pixel for a thought: speak out with your geek out!

Surfing the blogosphere last Wednesday morning for interesting blogs to read or controversial posts begging for commentary, I stumbled upon author and game designer Monica Valentinelli's personal site and her post for the day: "Calling All Girl Geeks: Speak Out With Your Geek Out." In that entry, Monica hypothetically proposed an internet event for female bloggers to strut their geek stuff unabashedly, in the face of negative media stereotyping that geeks and especially girl geeks often get. The few people who had commented expressed interest in making it a reality; one had proposed the tagline, others were talking about social media promotions. I expressed a quip about generalizing the event for both genders and all geeky peoples... and from there the conversation took off. I threw together a few logo ideas several hours later and suggested them to Monica.

By 9:00pm next day Thursday, there was an official logo, 200+ people registered on a Facebook event page, a Twitter hashtag, and a Tumblr page. We were now "Speak Out with Your Geek Out." I had started writing emails and submitting news tips to the more professional, popular geeky blogs and sites. And it hit me that I might be onto something. Really. Huge. And even better, I felt like I got to be a part of its conception! As of this writing (Tuesday evening), we're at 1300 people (and will probably gain a good 500 more by the time you read this).

Written, directed and produced by yours truly. And some Fireworks.

If you've got a blog of your own, I highly encourage you to participate by writing about your hobbies on your blog or site during that week. Even if you already keep a pretty mean geeky reputation, just keep doing it. Remeber that "geek" is rather loosely defined here: everyone from Trekkies to Call of Duty gamers, musicians to chemists, and anime cosplayers to baseball fanatics, can and should be included in this event. This event is about community and passion, not acting high and mighty about whether Russell T. Davies or Steven Moffat is a worser writer for Doctor Who. Don't own a blog? Surely you've got a social media account somewhere—tweet or post a status every day. Microblogging is easier to manage anyway. Maybe you're reading this from an internet cafe in remote upper Canada and you almost never go on the computer, period, but you'd still like to participate. Well if that's the case, or if you just want to connect with this blog I can host your guest post(s) here on transcending pixels. Yes, that's right. Come out of the closet and express your geekiness here! You may write about anything you wish anyhow you want, as long as:

—the subject somehow concerns games. Whether your specialty is DS titles (mention ten words about The World Ends With You and I'll love you forever), tabletop RPGs, gamification, or even game theory—if you can somehow attach the word "game" to it, feel free to write away! While I understand the event is open to all geeks, by keeping the posts on this particular site (somewhat) centered around a theme, the blog's intended gamer-geek audience. Should you want to post about any non-game-related geekiness, other participants are just as willing to help you out.
—you should be able to spell and use good English grammar. Keep in mind that this is an all-ages-intended blog, so keep it rated G/PG and watch how you choose to pepper strong language in your post (I will censor the blush-worthier words if I see them).

So while today's "pixel thought" more closely resembles a public service announcement about "diversity," "friendship is magic," and other feel-good words than it appears to relate to game design—the truth is, games are absolutely worthless unless they have users, or players, to enjoy them. And as long as games are stereotyped as uninteresting or unacceptable forms of entertainment, we'll be lacking users. So by getting the word out that geek is the new chic, we'll be improving the public image of games as viable cultural media, and that always makes a gamer's day a little brighter.

UPDATE: It's posted elsewhere on the blog too, but just so you don't have to go looking for it—ajfreemont[at]gmail[dot]com.