Four Fandoms Geeks Expect You to be a Part Of

I love a lot of things from movies, television shows, comic books, novels to video games. I hang out with people who love to talk non-stop about the last episode of Arrow and play video games like Mass Effect. I identify myself as a geek and I think I’m quite familiar with the culture. It would seem like it’ll be easy to talk to like-minded individuals, but I’ve noticed that there are some hurdles that prevent me from fully connecting with fellow geeks. I feel like I’m expected to know everything about what the majority is playing, watching, and reading or else I risk being left out.

I once went to a party where 90% people turned out to be huge fans of this popular video game franchise. Everyone made friends with each other so quickly because of the things they could relate to each other. On the other hand, I was struggling to hold a conversation with the basic bits of knowledge I knew about this game. There was no point in changing the subject because it went always back to the game. This happened too during an event I attended at an convention, but it was about a television show that I didn’t particularly follow. I know people have these experiences too. We aren’t being hipsters.We just like different things, but it sucks that we pay the price in social settings.

Here are four essential fandoms to be a part of if you want to survive socializing. I’m sure there are more, but these are ones based on my own experience.

1. Pokemon

Yes, I don’t play Pokemon and I always expect people to stare at me like I don’t know that the internet exists. I don’t hate it at all and the same goes for everything on this list. However, people need to understand that people have preferences and it just happens that this isn’t my thing. There are so many times I dreaded the moment when everyone revealed that they love Pokemon because that meant I had nothing substantial to contribute to the conversation. It came to a point wherein my friends tried to infect me with their addiction by installing an emulator on my PC. It didn’t work because I begged them to just let me play NBA 2K14 instead. On the bright side, I was able to make a new friend when the two of us realized that we were the only people in the group who aren’t crazy over it.

2. Game of Thrones

This is a serial offender on my list. I actually started watching Game of Thrones, but I stopped in the middle of the second season. It wasn’t something I was crazy about it even if I enjoyed the show to a certain degree. A lot of it has to do with the genre since I’m more of a science-fiction kind of girl. I’ve already stopped counting the times people have approached me with an obvious Game of Thrones reference and walked away disappointed at my ignorance. I’ve actually considered watching the show again, but a lot of the show’s big moments have already been spoiled for me even if I don’t actively search about the show online. Blame those memes and GIFs people make using GoT scenes. My only hope is that Sparknotes creates a guide for this. If Lord of the Rings has one, why not this? I need it for my social life.

3. Breaking Bad

A lot of people talk about Breaking Bad like it’s the greatest thing that happened on television. It probably is, but my brain just yearns to watch something else. It sucks that I also expect people to bring it up outside of the geek community. The only thing I can contribute to conversations is what I thought about the bathtub scene in the first season. Sometimes I can talk about how cute RJ Mitte is when I’m talking to other girls just to avoid feeling left out. People still talk about the show even if it already ended it’s run and there’s even a prequel on the way. All I can do is say “Yeaaah b***h” awkwardly.

4. Everything Nintendo

I hate apologizing for something that isn’t my fault. I was born into the generation when PlayStation was at its peak and my parents only bought me either that or an Xbox. I didn’t grow up in the Nintendo era and I’m not even familiar with most of the characters in the photo. #4 was originally going to be Mario, but I guess I could apply it to every property owned by Nintendo. I got really annoyed when someone at a party said that I wasn’t a “real” gamer just because I haven’t played Ocarina of Time. Unfortunately, being a fan of Nintendo’s games is a pre-requisite for some people.