What is a board game geek anyway?

January 16, 12:20 PMBoard Game ExaminerSkip Maloney

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Geeks at work in a 5-player game of Puerto Rico

What is a ‘board game geek,’ anyway, and more specifically, how does the phrase apply to those of us in the general community of board game hobbyists?

            Imagine my dismay, when upon consulting Merriam-Webster, I discovered that the word is derived from the German geck, meaning ‘fool.’ Then, to my further dismay, I discovered that the first definition refers to a “carnival performer, often billed as a wild man, whose act usually includes biting the head off a live chicken or snake.”

            Now I don’t know about you, but I can’t remember the last time one of my fellow gamers bit off the head of a live chicken or snake, no matter how frustrated he or she might have been about choosing the wrong role in a game of Puerto Rico.

The second definition refers to a “person, often of an intellectual bent, who is disliked.” If you take out that ‘intellectual’ clause for a moment, you’re left with “a person who is disliked,” which, to my mind, is a little vague because I don’t know anybody who isn’t disliked by somebody.

            By the third definition (“an enthusiast or expert, especially in a technological field or activity”), we’re starting to move into comfortable territory, although the ‘technological’ adjective doesn’t seem to apply to board games, unless you’re talking about the laser game of Khet, or some recent computerized incarnation of Sid Meier’s Civilization: The Board Game.

Have you ever noticed that when someone refers to a ‘board game geek,’ they are usually thinking in terms of its Germanic root (fool) or something in between Merriam-Webster’s first and second definitions?
“What a geek!” rarely translates into “What an enthusiastic board game expert!”

That said, it is not difficult to figure out why the more pejorative connotations are in vogue when describing members of the growing board game community. Like any community, large or small, our populace is subject to the vagaries of demographics. Take any group of human beings and you are going to find a percentage of misfits, oddballs and downright jerks. The percentages are generally constant, but when the population sample increases, as it seems to be doing in the world of board games, so do the number of misfits, oddballs and jerks. And no matter how justifiably defensive one might be about the hobby, you have to admit, they’re out there.

The problem is that the behavior of board gaming’s misfits, oddballs and jerks tarnishes the reputation of not just the human being (as it should), but the hobby itself. The law profession has a similar problem – from police to lawyers and judges. So does the profession (if you can call it that) of anyone working behind the counter at a department of motor vehicles in any state you can name. By the same token, a jerk clerk in a bank doesn’t generally make you think less of the banking profession. Of course, they’ve got our money, so maybe we’re just inclined to cut that profession a little more slack, lest our money mysteriously disappear.

Geeks, whether they be of an educational, scientific, computerized or board game variety, tend to get stereotyped. The stereotypes all seem to wear glasses (he says, self-consciously adjusting his spectacles). They seem to dress in clothes that they bought some time when they were in high school and have been wearing for at least three days. And they appear to be missing at least one piece of their private human puzzle; a whiz at what they know best, for example, but incapable of participating in a normal conversation about any subject but their own.

You will find variations on these central, stereotypical themes at almost any large gaming convention, or, for that matter, at meetings of small gaming clubs. Most of the attributes are benign, although there a few that engender strong inclinations toward affirmative action. There’s the temptation to tell the player who can’t stop talking about his every move to just shut up and play or the frustration of having to explain that just because you’ve made a move that adversely affects another player’s path to victory, it’s not personal and shouldn’t be elevated to the level of heated debate. And most significantly, there is the need, at times, to remind someone at a gaming table that while winning is the point of the exercise at hand, playing the game is supposed to be fun.

Have you ever had your eyes start to cross when a computer geek starts trying to explain the intricacies of an operating system? Ever lose track of a conversation about quantum physics or geological anomalies? What separates and elevates (we) board game geeks from other unfortunate ‘geek’ stereotypes is the fact that we’re knowledgeable in a field that almost anyone of average intelligence can grasp and in the (relative) silence of play, everyone at a table, assuming a comparable amount of experience at the chosen game, is created equal.

So wear that board game geek badge of yours with a certain amount of pride, while keeping a sharp eye out for anyone who comes to the table with a live chicken.