D&D culture part 2

This is purely an overview that I thought was important for the non geek reader to understand before they could understand anything deeper. What is Geek Culture? Language Unlike most cultures where part of their self definition is a shared language, geek culture does not have a language that everyone speaks. English is a major language for many parts of geek culture, German is major in board gaming culture, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese are major in video gaming. There are some things that while not technically part of the same language has crept into the different languages. 1337 (pronounced leet) is common where the non-letters on the keyboard can be used in such a way that they look like letters. lolspeak started as a way to make fun of people that use bad grammar, etc, now it is mostly used by the people it was first meant to make fun of, and by people doing cat, etc pictures online. Geeks have also created language that others use on a daily basis, just to exist. Without C++ I could not be writing this paper, and without html I could not turn it in online. Community Space the final frontier, but not all that important to geek community. Geeks do not have one place that they need to use or share, or even deal with to be a geek. The internet was created by geeks, and while non geeks enter the space, and use it, it is still the home of the geeks, but one need not ever go into a geek forum, or write a geek blog, or even play an MMORPG to be a real geek, or be involved in the community. There are geek groups all over where people get together in the old fashioned way of face to face. Ideology There is no one unifying ideology for this culture. Mostly it is people that are misfits, but find community with other misfits that think the same way, or enjoy the same things. Most geeks do seem to wish the world to be a better place, or to exist in another space, and so they go online, and enter this otherworld, or they play games where there is no need to dealing with real things, or even create their own world to exist in for a short time. This wish to be anywhere but here likely has to do with the way society as a whole views geeks, even as we are becoming the majority. Traditions There is not one things you can say all geeks do, but there are things that are very common. There are certain shows e.g. Monty Python, Dr Who, Red Dwarf, Star Trek, and Star Wars, that most geeks have seen and have opinions on, and most of them will gladly share with anyone looking for an in depth ‘discussion’. There are also movies that the same can be said of eg Dr Who, Red Dwarf, Star Trek, and Star Wars. Most geeks also either play a lot of games, or have strong opinions on why they do not Cultural Items With such a broad spectrum of what it is to be a geek is it possible to walk into a geeks house and see something that makes a person know that this is the lair of a geek? Well, there is not just one thing, but most geeks collect or prize certain things. Dice collections are very common amongst geek, as are minis, books are a staple of most geeks worlds, as are board games. Many people today have computer along with a few computer accessories, but not on the level that most geeks do. Music Geek music is rather varied and is more defined by where a person lives, than by their level of geek. However Nerd Core is common in most geekscircles, even if they otherwise do not like Hip Hop. For people who like the more folksy sound Filk is the musical choice, from what I can gather Filk started with a certain song that came from a show that defines the geeks want to not exist in this world, “The Man They Call Jayne” was from Firefly.