Over the weekend, I saw “American Teen”, a documentary about high school seniors in suburban Indiana. No spoilers here so don’t worry! It was a good film, very entertaining, but you won’t miss out if you wait for the Pay Per View or DVD version. Unless you’re a parent. I would say it’s recommended viewing for every parent of a teen.

Anyway, the entire cast was interesting, but there was a kid Jake who was an avid gamer. He LOVED ZELDA. And girls. And played in the band. And I guess archetypes are archetypes…you can find them everywhere and he was the ultimate “band geek”. You don’t have to watch Gossip Girl to guess that in the totally draconian social hierarchy known as High School, Jake’s social standing would probably be somewhere between the kid whose mom is the lunch lady, and the smelly kid in the AV room. Jake’s a pretty cool kid though - and his story struck a chord with me. Simply put, he could not find PEOPLE LIKE HIM. He couldn’t find people to appreciate the same things he was into; who couldn’t appreciate him for HIM. That means belonging to a group that respects your accomplishments, whether it’s scoring the game-winning touchdown, or consistently topping damage meters in Black Temple. It means finding men/women who are attracted to you just the way you are and not scoffing when you “have to” raid, because they have firm raiding schedules too. I mean, is that too much to ask for?! Finding like-minded individuals is as relevant and important when you’re in your 30s and beyond as it is in your teens. Ask anybody you know with a hobby or interest in ANYTHING.

I’ve always had what you would call “different” interests. Niche is a nice, non-geeky word for it. I joined the Dungeons & Dragons Role Playing Club in high school, scoured AOL profiles in chat rooms looking for mentions of Nintendo, hung out in comic book stores to see where my next Magic TGC match would come from, you know, stuff like that…When all of my friends were going out and getting tanned. (and getting in trouble, kekek). Then the internet exploded! And…not too much changed, to be honest. There were easier ways of keeping in contact WITH my friends, through IM, email, Skype, etc. And the community forums out there made it easier for us to talk about our interests, but I was always left wondering: Who are you? What else are you about? But it was still difficult to find these people in the first place.

I’m hoping mmochi can change that.

Can I get a w00t? How many studies have you read about gaming addiction, antisocial behavior, or other evidence of how “gamers” are overall social misfits. But a new study from Victoria University in Australia investigating aspects of gaming (mostly addiction) as it relates to physical health and other vices like alcohol and gambling finds that only about 15% of gamers should be categorized as “problem gamers”. Unfortunately, “we found that those who played Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs), such as World of Warcraft, were more likely to exhibit problematic game play”. Damn, pwned after all. I know to me, Starcraft/Warcraft 3 is like heroin, and World of Warcraft like crack, but now I’ve got it down to the management level of Vicodin. But the psych grad student who conducted the experiment added, “I think it’s an evolution of social and cultural stereotypes that suggest only nerds and geeks play computer games,” he added. “The reality is that nowadays everyone is playing video games.”

Doubly unfortunate is that it was games like World of Warcraft that was a MAJOR agent in increasing playership and of MMOs, and MMOs are a huge catalyst in changing the stereotype of who a “typical” gamer is. So if the “typical gamer” is also the “problem gamer”, and there are more atypical gamers than ever (due to MMOs) - such as women and older people, then why are the problem gamers coming mostly from MMOs? What gives? lol.

Just saw the cutest thing on the net - Of course, I say this at least 3x a day…because as you know, the internets is chock full of interesting things. And maybe I just happen to look for cute + geeky things. That’s a really really awesome combo, not every product can pull that off. It’s totally not the same as cool + geeky, because let’s face it, that’s just too easy. Almost everything that’s geeky is considered cool nowadays, right? Right?

Anyway, this made it to digg front page few days ago. Since it’s wedding season and all, I figured it was worth a blog post.

Here’s the link for more info.