Nerd Fortress

My good friend Rolfe, who by divine right is King of the Nerds, was in Seattle this weekend. Since I love Rolfe so much, even though he only gave me one week's notice, my wife and I drove up to Seattle for a quick visit with him on Sunday. By quick visit I mean four hours in a Chinese restaurant until it closed, about 3 hours at a Shari's, and another hour driving around and getting lost in Renton trying to find the apartment of the individual they were staying with. Never trust a person who has never had a driver's license to give you good directions. Not saying they can't, just saying you've got better odds in Vegas.

I mentioned he was King of the Nerds, and it was in this role that he and his lovely queen found themselves in Seattle for an invitation only gaming convention. The convention was being held in the home of an employee of Wizards of the Coast and I was to meet Rolfe there. From the outside it looked like a very typical suburban subdevelopment in beige. These neighborhoods are everywhere in America and they always scare the hell out of me. I was half expecting to see a Ford Escort parked along the street with a "My Other Car is a StarShip" bumper sticker. No stereotypes on the street.

Inside was a totally different matter. I'm familiar with nerds and geeks, so a house full of twenty and thirty-somethings at multiple tables throwing dice, laying down cards, and strategically moving miniatures across a map doesn't frighten me. I'd say I feel more unease walking in on a group of guys crowded around a big screen TV and shouting at a ref several states away. So seeing people gaming in the den, dining room, backyard, bedroom, and over-sized walk-in closet while a few took a break in the family room by watching anime, no big deal. But the house, well, that was something I just never really thought existed. The idea of such a place never crossed my mind. In most respects it was a stereo-typical over-sized three bedroom suburban home, very clean, very bright, beige carpet, nice furniture, exactly what one would expect to find in a place like Kent. But the book shelves were filled with Role-playing and strategy games. More than carried by most game shops I went into as a teen. The theme throughout the house was fantasy. Everything was swords and dragons. I have swords and dragons. But the are only a part of the whole. This was some serious fantasy fixation fed by a middle class income. Room after room, every wall, upstairs and down, it was all swords and dragons, dragons and swords.

In that moment my prior career strategy came rushing back to me. I had tried for two years solid to land a job with a video game company. The people I knew in that industry were not all that different from those whose home I now stood in. They loved video games, played video games constantly, always bought the latest consoles, and followed industry trends. My level of technical skill was meaningless, as was my creativity. Without that kind of passion behind me, I never stood a chance in that industry. As a kid who found ways to entertain himself alone on a farm without card games or Nintendo, my fantasies took on a very quixotic flavor. My dragons were slain with sword in hand and I moved on. I was a freak amongst geeks.

But it was freakin' awesome to see Rolfe. He may not live in such a castle (yet), but he is still the secret King of the Nerds.