LARPers > Hipsters?...some random observations about PAX and nerd culture

I recently spent a weekend at The Penny Arcade Expo. You may have read about the swine flu outbreak there. For those who are unaware, its' essentially a gaming convention/gaming industry event. The focus is primarily on video games and as such they demo new games, have industry speakers and panels and related events. To my surprise, there was a nearly equal focus on table top role playing and board games. Needless to say this event is the nerdiest thing I've ever been to. It was like nerd quick sand.
Because I'm planning on doing a special edition dinocast about my PAX experience, I interviewed several of these awesome nerds for the show, which meant I got to meet some neat people. But even if I wasn't doing a podcast about it, the event just lends itself to meeting people. You spend a lot of time standing in line at PAX (think an amusement park where instead of rollercoasters there are live podcasts and home made movies about dungeons and dragons) so you're constantly in close proximity with people who hold similar interests. Some people were more open to talking than others and some people kept their noses glued to their nintendo DSes and PSPs.
With the people who were willing to talk there was an easy comfort that I found pretty intoxicating. I suppose this happens whenever you get a large number of people together who all have common interests but that doesn't make it any less awesome. These were people who are traditionally/stereotypically shunned and derided. Here, there was little fear of that and you could see a lot of confidence that was worn a little like a new pair of shoes that were not quite broken in.
Before I continue, I want to make it clear that I am a total nerd. I play video games, have played and enjoyed table top role playing games, I have a comics budget, I own THOUSANDS of dollars worth of toys and collectables and I have seen every episode of star trek the next generation multiple times. I really do love all of these things. I also feel that as I get older my appreciations of these things have changed a bit. Now, when I watch Star Trek I am often giggling at it's very star trekness. On the rare times I play a tabletop game, I spend most of the time goofing with whatever friends I'm with. And video games, rather than nerding out over final fantasy stats or agonizing over the death of Aeris, I play fewer games and have less patience for grinding. But I'm still very much about the nerdiest person I know (as you would know if you listen to the dinocast).
So I guess I really just wanted to make a couple points. One, the stereotype of nerds lacking social skills is pretty off the mark. Almost everyone I met seemed to have a close knit group of friends as well as an active presence on line. These people socialize well, though perhaps under more specific circumstances than most. I found myself becoming pretty deeply jealous of these people, not only because of their close social ties, but because I got the sense that they belonged to a world, if that makes any sense. As much as I enjoy a wide variety of hobbies and partake in a wide variety of art forms, I don't feel like I belong in any of them and I don't feel any sense of community from them. I have close friends but they mostly live half a country away and I never see them. Somehow, being at an event that was so rich with social bonding and impressed me with the overwhelming sense of acceptance made me feel really really lonely.
This went double for my exposure to the journalists whose work I enjoy. Not only do these people have the kinds of dream jobs that most people never see, they work with one another in a kind of world that is very alluring to me, and not just because I do enjoy video games. The idea of working on something you love with people you respect seems like A) about the greatest thing in a world and B) totally impossible. How far low have my standards sunk that something as simple as that seems like Shangri La?
I also wanted to point out my favorite thing about this kind of epic level nerd and that is a lack of pretense, which is where the title of this comes from. Everyone is different and there are plenty of pretentious nerds, of course, but for the most part these people seemed to wear their opinions and interests on their sleeves and not give a shit what other people thought. This is something I have a lot of respect for. It takes an awesome amount of balls to cosplay or LARP in public and a disregard for the cool. I've always been a fan of the attitude "Fuck the Cool." I have a friend named Jeremy who is one of my all time favorite people in the history of life because of this exact lack of self consciousness. He's pretty much my hero.
I'll go into more detail about the people I met and the things I did at PAX during the dinocast but it was a great experience that I learned a lot from, even if it did end up giving me the heavy sadzies in a way.