place.

When serious board game geeks are faced with the incredibly casual player or newcomer, I have very, very rarely seen any of them sink into that blind rage that flows freely through League of Legends forums and PMs. I have been witness to and participated in countless chats about board games when people find out I play. “Oh, you mean like Monopoly?” “No, more like Risk. But with better rules and more pieces.” These conversations usually end with “Here, let me show you,” rather than the “Lrn2play! GDIAF!” and obscenities shouted over Mumbles and Ventrillo servers.

A long, long time ago, in a basement far, far away, I was a hardcore raider.

Artifact Gear > Sleep (image by Glenn Batuyong)
World of Warcraft logo, etc. © Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.

I played World of Warcraft for years. Hours and hours of my life dedicated to crafting and leveling and striving for that last piece of armor or epic weapon that would help bring my DPS to #1 on the meters. I spent the evenings when my guild wasn’t raiding optimizing my rotation, practicing timing to the tenth of a second, playing with specs and talent combinations, and doing far too much math to eke out an extra hundred or so more points of damage.

At some point I realized that serious raiding had become a second job (EVE players, you know what I’m talking about). It was probably after I had yelled at my roommates to get off the internet because I was raiding. They were eating up my bandwidth and I couldn't deal with those lag spikes - I was a little busy. I no longer had the endurance or willpower to play a game for hours on end every night to get that little bit of progress. It doesn’t scream “fun” to me like it used to (if I ever, really, called it “fun”). Video games are supposed to be fun. They’re a way that people choose to relax and take a break from the real world.

By no means am I saying that serious or hardcore gamers aren’t having fun, or that they’re doing it wrong. It just wasn’t my thing anymore.

Yes, overall, casual games are could be called fluffy. As a genre, they’re games that you can pick up for a little while, put back down, and come back weeks later and not have missed much or gotten behind. There aren’t usually steep learning curves or complicated sequences to follow. There isn’t a right way or a wrong way to play them. You just.. do it.   But if a game has a “casual” label slapped on, it does not always mean that it can’t be complex or time consuming. I’ve met grannies that are more of a hardcore gamer than I am. Seriously, FarmVille can get to be some involved, time consuming shit.

A valid point, Gabe. If these invites to Candy Crush Saga are any proof.
(Penny Arcade © Penny Arcade Inc, Mike Krahulik, and Jerry Holkins)

Casual gamers can and do play regular games. They play League of Legends, World of Warcraft, Starcraft 2, DOTA 2, whatever. Unfortunately, sometimes they don’t stick around long enough to learn and enjoy, being yelled at for being in the wrong lane or standing in the poison or not knowing the intricacies of their chosen player character.

“But Sam,” you say, “They’re playing it wrong and we shouldn’t have to lose because they’re newbies! They must pay and be shamed for upsetting my win ratio!” Don’t do it. Don’t give in to the inner troll. If you’re playing and you see your teammate is in the wrong lane or blatantly using units wrong a la caster tank, give them a helping hand. “Hey, I see you are doing x. Try doing y instead.” They aren’t doing it on purpose, they just haven’t learned yet. And being on the receiving end of an angry tirade is not the most conducive to learning better.

At best, alienating new players will rid your RTS and battle arena games of inexperienced players and discourage newbies to come in and foul things up. It will also stagnate your player base and competition. And isn’t improving the challenge what it’s all about? So be nice to the casuals and newbies. Let them have their few hours of gaming to have fun their way.

Geeks and gamers are a community, and we are only as good as our worst parts. One of the most exciting things is finding someone new who is just getting started in your interests. However, if the anti-newb gamer stereotype persists, fresh players will stop coming. So you may get to enjoy going the SWTOR free-to-play route, and enjoy your servers being flooded with literally millions of new players.

Oh, and one last note, if you still think casual games are a waste of time keep in mind that Tetris is being used to help prevent PTSD in veterans.

This Week In Geek: Mega Man, Drinks, and Us!

A showcase of this week's finest geek and geek related activities for the week. Mark your calendars.

Anime con mascots are always

SO DAMN CUTE! (© AMA)

Longer Term

• Con - Anime Mid-Atlantic - Chesapeake, VA - Friday through Sunday
• Gotta love when a con just has an excellent overview of why they're excellent all right on the front page. Thank you, AMA. First it's "Boom! Look at all these freaking guests!" Then, "We want to give you free stuff, just volunteer a bit!" Following is the usual breakdown of CCG tourneys, karaoke, art show, cosplay contests, masquerades, dances, AMV contest, gaming, and wait, what's Cosplay Chess? (Aine note: AMA introduced me to my 100% all time ever favorite anime music video, Swing. If you're watching Baccano, major spoiler alert).

Wednesday

• DC Geeks! - Happy Hour: A Night with Mega Man - Washington, DC - 7:30PM
• We're throwing another event! This time we'll be at our beloved geeky drinkin' hangout, Atlas Arcade. Are you the type to sit and listen to Mega Man chiptune remixes and reminisce fondly about your NES glory days? Don't stay in this week! Come out and help us rock the absolute FACE off Dr. Wily and his henchmen. Can't wait to see you there. Besides, afterwards you can always class it up by heading to Church and State and discuss highbrow things like strategy or theories about the psychological motivations behind Wily's fall into madness and villainy.

Thursday

• Comic/Cartoons - Thursday Night Movie Series - Washington, DC - 8:45PM (or whenever it's dark enough)
• Canal Park is having a series of DC vs. Marvel Comic movie nights between now and August 8th. This week it's Iron Man. And it's free. The order alternates between the two sides: Iron Man, Batman & Robin, The Hulk (ok, maybe skip those weeks), Batman Begins, Thor, The Dark Knight, The Avengers, and The Dark Knight Rises. Honestly, it's only fair that they have Batman & Robin followed up by the Hulk - the organizers smartly get those out of the way and move on to the amazing newer movies. Great way to spend a warm mid-week evening.

Game face mode: ACTIVATED!
(image probably © Super Art Fight via Black Cat's site)

Friday

• Greatest Live Art Competition - Super Art Fight! - Washington, DC - 9:30PM
• If you're still unfamiliar with Super Art Fight, they have done you the favor of heading into the district to do a show for you. As always, we must remind you that this is an event that is ruled by a Wheel of Death. Live art is cool, but combining it with a cage match pitting friend against friend on a battlefield of yards of empty canvas is indescribably better. The energy at their fights is always charged because you, the audience, are the judge and jury of the event. Choose your victor wisely.

Saturday

• RPG - Free RPG Day - All day - At select retailers
• Remember Free Comic Day? Well, pen and paper RPGs aren't going to be outdone by some diceless, non-interactive medium like comics. (Please ignore the huge damn EA logo over in sponsors. I know the company has been out of geek favor, but you're getting free things.) Every location has something different to offer, so check out the retailer locator linked above and see what's going on around you.

Sunday

• Boardgaming - Game of Thrones demo - Washington, DC - 11:00AM to 4:00PM
• "When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die. There is no middle ground." This is serious business for a calm place like Labyrinth. Seems a bit intense, so if you're the type to cut a bitch over Monopoly, this will probably wind up violating your parole. The regional Game of Thrones LCG group will be on hand to run demos for a day of casual play. A free event, and a great way to eek the most out of the end of the weekend.

Did we miss something? If you have an event you’d like to promote that isn’t on this list, leave a comment or email us. Other weekly recurring events are listed on our website (such as Rocky, CCG tournaments, crazy themed happy hours). For more information, check out the calendars at DC Geeks.

Death of the Token Black Friend

By Scooter

I don't mean to be racist, but...
(Image © by Ibra Ake via SD City Beat)

I'm black and I'm a geek. I'm sorry if that makes you uncomfortable.

I've made a playlist to go with this article. It's one song on repeat, "Bonfire" by Childish Gambino. Check it out, especially around 2:03. Also relevant is a GIF-filled BuzzFeed article talking about 27 Things You Had To Deal With As The Only Black Kid In Your Class. I guarantee you that almost every black geek in your social circle or who you've run into at a con knows that feel, bro.

Something that happens frequently for blacks within nerd culture is being the only black in a room full of whites. The concept of the token black friend isn't foreign to most people. I still hear it often. In fact just last weekend, this phrase was used in reference to me by some close friends. My friends aren’t intentionally offensive, but they seem to need to draw attention to a situation that they find either funny or awkward.

People seem to believe that having one non-white person somehow proves that there is nothing wrong with the situation: the persons at the event are not pushing people away for not being white. Having a friend of another ethnicity is proof they are modern, and of course could not be that dreaded word, racist.

Following Neil deGrasse Tyson's Twitter doesn't make it ok
(Image © unknown, via Reddit)

This comes up a lots when gaming or drinking with friends, especially ones I've had for a long time. I've asked for clarification when people mention that I'm the only black person a party or call me their token black friend. Most often I hear, "Oh I'm just playing, it doesn't matter." or something similar. Yet I get looks that show how uncomfortable people are that I’m there. I think that the problem is that when people are unable to face this discomfort and tension, the feelings spill out into comments like, "You're my favorite black friend... you're my only black friend."

In a culture that’s based on shared passion, why bother to point out that I’m black? Why does my appearance matter so much that it's brought up frequently? I know people don't mean anything malicious by it. But what does it says in general if being black in geek culture is so strange that we feel compelled to call attention to it every time? I wonder how many kids have walked away from one geek group or another from this feeling of alienation.

The real problem here is that it makes blacks feel like they are foreigners who are only begrudgingly accepted by the rest of the geek community. Whenever this difference is pointed out, it labels us as outsiders and shifts the focus away from the common interests that brought us all together in the first place: our love of shit. The obsessions that we loved so badly that many of us were ostracized by mainstream culture. The things that caused us to bond together as a community in the first place.

(Empire Strikes Back is © 20th Century Fox, image via MTV Movies Blog)

Don't get me wrong here, I'm not against answering questions about being black or racial relations. I don't mean that we can't all come together and have these discussions, but let's not start from a place of our differences. Please, just keep in mind, that when you call a black person in any mostly not black group a token, what they may be thinking is, "Am I only here to provide you with diversity?" It implies that you are talking to them or befriending them merely so you can have a black friend, regardless of any other part of their identity.

It's a difference in focus, but an important one.