The Hierarchy

This is the hierarchy of gamers as described to me by Tyler Bielman.  It details how gamers interact, who has power of who, and why.

At the top of the hierarchy sits the video game players.  Video games are relatively new and are becoming more mainstream every day.  Where before gamers were restricted to the nerdy kids, now any male can play Halo and still be respected by the outside world.  The sheer manlyness of Gears of War could sustain the reputation of any jock.  Videogames are beginning to ascend to a level above the hierarchy, to the level of sports and poker.

At the next level are the trading card game players.  (Within this section there is a sub-hierarchy, beginning with Magic, but that's another discussion.)  While still considered nerdy, trading card games are still regaurded as a legitimate form of competition.  The general population may not respect TCG players, but gamers do.  The best fly around the world competing for thousands of dollars, and the base tournament scene is relatively strong.

Below the TCG players lies the miniatures players.  As you move down this list the games get older, and miniatures are some of the oldest.  Largely outdated my modern technology, the sprawling table of crafted landscape populated by painstakingly-painted miniatures is one of the nerdiest sights known to man.  At least, that's the way the gamer population views miniatures players.  In reality the support for modern miniatures is out there, especially after Heroclix entered the scene, and now the World of Warcraft miniatures.

Near the bottom lies Dungeons and Dragons.  The go-to game when talking about nerdiness, D&D comes with a lot of underlying connotations.  Sitting in mom's basement eating cookies and drinking coke through the night while still in your mid 20s, that's the image D&D conjours up.  With D&D being the nerdy game, you would think they would be the base of the hierarchy.  Yet there is a type of gamer even gamers have forgotten about.

Larpers.  Live action role players.  The people that dress up in fake armor and hit each other with foam swords in the park.  This is the bottom of the gamer hierarchy.  Frowned upon by almost everybody, the amount of nerd needed to compete is extraordinary.  I know little about how larping actually occurs, but the way it is portrayed in movies and the internet is completely and utterly nerdy.

The hierarchy demands respect.  I find it funny, though, that even though the TCG players may skoff at the miniatures players, they resent the same treatment given to them by the videogame players.  Each level of the hierarchy is filled with hipocrasy.  Players draw a line in the sand, a level of nerdiness they refuse to cross, and anybody past that line is too nerdy.  Personally, my line is wherever there are games to be made.