BLESSED ARE THE GEEKS, FOR THEY SHALL INHERIT THE EARTH
by Scott Churchson

Over the weekend, after many years of procrastinating, I finally attended my first New York Comic Con. One thing stood out to me, I was a geek before it was cool. I was born in the 70’s, saw the early version of the internet and played video games during the Carter administration and grew up around sci-fi all my life. Back in the 80s & early 90s being a gamer or a geek was a bad thing; I have fond memories of having kids ask me for the code to fight Mike Tyson (007 373 5963) and then getting a wedgie for not being a jock. I used to go to Star Trek conventions and would never tell a soul I was there. Same holds true when I competed in the Nintendo World Championship in 1990. But here we are in 2013, and the gaming/sci-fi audience has changed. For four days Facebook & Twitter was flooded with people excited to mingle with fellow geeks, an estimated 130,000 people in attendance and last minute tickets running $250 or more on Stubhub. Lines were hundreds of people long, with folks excited to see the latest in games, take part in costume contests & get the chance to meet celebs like Sly Stallone, Patrick Stewart & Kevin Smith, among dozens of others. The Con also meant the reuniting of Gillian Anderson & David Duchovny (X-Files).

All was not perfect. Allegations of New York Comic Con using people's own Twitter accounts to post about the Con without their knowledge arose. Linking your ID badges to your Twitter account, a new option this year, would allow the event to tweet comments on your account about what a great time you were having, including Harry Knowles of Ain't It Cool News declaring that NYCC was "the best four days of my year" . New York Comic Con later apologized for what was called a “perceived overstep”.

In spite of that glitch, as someone who finally went to his first NYCC (and first sci-fi convention in a decade) it was a great chance to rub elbows with fellow geeks, see the latest in comic, anime & gaming goodness & see that being a geek isn't a bad thing after all.