We’re not relegated to Mom’s basement anymore.
This past weekend, the geek community celebrated another year of expanding influence. HawaiiCon 2019 swarmed with fanciful costumes, famous actors, beloved writers, and founding fathers of some of the nerdiest pastimes on the planet. Captain Jack Sparrow and Willy Wonka walked the pathways with Goku and Daenerys Targaryen, and avoiding death by lightsaber was a common hazard.
The expanding appeal of things once considered niche interests, the once-small corners of society, are bounding their way into mainstream enjoyment.
“It’s more widely accepted than it was when I started working on ‘Star Trek,’” said Andre Bormanis, a celebrity guest at HawaiiCon 2019 who was the science advisor and a writer for a number of Trek series such as “The Next Generation,” “Voyager,” “Deep Space Nine” and “Enterprise.”
Bormanis is a scientist first and a geek second, though there’s apparently a fine line there for astronomers, physicists and NASA staff like him. His path to the nerdy side started in 1960s Phoenix, Arizona, “when you could still see the Milky Way from there,” he said. Tiny Andre looked up at the stars in awe. “And 50 years later, I’m still doing it.”
Formerly nerdy hobbies and interests “used to be fringe, but are now more mainstream,” Bormanis continued. “‘Star Trek’ sets up stereotypes just to knock them down. The reason it’s so popular after 50 years is it’s about inclusivity. It showed a future worth living for.”
Being included means more now than it used to, something to which Luke Gygax can attest. Luke is the son of Gary Gygax, the creator of “Dungeons and Dragons,” the cooperative story-telling and roleplaying game.
“When it was created, it came out of a niche hobby of war-gaming that appealed to, maybe 10,000 people,” Gygax said. “A small number. It spread because of the social aspects, because its only boundaries are your imagination.”
The advent of the internet has done wonders for the D&D community, he said. Online shows like “Critical Role” have “demystified D&D, and helped people realize they love creating, and showed them how,” he added.
Those who played D&D in the ’80s and ’90s grew up and became the people who worked on the “Harry Potter” and “Lord of the Rings” films, Gygax said, bringing the love of imaginary realms and creative freedom to the next generation.
I saw plenty of young fans at the con, and even shared a gaming table with a half-dozen of them at an introduction to the fifth edition of Dungeons and Dragons — kids no older than 10 or 12, sitting beside an older married couple, two teenagers, and an editor/designer with a big goofy grin on his face as he pretended to be a green-skinned orc protecting his hometown from rampaging hyena-people.
“People who played it (earlier) changed the landscape,” Gygax said. “All the groundwork was laid then, and now it’s everywhere. Now it’s cool to be nerdy.”
There might not be another place where that’s truer than it is in Kona. For example, take a peek at the game room setup at the community outreach center in Privateer’s Cove at the Hualalai Center.
“There’s a game for every genre out there,” said Nick Traxler, owner and operator. He listed off a dozen titles like the space-western “Firefly,” fantasy football “Blood Bowl,” “Star Wars” settings, and a plethora of complex board games about everything from apple farming to building transcontinental railroads.
“To be closed-minded about this means you’ve never read a fiction book or watched TV.”
“HawaiiCon did a phenomenal job,” he said. “They got the kids involved; it was huge.”
Kids who love the creative outlet and need a safe place to be can’t ask for a better spot than Privateer’s Cove, which partners with HawaiiCon for its game nights. Sure, they have some video games too, but the big draw is the social aspects of these games.
“Kids always want more people to play with,” he said. “We have a huge community. We’ve had 35 people in here at a time on a busy night. We’ve had people come in to just paint [figurines], to create, to learn. We have seven D&D groups, 10 tables for war games, and gaming four nights a week.”
The growth wouldn’t have come without a change in culture, and Traxler attributes that to a growth in knowledge and acceptance.
“‘Big Bang Theory,’ and ‘Stranger Things’ normalized what we do,” Traxler said. “In the last five years, more people want to know what we do. The times have changed.
“Where are kids going to go hang out? The stuff we did together — diners, drive-ins, roller rinks — are dead. The world is changing, and we need to keep them invested. All we have for them is the world we give them. We have to make something better.”
After the HawaiiCon weekend? I think Kona’s well on its way to exactly that.
Mitch Bonds is a copy editor and designer for West Hawaii Today who sometimes gets to report on Kona’s nerdier side. He can be reached at mbonds@westhawaiitoday.com.
