Future of Geek

As I was watching the Superbowl, reading an ethnography on Everquest while checking Twitter, I happen to look up and saw my daughter. I couldn't help but close the netbook and set the book down, laughing so hard I had tears. I then looked at my husband and said, "Raising the future geek...we're doing it right". What was my daughter doing that caused such a reaction? In one hand she had her DS playing a game and in the other she had her phone texting a friend from school. It was pure poetry in motion.

My daughter is 10 and is definitely following in mom's geek footsteps. She loves video games (was disappointed just this evening that I wasn't going to pick up playing Darksiders after the Superbowl), has been begging for us to start a tabletop game and tries as best as a 10 year old can to keep up with current technology. She loves reading manga and watching anime and her book collection has some amazing works (like those from Neil Gaiman). When I look at sites like thinkgeek.com she is right there with me, building her wish list which could rival mine. The thing is though, she doesn't consider herself a geek. Mom's a geek, she's just cool. This got me thinking... what is going to happen to the future of "geek".

"Geek" and the concept thereof has gone mainstream in a big way. People like me have paved the way for future generations of geeks to go forth and not even realize that it wasn't always cool to be a geek. I have always proudly worn my geekhood like a badge, screaming at every opportunity, "I AM A GEEK, HERE ME RECITE THE LINEAGE OF ". Geek is now sexy. Geek is now powerful. Geek as we now know it is cool. I confirmed this with my daughter. I asked her, "If someone at school came up to you and called you a geek, what would you think?". Her response - "I'd think it was a compliment".

I had to explain to my daughter what it meant to be "geek" when I was growing up. Needless to say she was a little shocked. Geek has grown up. Geeks have paved the wave for future generations of geeks to never know the hiding, humiliation and trauma that came with being a geek. So, does this mean the next generation is truly "geek"? If geek is now hip, don't we need to find some other moniker for this new generation? Don't get me wrong, I love being a geek and I love passing that legacy onto my kids but I can't help think that being a geek means more...it's not just about the doing but it's also about the experience of "coming up geek" and my "coming up geek" experience was so fundamentally different that I'm not sure it's the same thing anymore.

Of course, I could be wrong and I'm just being an old geek that just plain out doesn't get the new generation of geek. Either that, or I'm being selfish; the experience and title of geek is mine and I'm not sharing with my kids. After all, their geek isn't my geek, so I can't help but wonder exactly what the future of "geek" is.

Impact of Narrative

Back in July Wired posted this article about "Unfilmable Texts". The first text listed is Neil Gaiman's Sandman. This is an amazing and unbelievable piece of work that everyone needs to read, even if they don't like comics. This piece of work honestly transcends a mere text. Quite frankly, I'm glad they have never filmed a Sandman movie or the Death:The High Cost of Living film that keeps being kicked around. Certain things simply do not need to be mass marketed on multiple media forms. A book to film translation could never truly capture the beauty of this work. There are so many elements that make this series work, from the intriguing story arc to the amazing artwork. What truly makes this series work though is the narrative.

Don't get me wrong, I understand narration encompasses all written fiction but that doesn't mean the aesthetics of the narrative are always well executed. I keep coming back to the idea of the narrative recently because with the release of Mass Effect 2 everyone keeps talking about how well executed the narrative of the story is. It's more than mere game.... the narrative helps it transcend.

I watched a special on Syfy about Mass Effect 2 and one of the things they kept talking about was the narrative as if this was a new concept. It's not. We have already had some truly impressive games (too many to name here). I've been talking and writing for years about the importance of narrative in games.

No matter how visually stunning or well executed a game is, what makes it transcend is the narrative. Think of all the games for the iPhone and how amazing those were because of the unique new way to play via the accelerometer. It was new, it was exciting but none of those games transcended more than just their game status. Narrative helps video games transcend. More and more companies are coming to understand this (and some already have).

No matter how advanced we get with game play and graphics, truly immervise, fantastic games will focus on their narrative. That's not to say we won't have great games that are just plain and simple fun to play because we always will. In their attempt to transcend, video games need to do a little less hand holding with their big brother film. While video games can look up to their big brother "film" they also need to remember their unique capacity for storytelling. Which brings me back to my first point... comics are comics for a reason and great comics don't need to become film to be brought up to another level of greatness. If the story would have best been told as a movie, then Gaiman would have written as a movie script. Sure, there's a lot of money to be made by this cross marketing, but it's honestly not always in the best interest of the medium to do so.