GameBanshee Forums

Invisable Man wrote:...go play some fallout 3 that should cancel the oblivion out while keeping your awsome gameplay going

Belthan wrote:It was recently pointed out to me that I'm an Oblivion geek, because aside from the hundreds of hours I've spent playing and modding, I named one of my cats Mankar Camoran.

Which made me wonder where I fall on the Oblivion fanboy spectrum. Are there other people out there with pets (or children) named after Oblivion characters, people with Oblivion tattoos or vanity license plates, people who dress like their favorite character, or whatever?

Shesau wrote:StarDragon, the evolution of the English language varying upon regions that use it is nothing new. Words change meaning with the passage of time. "Awful" used to be a positive description ("deserving of awe") and "beer" used to refer to an enjoyable pub drink as opposed to domestic gutter swill. The internet is a big cause of this phenomenon, and the term "geek" has been generally accepted to refer to those of us who have some srsly mad gamer skillz.

Belthan, you are not alone in your (admittedly deep :laugh hole of obsession. I have a friend who named a new parakeet Sheogorath. I do not understand why, but hey, to each their own. Weirdos.

CFM wrote:I have accumulated many cloth and paper maps that have come with the many RPG and CRPG games I have acquired over the years. These include various maps of the lands of Britannia, Faerun, Ravenloft, and many others. (Alas, I don't play Oblivion.)

My wife (of all people!) had the idea of putting some of my favorite maps all together in a giant collage and having it professionally framed. Now, I dig my wife's $1000 Thomas Kinkade paintings, but damn! do I love looking at my framed collage of maps. It's an art memorial to past adventures had in fantastic worlds of imagination. Looking at all the landmarks brings back the great times of years past.

Does that count as geek?

I play alot of organized sports, so all my friends are jocks. I'm affectionately considered The Nerd in the circles I run with, because I'm the only one that works in the I.T. field, or plays PC games. They (as well as my wife) all agree that it does in fact count as geek.

But every last one of them thinks my collage is cool.

CFM wrote:But every last one of them thinks my collage is cool.

LeoStarDragon1 wrote: "Geek" is a noun. It pertains to a carnival performer, or a circus side-show performer, who publicly bites off the head of a live animal, such as a chicken typically, as a sensational spectacle.

So why anyone would want to be associated with such a term is beyond me.

LeoStarDragon1 wrote:One of the writers for "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", in a commentary for an episode, was proud to point out that she used "geek" in the right context, unlike some of her coworkers. So at least in her episodes, the characters use "geek" correctly.

Invisable Man wrote:go play some fallout 3 that should cancel the oblivion out while keeping your awsome gameplay going

fable wrote:No, that would only make him a geek, twice over.

Belthan wrote:I agree!

Sideshow acts that require little or no proficiency with complex skills and have an over-the-top "ick factor" are certainly the origin of the term (and while I find animal cruelty apalling, I have nothing at all against folks who can eat glass or insert 16-penny nails entirely into their nostrils), but the Random House dictionary includes some more contemporary definitions:

geek (slang) - noun
1. a peculiar or otherwise dislikable person, esp. one who is perceived to be overly intellectual.
2. a computer expert or enthusiast (a term of pride as self-reference, but often considered offensive when used by outsiders.)
3. a carnival performer who performs sensationally morbid or disgusting acts, as biting off the head of a live chicken.

In my case, "2 out of 3 ain't bad" :laugh:

I have no problem with those acts either. In the first episode of that game show where they bit off fish heads thinking they were being cool, I shouted at them, "No! You're geeks! Ha! Ha! Idiots!" My Random House one lost it's front cover and I think someone in my family may have wasted it. I like to have have several to consult, if just to see how many ways a definition can be written to avoid copyright issues, yet still maintain the same meaning. The one I keep close to me is, "Webster's New Encyclopdeia of Dictionaries". It is my favorite because it includes the dictionaries for male and female names that I refer to quite often, for character creation purposes. Anyway, ah, you see, I don't like the "slang" uses. They evolved from the actual term. I don't call people "jerks" anymore now unless they actually come from "jerkwater towns". I live in one, so I'm surrounded by them! Curse them for teasing me just because I was born in Seoul, but they thought I was "Chinese looking" or because the Vietnam War was still in progress, for looking like a "gook". I was the first person with any Asian ancestry at all in my class. But when I learned that I was also part Chickasaw and thus more American than they were, ha ha! My fellow "Native Americans" took my side against the White Man and the teasing and bullying decreased, as far as racial matters were concerned. But, not about the rest, like not being into sports and preferring to chase girls around the playground instead. But I digress. My point is, learning to speak the language like the locals and writing it better than them or reading it better than them, is a defensive mechanism, and hence why I sympathised with Mister Spock, but unlike him, I would've beat on Doctor McCoy when Jim wasn't looking, ala Scott's sensitivity about the ship, I was sensitive about being of mixed race, and not knowing it. To my eyes, I looked as white as any body else and still do. Cops even checked "White" on their forms when I've been pulled over or had an accident. So I'm still puzzled why some boys made those "slant eye" faces at me and told me to go back home and called me a commie. The odd part, I had allergies and didn't know it until I was 19. The adreneline from the fights made me feel better one way, although I had tears because of the other issues, so it was confusing. But that's the origin for why I'm a stickler about semantics and communication.

There was also an X-Files episode that involved a carnival and, as I recall, featured a character who was a "geek" and used the term in the traditional sense.