Ratspeak

Saturday, June 25, 2005

Things that are too geeky, even for me...

Okay, a word to all of those fan boys out there: I was just on a message board about a Collectible Card Game (yes, I am a gaming geek, computer geek, comic geek and movie geek... You haven't figured that out yet?) and there was a heated discussion as to who would win in a fight, Batman or Dr. Doom.

These characters are definitely two of the cooler characters ever to be written into comics, I guess I can see why people would be interested in seeing a comic where the two go at it, but when these questions are debated, I am always shocked by the stupidity of it. (The answer, by the way is, no matter who we are talking about as the characters, whoever advances the writer's story right now.)

I try to picture two professors, knowledgeable in the beliefs of ancient man debating if Ra could kick Zeus' ass or something... It blows my mind. (Zeus would totally win, by the way.)

It's amazing how many times I have heard variations on this kind of discussion at a comic shop, or seen it on various boards around the internet. It brings to mind childhood taunts of "my daddy can beat up your daddy," only in this case it's more like "my fictional daddy can beat up your fictional daddy."

There are a lot of us who enjoy the hobbies I do, and live otherwise normal lives. Then there are those who are way beyond my own level of enjoyment. I attended GenCon one year. That is (or was, at the time) the biggest Role Playing Game (think Dungeons & Dragons for those of you who don't know what a role playing game is outside of the bedroom) convention in the world. It was fun. I was travelling with some good people. But some of the people who share my hobby with me frighten me. I played in a DC Heroes game, a Role Playing Game (hereafter RPG) based on the heroes of DC Comics. The characters we were playing were based on a series called "The Young All Stars." Being a fan of the series, I was quite looking forward to it. That I ended up getting the wussiest of all the characters in the series, Danny the Dyna-mite as my character (no, I'm not kidding) did little to dull my enthusiasm. On the other had, the guy who was sitting next to me - so pale as to make one assume he was the stereotypical guy living in his parent's basement, and with the entire series of Young All Stars comics in tow, in a comic box, each issue meticulously placed in a comic bag, supported by an acid-free cardboard backing - was one of the people who made me realize that maybe gaming conventions weren't the place for me. On some level, I can respect his passion, but not sharing it, I think maybe I don't need to participate in the same activities as him.

Anyhow, there really isn't much point to this, just an observation that I have noticed about behaviour that I find ridiculous. And before you point out that I am mocking those even geekier than myself - a behaviour I blasted in my previous entry, allow me to point out that no where in this post do I do so. I mock a behaviour for its pointlessness.

And by the way? Batman can definitely beat up your daddy.

1 Comments:

  • It is this selfsame observation that made me NOT want to be a physics grad. That, and the fact I didn't really do well at it. ;)

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 12:16 AM  

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