After renting the same apartment for nearly a decade, my wife and I are in the middle of moving to our first house. So, needless to say, we’re busying ourselves with packing all of our stuff and I’ve got a considerable collection of DVD’s, video games, books and miniatures to move. Definining a genre is largely subjective — trying to categorize Star Wars always made for long distractions during the old pen & paper RPG nights — but I like to think that I’m a well-rounded nerd, able to enjoy them all. However, I find that my own level of enjoyment of a particular genre is dependent on the medium in which it is presented.
Take video games as an example. There’re no two bones about it, I’m an MMO addict. However, no matter how much I like the idea of playing a sci-fi MMO, they don’t tickle my no-no spot. It could be just the current offerings, but science fiction (Anarchy Online, EVE, Tabla Rasa) hasn’t translated well into an MMO for me. Also, despite my nostalgia for the days when a friend and I used to pool our allowance to get the most out of our comic book purchases, the superhero setting doesn’t do it for me either. No, when it comes to getting my groove on in a virtual world, a high fantasty setting (EverQuest 2, World of Warcraft, Lord of the Rings Online) is my opiate of choice. Single-player games, on the other hand, run the gammut from shooters (Call of Duty 4) to sci-fi and fantasy RPGs (Mass Effect and Planscape: Torment) to 4X-games (Civilization 4).
When it comes to the written word, however, I find myself completely turned off by novels in the high fantasy genre. I couldn’t get into Lord of the Rings (though I enjoyed the films and the MMO), I wince at the thought of reading anything based on Dungeons & Dragons and I daydream about suing Robert Jordan for all the time I wasted turning pages in his Wheel of Time series. In fact, with the exception of George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series, I have yet to enjoy, and now make it a point to avoid, books that prominently feature magic, the supernatural or fantastic races. When I read, I generally turn to either alternate history or historical fiction.
Film and television is a different beast entirely and with Lord of the Rings being an exception, I find once more that I’m uninterested in fantasy as a genre. This is where the various shades of science-fiction truly shines in my opinion. From the drama and techno-babble of Star Trek, to the gun-slinging space-cowboys of Firefly/Serenity, I’m a total junkie for all things science-fiction. My DVD library is stuffed with geek-approved flicks like Star Wars and Alien(s) as well as seasons of Battlestar Galactica and Babylon 5 with scant offerings when it comes to anything involving swords or sorcery.
So while some, including friends of mine, can consume anything even the slightest bit related to science-fiction and fantasy, for me the medium definitely plays a role in shaping the nerdy aspects of my personality. And the moral of this story? Blogging is a great way to reflect on your hobbies and a fantastic way to avoid having to actually pack it all into boxes.
