nerd culture 2

8/2/2019 Nerd Culture 2

1/9

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Lets talkComics!

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Dungeons& Dragons

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2/9

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Dungeons and Dragons has been aig name in table top gaming since974 and since then it has beenetting a lot of hype. Millions ofeople gather around a table withnything from a bag to a bucket

f countless dice for a few hours aweek to play out their fantasies.

eing the go to name of table topame Dungeons and Dragons hasarned itself a reputation and notll of it good. So it is about timenother person in yet another

magazine tells you what is mythnd what is fact in this ever soopular debate topic.

MYTH: D&D is the devils wayo corrupt out children andurn them into blood thirsty

murderers.

uses severalrain washinge c h n i q u e sn c l u d i n golating thelayer fromupport groupske family andhurch and fullurrender andubmission tohe occult leaderr DM. Becausef this the devilan creep into thehilds soul and whilehe child thinks he isust playing a game he isctually conjuring real demons.

n 1990 an active D&D player,hris Pritchard was convicted of

murder in second degree of his

step-father. It is obvious that thedevil made him do it and the onlyway the devil could have gotten tohim was through playing D&D.

FACT: It is just a game.

Given the fact that most of the bookinvolves ideas based off of realmagic it does tend to scare people.But there are no actual ritualspreformed that would summon saiddemon, no blood sacrices or evena mundane material sacrice to anyspirit let alone Lucifer. Even thoughthere has been a murder in the midstof the gamers does NOT mean thatit is an evil thing. If murder

made something evil thena lot of things would

be forbidden including, but notexclusive to; Love, work, childraising, owning property, beinghungry etc. But all these things arenot evil. There is as much a devil

involved in all of these things asthere is in D&D.

MYTH: D&D is a male exclusivegroup.

Weve all seen the episodes on TVthat berate the game. There arealways a bunch of men who gettogether who have never talked toa woman in their lives to play thegame. There may be the occasionalmix up, a designated black guyhere a Hispanic there but never inthe mix will you see a woman.The female gender is just not pulledtowards the call of Dungeons andDragons. Neither are gays, cross

dressers or transsexuals. Onlymen, usually extremely

over weight or widelyunder weight with aninsatiable craving for

sickly sweet sodasand Cheetos,play the game.These men areall straight menwho cravew o m a n l yattention.

FACT: D&D isgender (and

otherwise) inclusive.

Many a D&D group has the femalegamer. Women arent repelled bythe idea of playing table top gameswith a few friends and there areeven women exclusive groups. Youcan even chance upon an overtlyamboyant gay man or the overzealous butch chick with fteenthousand piercings. People of allwalks of life, gender and sexuality

play Dungeons and Dragons alongwith many other table top games.

MYTH: People who play D&D arevirgins.

I mean seriously, who would wantto sleep with them? Gamers neverleave their house and are alwayscramped up in their basementcaves. When they do their skinis practically iridescent in daylight. They almost never seek outcompanionship outside that offantasy games and when they dothey are awkward and just weirdout a girl who is out of their league.

FACT: That is a big misconception.

Playing D&D does not lower yourodds on getting laid. Being alarge community not only can the

average gamer get a little actionhe/she/they can also enjoy a goodtime with someone of commoninterests. Thing is, if you dont getout of the house you lower yourodds a considerable amount, thatis only minutely connected withplaying D&D.

MYTH: Playing D&D makes you wantto commit suicide.

In 1979 an avid D&D player, James Egbert III attempted suicidevia over dose in utility tunnelsbeneath the campus of MichiganState University. Having failed hehid at a friends house for a monthbefore being found by a privateinvestigator hired by his mother. Thefollowing year Egbert succeededin killing himself by a bullet in thehead.

Bobby, a young and active youngboy, was found hanging by a homemade noose by his mother, Beatrice,in 2001. After the body wasremoved the mother investigated

and found that Bobby had madea make shift stool out of books,Dungeons and Dragons books infact, proving that D&D kills.

FACT: The suicide rate is actuallyLOWER in the gaming community.

Twelve years after the release ofthe game there was a study. Ofthe 4 million people who were

playing at that time 125 people ofthat community had died only halfof which were suicides. Those 62.5deaths happened over a courseof twelve years amounting to anaverage of 5.2 suicidal deaths ayear.

This is far lower than the averagesuicide rate of other communitiesbeing an average of 12.8 deathsout of every 100,000 people

MYTH: People who play D&D arenerds.

You see them all the time wearingtheir thick rimmed glasses with thebit of scotch tape in the middle tokeep them together. Their untidy,greasy hair frames a face coveredin pimples and they covet their latestpocket protector. They hide awayfrom everyone not saying much

and when they do its to answer aquestion in their annoying nasallyvoice that is akin to the screech ofnails on a chalk board. When theyarent answering a question andare actually talking they are goingon and on about their obsession,usually computers or D&D.

FACT: This myth actually holds alittle bit of gumption.

But before you think that youllsuddenly sprout glasses, a bad haircut and develop and nasally voiceas soon as you consider playinglet us break down what a nerd isbeyond that lovely visual. Providedby a few dictionaries the denitionof a nerd is summed down to anintellectual yet socially impairedperson who just might be obsessive.

Those who play D&D are usuallyintellectual because the entire gameis lled with word math problems.Its all about problem solving.Whether you want to woo the barmaid to get a free drink or to get

past the re breathing dragon torescue the half minded dwarf whogot himself locked in a box its allabout problem solving. So whoare generally at problem solving?Thats right, intellectual people, ornerds.

A socially impaired person willusually try to shy away from talkingin large groups. So why would

a bunch of them play a game thatof communication.attack the darknemissile either. Ausually involves vbunch of monologinexplanation of mothat they need toand the person plawill often say Yousight, move or Imyou in the back. Aimpaired people dthat they want soD&D players are nothe top of their lunga specic magic iteof said dwarf lockeOn the obsessive pthat many a gamewant to play the gaonce a good campA few do go over b

not to paint the pictcommunity.

So needless to many arguments fplaying the game.you wont become nerdy virgin male several pounds oveeventually kill yousay that the likely hPlaying dungeons anot make you theperson in the worldit is looked down omake you anything that people do anfrom their own choD&D.

If the calling to roll tyou nd a local groubecoming or havingfore-said happeninglittle myths and miscyou from playing omiss out on an amthat is still sweepingthirty-eight years.

The truth behind the myths!

ne


4/9

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ne


5/9

with Charlie Stolz

Wolverine & The X-Men # 1 - 5 Review

Writer: Jason Aaron

Artists: Chris Bachalo & Nick Bradshaw

Publisher: Marvel Comics

{One of two books spinning out of last falls X - Men- Schism event, Wolverine and the X-Men has Loganand a crew of X-Men old and new (Iceman, Beast,Kitty Pryde) leaving the West Coast (Where theydbeen located since about 2007 or so) and returningto Westchester to found the Jean Grey School forHigher Learning. When I heard that they were split-ting the teams, I looked forward to it.Wolverine as aHeadmaster? Sold.

Of course, that goes about as well as youd expect.From day one. Well, it goes horribly for them, fan-tastic for the readers. If you thought the HellreClub was boring, you were pretty much right. Untilthey were replaced by children. Comics dont haveenough malevolent children. We also get Brood, astaple since the 70s. The students are also interesting,from Broo (A tiny, sentient Brood) to a kid version ofApocalypse.

What Aaron and his team of artists (Chris Bachalo forissues 1-3) and Nick Bradshaw (4-6) do is weave a

tale thats just as much about the new possibilities forthe X-Men as it is a celebra-tion of fty years of things t hatcame before.Its the best theX-Men have been since theMorrison or Whedon days,and is consistently one of thebest books on the stands.

Justice League # 1-6 Review

Writer: Geoff Johns

Artist: Jim Lee

Publisher: DC Comics

{The rst book in DC Comics New 52 Relaunch, thistitle had a lot riding on it, and it needed a blockbustercreative team, and on that note, it succeeds. On a fewother levels not so much.

Issue #1 pairs Green Lantern and Batman against anApokoliptian Parademon, which starts a recruitmentdrive over the next ve issues, eventually gainingthe members Aquaman, Superman, Flash, WonderWoman and Cyborg, Over ve issues. This culminatesin a battle against Dar kseid, who seems a little lessthreatening in this incarnation. The problem with us-ing Darkseid as the rst threat to the league makes itseem like everything after wont be as interesting.

While the art is fantastic, I found the story to be alittle lacking, falling victim to the decompression thatseems to infect modern comics, telling a four issuestory over six. Things used to be simple, it didnt takesix issues to form a team. But aside from that, it wasan alright arc that didnt even end with the teamnamed ofcially.

That seems to be one of theproblems with the current re-launch, a focus on art overstory, which is somethingindicative of the 90s comicbook market. I dont know ifyou read comics in the 90s,but a return to that form is afairly scary trend.

nerdculture 6


6/9

Drive is a really really good crimerama. Now, I think that no one in

he world can nail a crime drama aswell as Martin Scorsese. Hes the king,

eriod. And Drive isnt as good as one his movies, but its somewhere in theame realm. Its a big deal or me toay that anything can even approach

Marty as ar as crime dramas are con-erned so just take my word or it ando see it.

Ryan Gosling called this lm A JohnHughes movie with head smashingn it. Its unny how people are neverccurate when they assess their own

work. As a massive John Hughes an,can tell you it is absolutely nothingke that. I was thinking more Davidynch. The lm has a kind o dreamy,

moody quality that suggests maybeGoslings character will wake up andealize this as all been a dream or arazy mans hallucination. It also uses

music EXTREMELY eectively, that

was one o my avorite aspects o thelm and I am now obsessed with thesoundtrack. Drive really went places Idid not expect it to go. I thought I hadit gured out. I got used to the tone andeel o it, I was like, I get this movieand it deed me. I LOVE WHENTHAT HAPPENS. My riend and Iliterally kept grabbing each other andalmost screaming. I was so into it.

I I could criticize something it wouldprobably be that I really wanted toknow more about Goslings charactersbackstory, but I think its good theydont spell everything out or us. Veryslowly, as the lm goes on, we see himdo things and see how he uses words(what he says and more importantly,doesnt say) that denitely clue us in towho this person really is under his vis-age. I dont want to say anything more,but my riend and I had a pretty deepdiscussion about why he is the way thathe is based on the clues given.

It was one o those lms where, aterthe rst ten minutes or so, youre sothrilled because the beginning rockedso much and you just absolutely cantwait to see what comes next. Aterthe rst big sequence, I just wanted toscream out FUCK YEAH cause I wasso excited. I mean, as a movie bu, Ilive or that stu. This kept up untilthe lm was about 3/4 o the way done.They lost me a little bit beore theclimax occured. I thought they ocusedtoo much on secondary characters ora minute, the scenes dragged on a littlelong. Other than that, I really cantthink o anything else in this movie

that I would have changed. It wasperectly measured. It holds back at theright times and gives you everything atthe right times. That is so rare! Thinkabout it, really, and youll see what Imean.

I would recommend Drive to everyone.Go see it. Now.

Holy shit, go see this movie. Itreally rocked. I swear to God I amnot just saying this because o howin love I am with Ryan Gosling.


7/9

ell us a bit about yourself.

m 26 years old from Battle Creek,

Michigan. I love all t hings nerdy.e it comics, Video Games, Mov-es its all good. I live in Farming-on Hills Now, with my Fianc andur 7 kids [animals].

part from creating things, whato you do?

work full time for Gamestop.Other than that I play guitar ando some drawing while guringut what else I can put on leather.

What would be the title of yourmemoir?

Nerds In Leather (Not The ComboYoud Think).

Where does your inspiration comerom?

All things nerdy. Comics, videoames, movies Everyone has aymbol. Something that describes

hem. I just make it so you canwear your favorites.

What does handmade mean toou?

andmade means something thatook time. Something that took ef-ort. That someone put their heartnd soul into to make an item that

has never existed before, or if ithas theres never been one like itbecause this one is unique.

Who has been most inuential inyour craft?

My father. He has been doingleather craft for over 30 years. Iremember when I was little and Ijust that it was the coolest thing inthe world. My dad could take themost intricate pictures and carvethem into this surface and paintthem to look just like real life. Hedidnt just paint a canvas, his workwas almost three dimensional. Likea whole world frozen in time rightthere in this picture. It was amaz-ing being able to run your handover it and feel every curve andbump of every carve he had done.

When did you know you were anartist/maker?

I never did. To this day I still think Ihave worlds to go in improving mystyle and technique. I think I could

still be so much better so I dont re-ally count myself as an artist quiteyet.

How would you describe your cre-ative process?

At rst I either nd a design orhave someone message me on myetsy account. From there, if its a

message I take the design theywant or have messaged me andI see how ne and intricate the

carving is. When we have reachedan agreement on the design itselfI carefully trace it on to 3 millime-ter drafting paper. I then wet theleather down where the designwill be and tape the design down.I use a tracing tool to transfer thedesign over to the leather, andthen I carve it in using an extreme-ly sharp swivel knife. A swivel knifeit basically a blade set into a postwith a rest for your nger. Thereis a swivel set into the middle soyou can accurately carve circlesand curves as you need to. Afterthen I stamp down the surroundingleather and widen my carve linesfor paint. Put in some holes for thesnaps, stain, and paint. A goodcoat of weather proong andtheres a nished product.

If you could peek inside the studioof any artist, designer or craftsman(dead or alive), who would it be?

Funny you should ask. We justhad this discussion last night. If Icould look into the creative mind ofANYONE, it would be Tim Burton.The desire to pick his brain is over-whelming. He creates, designs,AND sculpts all of his own originalworks. He amazes me.

What handmade possession do youmost cherish?

I have two. I have a leather wristband my father made me in High-school that I absolutely love. Andthere are several drawings that myanc did for me at the beginningof our relationship that hang byour bed. Things I could never livewithout.

How do you get out of your cre-ative ruts?

I kill a lot of things in video games.Seriously. A ton. Or spend some

time with my favorite Lady. Sheseems to always know what to sayor do to get me going again. Idont know what Id do without heras a part of my business.

Where would you like to be in tenyears?

Still doing my work, but full time.

Happily marriedwith a nice housesomewhere where Ican have a properworkshop for allmy tools and spaceto actually work onmy projects.

Take a look atmore of Tonyswork for HeroKuffs atherokuffs.etsy.com.

an interview with tony of hero kuffs


8/9

Dont hide your super identity,wear it on your wrist!

herokuffs.etsy.com

early impressions with Charlie Stolz.

Two words: Holy.Crap. For peoplelike me (the PS3 crowd), Mass Eectnally graced us last year, and it wasglorious. We got it, and we got it good.Now, we didnt have ALL the thingsrom one carrying over, but we gotto give it a shot. And oh,how good itwas. The interesting thing is that wewere all told that every decision wouldmatter. People lived, people died. Andi they died, they would not be therein the next game. I shudder to thinkabout how dierent my game wouldalready be i Id been less anal reten-tive about my squad. (Looking at you,Garrus ol Buddy.) I can only wonderhow Ill blubber i one o my avoritesdies. For the sake o the story,Im sure.

You cant have an entire squad o bad-asses survive orever.

Hell, the way things are going, whoknows how the Galaxy will?

Yes, as weve been seeing in all the ads,the long heralded Reaper threat hascome to Earth. And putting it lightly,we are ucked. Unless you can go

cruise the galaxy, and try to bring al-lies rom across the stars, which Im as-suming is the crux o the game. Sure,you could go in all hal-cocked (i.e,all human), but wed be slaughtered.So,All the species. All their ships. itis commanded, and youre o. I wasworried that the game had suddenlygotten linear, but it nally opened upand its glorious. Having not playedME1, I dont know how that was, butthis plays very similar to ME2, withsome new powers/abilities/squadmembers thrown in. So its all good.Theyve replaced the mining (a verybanal to some, enjoyable to me) aspecto 2 with something slightly moresimplied, but with an added element

o possibly gaining a Reapers atten-tion ... and thats just too righteningor me to think o right now. All sortso things that I have yet to understandadd up to some sort o gure thatdetermines how ready or the end-game you are. So I didnt lose anythingbanal without gaining something moreintricate.

All in all, it seems thaplayers will be playindierent stories right what will probably ondierent endings. Mapends on who you let

Videogames make me carelives o virtmates. But ito Epics that

will be m

No, Im not crying.


9/9

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