Did the nerds win?

[Retreater]

Well, we've seen the damage that can happen when corporate interests take over what used to be niche hobbies. You get things like Sony's Spiderman Universe that can't include Spiderman. You get rushed animation films like "War of the Rohirrim" just to hang on to the film rights to something that was made with artistry and passion 20+ years ago. You get soulless Funko pops, pay-to-win video games with subscription services and day-one DLC.
You get inundated with the things that you loved so much that you don't care anymore. Nerd culture is now like the attractive person you met at the club that you brought back to your apartment, who has essentially moved in and left their clothes all over your house, eaten all the food in your fridge, invited their family to crash in your living room, kicked your dog, and poops with the door open.

 

[billd91]

The other is that the mainstream has adopted many formerly nerdy things, albeit often in watered-down/streamlined versions – for example, while the Marvel Cinematic Universe has a lot of continuity for a movie franchise, it has nothing on the continuity snarls that make up the actual comics. I mean, just the Summers family tree is more complicated than the whole of the MCU. For an example closer to home, 5e is significantly less complex than both the previous versions of the game. This is probably a necessity for hitting the mainstream, but for many nerds it can feel like they see the monkey's paw curl up – for many, the complexity wasn't just a barrier, but it was the actual point of whatever hobby.

As someone who is still a comic fan and used to collect a variety of them on the Marvel side, the general simplification of the continuity in the MCU is a breath of fresh air. I understand that people like a certain degree of continuity in their comics and their favorite heroes, but many of those properties have been out there 60 years or more. And big event crossover after big event crossover takes its toll on the continuity to the point things are so convoluted they're hard to follow. This is one reason I've really enjoyed the MCU - there are significant nods to comic book continuity and various easter eggs and references - but they aren't beholden to the muddle of bizarre detail that is the comics.

 

[Belen]

No. Geek media has been appropriated by the mainstream. All our base belong to them now.

This.

The mainstream has appropriated some aspects of our culture and then worked to destroy it or warp it into a more vanilla form.

Let's look at the severe division in various fanbases. If I take Star Wars. The current narrative is that the fandom is toxic. Previously, most SW fans may have argued about aspects of the content but we all loved Star Wars and it was debating rather than toxic hate.

The companies all want to make content for the mainstream fans they want rather than make the content that made things popular in the first place.

They want to make content for the mainstream which often means that it is not the content we fell in love with.

Honestly, I think half the toxicity in fandom is the mainstream folks taking our stuff, trashing it, and continuing to treat us the same way we have always been treated.

Then again, maybe I am just getting old.

 

[Ringtail]

As several others have said, no I don't think its cool to be a nerd, its just that several nerdy things have been appropriated. The MCU, Star Wars, video games and arguably Dungeons & Dragons (but not RPGs in general).

However if you dig deep, there are a lot of "nerdy" hobbies that still get those reactions from people. Talking about Magic the Gathering or Warhammer 40k is still often met with blank stares IME (though this supposed Amazon show might change that). Even within certain properties I see that division. As somebody said, everyone knows the movies, but if you start talking about Marvel comics you lose people. I find video games extends as far as whatever action/fps game is trending on the "adult" consoles (PlayStation, Xbox) but if you start waxing poetic about Nintendo people find that strange, childish almost.

 

[J.Quondam]

I sometimes feel like it's the insecure nerds who have won, and that they've grown to become the bullies they once loathed and feared.

 

[Kromanjon]

It sounds like the general feeling is that nerds didn’t win at all. If anything we got conquered and colonized and now we’re just performing old, watered down rituals as entertainment for the tourists.

Hyperbole!? You bet!

Still, I think this really touches on some of the things that make people see different fan bases as “toxic”. It’s always easier to see the reproachable behavior than the underlying feelings that drive them.

If I’m reading the responses correctly that is.

 

[Kromanjon]

I sometimes feel like it's the insecure nerds who have won, and that they've grown to become the bullies they once loathed and feared.

I get what you saying and some have definitely turned to bullying behavior but from personal experience I still feel like nerdy behavior and hobbies get frowned upon by “normal” society and seen as childish. If I’m totally honest myself I could easily describe myself as an insecure nerd but my insecurity comes from being judged for my interests and hobbies.

 

[TiQuinn]

I’ve heard several times, in different conversations and read it here on the forums as well, that the nerds won. Nerd is the new cool. But did we? (For this discussion I’m including myself in the term “nerd”)

It’s easy to make a case for the prevalence of “nerd culture” in mainstream media today. Superhero movies and series and videogames becoming household pastimes. I feel however that this is more of a veneer, pure aesthetics, and more than anything else just a way to tap into a market known for consuming. Is this the nerds winning?

Now I can only speak for myself but when I grew up talking about TTRPGs or boardgames was not something you did with people you weren’t sure had the same interest as you. Videogames was ok to talk about, but you couldn’t be too in to them or it might also get you bullied and teased. So, do I feel like the nerds won?

Well, I still don’t talk about my hobbies with people I don’t feel completely safe with. I might say that I like to play games but won’t go into any details other than that. I have no problem with saying that I saw the latest Marvel movie in the theaters, but would I talk about reading the comics? I don’t think so.

Perhaps this is just me. Perhaps the nerds did win and I’m still just caught up in my own traumas. This is why I’m asking you:
Do you feel the nerds won?
What did they win?
Are there any drawbacks to this victory?
Who, if any, were the losers?

From my standpoint, yes, the nerds won.

There's always drawbacks when there is a cultural shift, but I got back from visiting family for Thanksgiving, including family that I haven't seen in years, and when asked what hobbies I have nowadays, I responded that I still play D&D with friends. There was some mild surprise, but there was not the same level of "Wow, you are such a NERD (negative)" vibe that there absolutely would have been in the past. It is much more known now as a thing that people are into, and not just a thing geeky kids played in the basement and grew out of. Same can be said for comic books, video games, anime, etc. The fact that I can go to the gym and overhear people talking about Captain America, or their RPG campaign, or Lord of the Rings (all three things of which I've witnessed) - it's just a total landslide shift from when I was growing up.

Who lost? I don't know that anyone "lost", per se, but I think the mindset that you could only talk about things that are universally seen as cool things to talk about (sports, cars, money, sex, alcohol, partying) "lost". I think people have a broader vocabulary and acceptance of what people are into nowadays, even if it's not their thing.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I sometimes feel like it's the insecure nerds who have won, and that they've grown to become the bullies they once loathed and feared.

Looking at some of the cultural wars going on in the nerdosphere, I hate to, but I agree.

 

[CleverNickName]

I don't think we "won," but we definitely rebranded.

In American culture, the cool kids have always been the outcasts, the misfits, the folks who did their own thing and marched to their own drummer. In the 1950s, that looked a lot like Marlon Brando in "Rebel Without a Cause"; in the 1980s it looked more like Ferris Bueller; in the 2010s it looked like Sheldon in "Big Bang Theory."

I don't think Jocks were ever cool, at least not at my school. They were just too cliquish...the only people who wanted to hang out with them were other sports fans.