Are you tired of wanting to try video games but having no idea what types of games to start with? Do you obsess over a tv show but have no one to talk about it with? Do you love dressing up for Halloween and wish you could do that for fun, at any time of the year? Then this is the article for you; a guide to embracing your inner nerd. I want to provide my video game recommendations, advice for people who want to try cosplaying, and ways to meet people that are into your favorite media.
Gaming
The video game community is notorious for the sexism many players show to female players in online gaming and even in the workplace after the public learned of the rampant sexism at Blizzard Gaming. It’s disappointing that this behavior has become normalized in games, especially male dominated games, but don’t let that stop you from dabbling into the world of gaming. In these past few decades, the gaming industry has worked to expand their audience to include girls, with Forbes saying that women make up almost half of all gamers internationally. Many girls talk about an older brother or cousin showing them Halo or Call of Duty, or they went to their friend’s house and played Mario Kart for the first time and their life was never the same. If you want gaming suggestions that are good for newbies check out some of these games to match your feeling at that time.
Super Smash Bros
An iconic Nintendo fighting game that includes characters from multiple gaming franchises from Pac-Man to Pokémon to Sonic. The characters battle it out on one of the many stages to chose from in either teams or individually. The players fight till the last character standing making them the winner. This game is extremely common and an essential in any Nintendo fan’s collection with multiple versions that have been released for the gaming systems. The chosen character’s moves, speed, height of jump, etc. are decided based on their personal game stats. This means a heavy character like Bowser will be weighed down by gravity while characters with more agility like Zero Suit Samus will move and flip quicker. Try different characters when you are learning so you learn what your favorite players are and decide who you main (main character you play the most).
Minecraft
A personal favorite of mine, Minecraft made a resurgence around 2019 and has sold $238 million in copies. What I love about Minecraft is that it truly is a game where you can do whatever you want. Minecraft appeals to multiple gamers from different genres because of the different paths they could take. Some people like Creative Mode so they can free build what they want without fear of being attacked by mobs (hostile creatures). I like to play Survival Mode because it gives me the challenge of feeding and protecting myself while slowly easing to the new world. If you like to have a goal like betting the final boss, the Ender Dragon, you can do that in Survival. Hardcore Mode restarts the enter world if you die, which can be funny if you just want to see how long you could live. Minecraft has gone through so many updates in the 15 years that it’s existed with 30 animals, 64 biomes, 35 monsters to fight. Minecraft is easy to learn and can be played alone or on a server with friends, which I highly recommend.
Fortnite
I know some of you are rolling your eyes at this asking, “Isn’t this a kid’s game?” I would argue that these are all kids games, so do not hate! I wanted to learn how to play a shooter game for a while but I struggled with the aiming or even understanding how the guns were different. Last spring break, I decided to try Fortnite because it was free to play and if I didn’t like the game, I hadn’t lost any money. I ended up spending the entire break playing Fortnite. It’s a battle royale game between 100 players on an island and as the game goes on a dangerous storm inches in around the players until they are forced to face off. You can play alone or up to 4 people that are matched randomly or are people you are friends with. There are tons of unique character you can buy and the battle pass allows for someone to get new gear and characters just for gaining levels. Learning this game will take a lot of failures to get good at the basics so don’t let the losses stop you, failure is a good teacher.
cosplay
I never knew how much I would love to cosplay until I started watching anime. The act of cosplaying first occurred as a costuming convention at the First World Science Fiction Convention in 1939. In 1984, Nobuyuki Takahashi, a mangaka (Japanese comic book writer), attended the same convention and saw people who were cosplaying with him combining “costume” and “play” to create cosplay. The popularity of cosplaying blew up in the USA because of two reasons; 1) a lot of new people started watching anime (Japanese cartoons) during the pandemic 2) TikTok allowed cosplay creator to create content with voice overs of characters in short clips.
Thanks to many people learning about cosplay through the anime community, often people think that’s the only type of media you can cosplay as but that’s not the case. San Diego Comic Con offers panels for shows and movies in all different genres from House of the Dragon, to Smiling Friends, even Steve from Blues Clues. Cosplaying is about dressing as someone you love, or hate, or you just like their outfits. Or maybe people say you look like a certain character and you want to dress as them. Going to conventions dressed up is extremely fun, you’re bound to find people who know who you are dressed as, even if the costume is very niche.
If you’ve never cosplayed before don’t worry! You’re not expected to make your own outfits. Some people get really into making cosplays. I find that some people like to costume make their cosplay, you can see some realistic Master Chief and Transformer costumes made by Engineers. TikTok is a great place to see how other people interpret a character’s costume if you’re in need of ideas. If your character has a staff or sword, you can always learn how to make it from scratch on YouTube. But if you just want to put on a costume, you bought off Amazon, there’s no shame in that. Of course, conventions are the most common reason for people to cosplay in the states but with the emergence of TikTok, people can share their interpretations of characters with the internet.
wait, how do i even make friends?
Now that you have some idea of games you want to play or you’re inspired to cosplay as your favorite character from SpongeBob you might be saying, “Wait, I don’t know anyone else that’s into the things that I am,” but that’s an easy fix thanks to the internet. Social media allows for communities to form around types of media, games, and other hobbies, and I think Reddit is the perfect place to find these communities. You can find a social group for literally everything on that website. I often go there after a new episode of House of the Dragon, or new chapter of One Piece comes out. It’s a great way to see how other members of the community reacted to the piece of media and often times people can point out things that would not catch my attention. For shows like the ones I just mentioned, there can be people referenced that we have met before but forgot about or there can be complicated relationships and alliances that are hard to keep track of. These communities are perfect for understanding complex parts of a book or pieces of media and who doesn’t want to obsess over how much you loved the newest episode. You can also find gaming groups on Reddit like a Minecraft server, not all of them are going to be great and it will take some trial and error, but I have found some very fun servers on r/mcservers. What I like about this Reddit page is that they clarify if the server is 18+ or not which is helpful for a game that is popular among kids and adults.
Ultimately there is no one specific hobby or fandom that makes you a nerd. To me, a nerd is someone who doesn’t let what others say about the things you like stop you from liking them. I used to be worried I would come off weird for being a huge fan of the Hunger Games or for watching kids cartoons as an adult, but I’ve realized that by not allowing me to like those things, I’m shutting away a part of me. Isn’t it sad to not be able to show your true self to the world. I think we have evolved as a society away from the labels of the past and we see that people are complex and what makes a person unique is embracing all of who they are, including their inner nerd.
