Signs You’re a Progeek

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Ways you know you're a progeek:

  • When you hear about economic "megaregions" you think of MegaCity One from Judge Dredd or Hive Worlds from Warhammer 40,000.
  • You scan Monday Through Friday for ideas you can actually use on the job.
  • When you get news about things like the Thundercat revival, your first reaction is excitement, but your second reaction is always to ask what it means for you and your career.
  • When you see the Doctor's Sonic Screwdriver, you think how useful it'd be for setting up a computer.  Bonus geek points if you make the Sonic Screwdriver noise when no one can hear you.
  • You are excellent at Spreadsheets partially due to your commitment to professionalism, partially for using them to crunch gaming stats.
  • Whenever you hear about economic news in a major city, you can name the major conventions of that city, major game companies, and/or major authors/artists that live in that area.
  • Whenever your favorite comic is made into a film you can discuss its demographic appeal after you finish your victory fist pump.
  • You are able to discuss the evolution of the MMO, and who ripped who off, without using obscenities unless you want to.
  • You're able to estimate the costs of your cosplay group's next outfit in your head because it's just like your department's budget.
  • No matter the crew, no matter the starship, you see their relationships as an org chart.
  • You make lists like this and send them to your co-workers.

– Steven Savage

Geekery, Trends, and Megaregions

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I live in nerd central.  I'm in Silicon Valley.  I can WALK to the headquarters of important companies.  I've found myself in random conversations with famous people in gaming.  I have casual conversations with people about multi-million dollar deals.  Local news here is international news on an economic and cultural scale.

This is one of those areas that I've been talking about a lot lately – the Megaregion.  Those big economic/social/technical/industry clusters that seem to be the future of economic development.

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Fans, Geeks, And Obligatory Support

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As I was reading different reactions to the Scott Pilgrim film, I saw the usual exhaustion in comments at io9 (http://io9.com/5600262/scott-pilgrim-is-an-epic-for-the-nintendo-generation).  Some people were annoyed, but there was also a sense by some that they were almost obligated to support a geeky film, even one that is a near geek-singularity.

That made me think about the recent idea that Geeks are pulling Hollywood's strings (http://www.popmatters.com/pm/article/129492-the-geeks-are-pulling-hollywoods-strings-right-now-and-thats-not-a-g/) – something I don't agree with, but I feel the author of this article has twigged on that something is up in the media.  There's some fusion of what is fannish/nerdy/geeky and Hollywood and major media companies that seems a bit . . . off.

Me, I think these two articles are related.  Why?  Because they they hit on the fact that there's this "current of support" for a lot of recent media ventures – a support that seems to be in some ways, obligatory.  I feel this sense of Obligatory Support is real, and is a factor that will affect us culturally and professionally.

Have you ever joked you're obligated to buy a game (I have – Final Fantasy XIII).  Have you ever watched a series because it was from a genre you supported?  Did you go to a Harry Potter release party . . . because?

You're starting to see where I'm going.

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