What would you say is nerdy?

[Torrasque]

While talking to a friend of mine today about those irritating pictures of people (usually girls) wearing large glasses and a super mario shirt going "omg I'm so nerdy, I just played super mario bros on the 3DS!", we got talking about what we consider nerdy.

Both of us do not consider playing a single game or reading a single comic "nerdy" behaviour, that is just reading a single comic or playing a single game. She considers it nerdy if someone collects every single issue of a comic series over 15 years old or owning every single Zelda game and their accompanying consoles. I consider it nerdy to be into tabletop games like Warhammer or talk about EV training in Pokemon.

We're not saying that these are bad things or that being nerdy is bad or adding any negative connotation to nerdiness. The only negative thing we were talking about, is those people who consider themselves nerdy for doing 1 little thing that is hardly nerdy at all. Like someone that sees LOTR: Two Towers and goes "OMG I AM SUCH A LOTR FAN".
But this thread isn't about things that I find annoying, that would be a very long and irritating thread indeed...

What do you consider nerdy? Are they things that are more nerdy than yourself, equally nerdy, or less nerdy?
Do you consider all things that are even slightly nerdy (liking the Avengers movie) to be nerdy?
Oh and I suppose I'll ask if you consider yourself or the things you do, nerdy. That is kind of important, lol.

Try not to get too serious with this thread, it is just something I am curious about.

 

[Phasmal]

I'm not one of those people who tries to be the Nerd-Police and needs to see your nerd license before they will let you open your mouth.
If you consider yourself nerdy, who the fuck am I to say you're not?
If you have a slight interest in nerdy stuff, I'm not gonna throw up my hands and say `STOP, you must lose x amount of hours of your life to this stuff or you dont love it like I do`

So yeah, nerdy can be spending all your time gaming or it can just be doing it every so often.

I think being exclusionary serves no purpose.

As for do I consider myself and the things I do nerdy, hell yeah. I just can't stand nerd hipsters/gatekeepers.
The more the merrier imo.
EDIT: http://whatever.scalzi.com/2012/07/26/who-gets-to-be-a-geek-anyone-who-wants-to-be/
I liked this, thought it was kinda relevant.

 

[Popadoo]

I consider someone nerdy if they put a lot of time and effort into a subject that isn't socially accepted.
Video games are popular, yes, but they have a lot of dumb stereotypes that make people wary of anyone who plays them. For that reason if someone puts a lot of time and effort into something video game related that makes them nerdy in my eyes.
Another example would be cartoons. Teens/adults who watch cartoons are called man-children and are thought of as weird, just generally not being socially accepted and fitting in to what is 'the norm', even if there are a LOT of these people.

 

[Vault101]

aside from specifics...its "a thing"....to me its taking interest beyond the popular/mainstream

like discussing it in detail in forums...like this

 

[Daystar Clarion]

I just spent the last half hour planning out my skill tree progression for Borderlands 2.


That's pretty damn nerdy

 

[Shadowstar38]

That would be having extensive knowledge of anything that we consider to just be standard entertainment. Lets do a test shall we.

Which pokemon in generation 2 had the best defensive stats?

Who was the lead writer of Teen Titans from 96-2000?

What issue did Great White Shark first appear in Batman comics.

What happened in the Halo books that wasnt explain in the games.

If you can answer questions like these off the top of your head, you're a nerd.

I just spent the last half hour planning out my skill tree progression for Borderlands 2.


That's pretty damn nerdy

If you have reached this level of nerd, seek help.

 

[Yomomma20]

I've always thought it's weird that you can look at someone doing something and immediately think 'that's nerdy'....but have a hard time defining what exactly defines 'nerdy'. To me, it seems like seriously caring about something most people don't care about to begin with.

Video games are an easy example, especially MMO's. Some people simply play them for an hour or two every few days. They don't care about maxing anything out or going out of their way to make their character more powerful. They simply play the game because it is fun. Nothing more.

Then you have people like me. I'm incapable of playing a game without putting a serious amount of thought into it. I look up guides, I visit forums, I theorycraft when I'm not playing the game, I will do things in a game that result in it being not very fun for a while if it means my character will be stronger...for pretty much every game I play. To me, THAT'S nerdy.

It does also seem like doing something that isn't socially accepted. Table top games aren't popular with the general public, so anything Warhammer related is considered nerdy. The same goes for card games like Magic. And reading comic books.

 

[Torrasque]

That would be having extensive knowledge of anything that we consider to just be standard entertainment. Lets do a test shall we.

Which pokemon in generation 2 had the best defensive stats?

Who was the lead writer of Teen Titans from 96-2000?

What issue did Great White Shark first appear in Batman comics.

What happened in the Halo books that wasnt explain in the games.

If you can answer questions like these off the top of your head, you're a nerd.

I just spent the last half hour planning out my skill tree progression for Borderlands 2.


That's pretty damn nerdy

If you have reached this level of nerd, seek help.

Shuckle still has the highest defensive stats in all of pokemon, even higher than defence form Deoxys. If you use the move Power Trick, Shuckle becomes the most powerful pokemon ever. Power Trick + Trick Room + any STAB move of Shuckle's is imba as fuck.

I never watched Teen Titans and don't read comics.

Oh man, sooooooooo much. One big one was what happened between Halo 1 and Halo 2, how Master Chief and Sarge got off of Halo and back to Earth. That was a pretty sweet book.

Also, that level of nerdiness of Daymaterasu is pretty normal among my frands. Its necessary if you want to get the most out of your games!

 

[DoPo]

Why, man? Just why? The last thread finally went at peace a couple of days ago. Why did you do the same?

If you have a slight interest in nerdy stuff, I'm not gonna throw up my hands and say `STOP, you must lose x amount of hours of your life to this stuff or you dont love it like I do`

So yeah, nerdy can be spending all your time gaming or it can just be doing it every so often.

yeah, this sounds like the Nirvana Fallacy "Either you go for 100% nerdiness [defined by some rather arbitrary criteria] or you're don't bother at all!".

http://whatever.scalzi.com/2012/07/26/who-gets-to-be-a-geek-anyone-who-wants-to-be/

They?re poachers. They?re a pox on our culture. As a guy, I find it repugnant that, due to my interests in comic books, sci-fi, fantasy and role playing games, video games and toys, I am supposed to feel honored that a pretty girl is in my presence. It?s insulting? You?re just gross.

Is this Mr Joe Peacock's picture?

 

[Keoul]

I would think it's just anyone extremely knowledgeable about any subject. Doesn't have to be restricted to entertainment seeing as how vague the term has become.
Science nerd
Gaming nerd
Just means someone very knowledgeable regarding that topic.

 

[DoPo]

That would be having extensive knowledge of anything that we consider to just be standard entertainment. Lets do a test shall we.

Which pokemon in generation 2 had the best defensive stats?

Who was the lead writer of Teen Titans from 96-2000?

What issue did Great White Shark first appear in Batman comics.

What happened in the Halo books that wasnt explain in the games.

If you can answer questions like these off the top of your head, you're a nerd.

Let me take a crack at this.

I've never played Pokemon and I've seen very little of the show. I am only vaguely aware that there are "generations". So my answer is "Dunno".

Never seen Teen Titans. "Dunno"

Is the Great White Shark a villain? Or is it the one that explodes due to shark repellent (only seen the scene in YouTube). I can't say I've read any Batman comics. Well, I did one, but it was a comic book version of the Batman and Robin movie. "Dunno"

I've played about an hour of the first Halo. It was the first game I uninstalled before I finished playing through. And that shows something about how much it bored me back then. "Dunno"

I guess I fail...

 

[Vegosiux]

Well, your rims can't spin, to the contrary - they must remain quite stationary. But seriously, if you want to use a fancy equation somewhere, do it right, and don't slap in h where h-bar should be *hiss*

But my general rule of thumb is, whoever goes out of their way to say "Oooooh, look at me, look at me, I'm so X!" is likely not X.

There is one thing I do consider nerdy wherever it happens though, and that's making puns. Especially the well punctuated ones, and even when they get so pungent that they deserve some punishment. Careful when punning though, lest you cause a pundemic.

 

[Esotera]

I'd say the nerd threshold is passed when you start arguing about trivial stuff in a field. For computers this would be stuff like which programming language is better, whether JSON is better than XML, and caring about whether your phone runs linux or not.

Basically anything that shows you know a lot more about a field than the average person on the street. And that's not necessarily a bad thing, as long as the person isn't obnoxious with their knowledge.

 

[Tiger King]

my definition of nerd is something like this.
if your very passionate about something and it takes up lots of your time actively pursuing that interest and you pride yourself on knowing as much as possible on that subject, that is nerdy.
e.g. if you are really into cars and know a lot about the finer details on them you are a car nerd.
if you are really into music and know all the notes and scales your a music nerd
etc etc

I've used these examples instead of the stereotypical comics, games or whatever just to show having an active interest is not a negative thing. although being intrested in how a car works is probably more usefull than knowing every single detail in lotr