Sometimes when I browse our forums and other MMO related ones, the word ânerdâ often pops up. Occasionally tied with Nihilum and its members and often just regarding regular MMO players as a whole. This sorta made me wonder, in general â what is a nerd?
So logically, I hit it up in the dictionary (taken from www.dictionary.com):
nerd - Show Spelled Pronunciation[nurd] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation
ânoun Slang.
1. a stupid, irritating, ineffectual, or unattractive person.
2. an intelligent but single-minded person obsessed with a nonsocial hobby or pursuit: a computer nerd.
Now that leaves two somewhat interesting definitions of what a nerd is. I question myself whether or not todayâs generally conventionally accepted definition is split and thoroughly distinguished between these two definitions, or if it is rather a bit like mine â a combination of a sort. Or if you can even allow oneself to state itâs either this or that or a combination.
Itâd say though, that we can all agree, that to some extent, the noun isnât â atleast not commonly â regarded as something positive. That being said I reckon I could found a whole lot of other nouns that are far more degrading. ď
Now, looking closer at the first definition, âA stupid, irritating, ineffectual, OR unattractive personâ â some harsh words, eh? Notice the âorâ. Going by that logic everyone who is either stupid, irritating, ineffectual or unattractive is by assumption a nerd. Interesting, itâd say. Because by all means I know a whole lot of persons who would be classifiable as nerds then; I must admit I never thought of it that way. However, that also makes it a somewhat relative opinion, since I could state that say someone like my friend Steffan might seem very stupid to me, obviously that is bound to be a subjective opinion, based on the fact that in my eyes he generally just is slow, unknowing and perhaps even ignorant (this doesnât mean I dislike him â notice he doesnât qualify for the other âoptionsâ, even though one might be inclined to find them related â ie. if youâre stupid, youâre often also irritating, or if you lack knowledge/insight, you might end up being ineffectual). And he might seem well-informed and sharp-thinking to other people, or to other groups of people, where we might be a group of people who generally regards him as stupid.
I think we can all agree that this particular idea of how we consider people generally is very relative and based on a personal opinion, even though we can, and we do, usually generalise and base people upon what one self as well as the involved social group thinks of the particular person â even the unattractiveness, which I, usually like to think of something that we cannot always do something about ourselves, is kinda personal, is it not? Yes, we can all find people on uglypeople.com and have a laugh, and we could all agree thereâs plenty out there who look terrible â but I bet thereâs also some who do not think they look ugly, that essentially, they are fine looking â and thatâs where it gets more complicated, and where lots of us are forced to acknowledge the fact, that we as individuals, have no rights to be as judgemental; or simply that our opinions doesnât define anything other than our personal thought.
Moving on to the second definition we now deal with something a bit more concrete. We are to assume that this person is intelligent but still lacks the social intelligence, or atleast doesnât focus on it as he or she simply is obsessed with a hobby that neglects that âabilityâ (I make it sound like being social can be trained â Go to your local Class Trainer and respecc your Social Tree!).
So, what would fit this definition⌠Think, Zano, think! Ah yes, there are plenty out there. You lot must have heard about them â and where to start? People who itâd like to consider highly intelligent however obsessed with âhobbiesâ that take so much of their time that it makes them non-social could be Newton, Darwin, Einstein, Freud, Nietzsche; and I could keep on rambling. Great names that has had made a major impact on the world as we know it today. People that were to be very intelligent, frighteningly at times, and yet they had problems tying their own shoes and with all respect should be considered nerdy. Itâs a bit of a far reach, yes, because we all know, that I doubt any Nihilum player would become a person like that â but (yes thereâs a minor, yet interesting but), consider someone like Tigole. Most of you know Tigole as the head development for raids and games design under that category, working for Blizzard, representing something that most of us enjoys. Having a past playing EverQuest, I knew Tigole from back then when he and the guild Legacy of Steele did their job (they were among the top of guilds with Fires of Heaven and Afterlife) â and by all means itâd go out any day and state, that hell yes, Tigole, who spent so much time on a game back then (donât hate me now, Big Ole Titties) would be a considerable nerd in terms of this second definition. Yet look at where he is today: A person with a lot of responsibility on his shoulders, someone who has a straight out impact on billions of everyday people. You. Hands down. So the second definition isnât that negative anymore, is it?
To put it into a different perspective. Take a person such as Zlatan Ibrahimovic, the Swedish football player. With all due respect, I regard him as a nerd (atleast when it comes to the second definition, AND quite frankly, some of the âoptionsâ from the first â more of that later). Do you regard him as a nerd? Or thought about it this way?
Letâs look at the idea. Heâs a person who is very interested (obsessed would suffice) in something and has an intelligence at it. Yes, this something is something most people would regard as a cool something. It is football. Professional football, actually. Obviously something that results in indescribable fame connected with a tremendous amount of financial support. But that shouldnât matter, should it? Because by the down right definition, that shouldnât be a necessity â or are we judging nerds in good or bad, based on how much money they earn â or how many posters and fans they have?
The equivalence still stands, though. In fact, how much do you reckon Zlatan Ibrahimovic understands of other stuff, say stuff like politics, philosophy, history, music and culture and movies, humanity, science, literature, psychology or MMOs? Close to zero.
So, is Zanoan now saying a Nihilum member could be a professional football player? Err, well, I like to think that Iâm not that blasphemous. Or naive. Or stupid. Or retarded. Or irritating. Or ineffectual.
Am I however saying that both parties are potential nerds? Yes. And how many of you ever thought about it that way? Less than how many of you could be Zlatan Ibrahimovic or any other professional football player. Obviously itâs no secret that my views on a personality like Zlatan Ibrahimovic cover both definitions (minus the appearance/attractiveness part, mind you, ladies). I find him ignorant (not plain stupid) â heâs one of those who are too obsessed with one discourse, that he neglects the rest, which somewhat leads to arrogance â which equals ineffectuality and in the end, that irritates me. Therefore heâs not a Ronaldinho, who might be unattractive and obsessed, but not as much as it makes him everything else than Zlatan is.
That said, I wish you all a good day, nerds, winners, losers, RLers or no-lifers, all alike.
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im in advanced classes and all that crap, and i do pretty good in them. luckily my guild has several tanks so if its too late when raiding i can usually get a replacement, and usually were done by about 10:30 anyway, so its all good 