The Rise of the Geekdom
Geek is the new cool
Patrick Pence is more than your friendly neighborhood geographic information systems coordinator for the City of Tallahassee Public Safety Office. By day, he handles data related to 911 dispatch and response for police, fire, sheriff, and EMS. On nights and weekends, he uses towers of dice and intricate boards to slay fantastical beasts or armies of enemies from World War Next with a community of like-minded people around Tallahassee.
“Geek” was once a term used to defame gaming enthusiasts from coast to coast, intending to sow shame and induce self-loathing, but now the term is trending.
“Geekdom is something you can be proud of,” Pence says of being a gamer. “There is a lifestyle, there’s a culture, and there’s a mentality and a social aspect to this.”
Though “gamer” is a broad category and can be used to describe video game and board game enthusiasts alike, others might say the moniker only includes role players. However, they have one common trait: geekdom encompasses them all. Within a moment’s notice, each gamer is ready to take up dice, cards, or miniatures and join forces to engage in hours of creative dialogue centered around their chosen game.
Pence is a prominent member of several groups online and around Tallahassee, but they aren’t all connected.
“We have many sites around town that play typically on the weekend,” Pence says, “everything from miniature wargaming to RPGs. You have regular groups that will meet in public spaces and in private spaces.”
Groups typically congregate around common themes and/or game types. Genres range from fantasy, science fiction, or historical fiction to modern and futuristic settings with cooperative roleplaying (RPG) styles, hack-and-slash, strategy/war, and countless others.
“The Tallahassee gaming community has very broad memberships,” Pence says. “Between social media platforms, discord online gaming, and just true old tabletop gaming in person at local scenes in Tallahassee, it’s quite possible to not run into the same people.”
For decades, gamers were stereotyped as teens too socially awkward to come out of their mothers’ basements, so they gathered in secret to play make-believe. This stigma persisted through the early 2000s. Then, “You had things like Wil Wheaton and TableTop,” Pence says. “You had Felicia Day start Geek & Sundry,” which were YouTube channels dedicated to tabletop roleplaying and board games.
Also, there were shows like The Big Bang Theory, Community, and Parks and Recreation that helped bring Dungeons & Dragons into popular culture with episodes featuring the game in a way that highlighted how fun it could be.
These trendsetters have ushered in a new age of gamers and would-be gamers now content to watch other people play rather than actively participate.
With a collection of 500 games—over 656 counting expansions—Pence is an expert in all types of games, but his favorite genre is war and strategy, specifically those involving the American Civil War. Pence runs a popular YouTube channel, Patrick’s Tactics & Tutorials, where he plays and teaches a variety of war and strategy games for thousands of subscribers.
“I’ve been a student of history and conflict simulations for over 40 years,” Pence says. “I think Risk was the first one I ever played on a regular basis.”
In gaming communities, both Risk: The Game of Strategic Conquest and The Settlers of Catan are considered gateway games into war and strategy. Both require large chunks of time, where players strategize and compete for land and/or resources to win.
Another category of interest to Pence that hits a different demographic is trivia, which was a passion he shared with his mother growing up.
“We would play Jeopardy! together,” he recalls. Having an eidetic memory helped him excel in competition with friends and family, until he competed in the live television show as a Season 26 contestant in November 2009. Though he didn’t win, he is proud to have been part of the show.
Pence has run Trivia Night every Thursday for 12 years on behalf of The Trivia Lab. He currently hosts at Smitty’s Taphouse & Grill. For Pence, “The ability to get to know people, to see what they do and don’t know, and where their shortcomings are as a team is so much fun.”
Games, trivia, and roleplaying—the all-encompassing Geekdom—are a great way to bring people of all walks of life together into one room.
“Half the fun is making friends with people from all circles and backgrounds,” Pence says. “People come together in a communal activity. You can overlook things like politics and discourse and ideologues, all that stuff, just to sit down for the love of the game for a couple of hours.”
Regardless of the game of choice, it’s all about breaking down each other’s walls and embracing the Geekdom.
