COLUMN: 2004 Good for geeks
Well it’s Christmas time again and that means a lot of things to me. It means there will be all kinds of awesome games I’ll never be able to play and cool movies I’ll never see. It means that I’ll spend at least $50 I don’t have on eggnog trying to stock up for the nogless months ahead. It means that once again, despite a flawless safety record in my circuits class lab, I have managed to electrocute myself with Christmas lights.
It truly is the most wonderful time of the year.
But Christmas also means the year of 2004 is coming to an end and I thought I’d take this opportunity to look back at 2004 for we can all reminisce about all the geeky goodness it held.
Late Winter
The legendary Role Playing Game Dungeons and Dragons entered into its 13th year. Loyal fans reactions varied from happy to outright jubilation depending on the out come of their 20 sided dice rolls.
Spring
The Return of the King, the third and final installment of the Lord of the Rings trilogy is released on DVD. Within hours devoted fans are already bragging about watching all three films in a row. Those of us who decided to hold out for the special edition borrow copies from friends.
Also released in the spring was City of Heroes the first superhero MMORPG (Massive Multi-player Online Role Playing Games). For those of you who don’t know MMORPG are a genre of online computer games that shatter the stereotypes that gamers are socially inept people who like to pretend they’re fighting monsters but rather socially inept people who like to pretend they’re fighting monsters while spelling very poorly.
The “Spiderman 2” trailers had us all climbing the walls with anticipation. Hey, give me a break, my dad will like that joke, and I bet yours would too.
“Napoleon Dynamite” starts to appear in theaters. Geeks everywhere become convinced that their own life would make a totally sweet movie.
Speaking of movies, “Heckboy” came out in theaters. I understand that outside of Utah it had a different name.
Summer
“Spiderman 2” came out in the theaters. It satisfied on every level. It was like watching a two-hour comic book. It had awesome special effects. The fight scenes were out of this world. About the only down side two the movie would be the broken bones I sustained while swing off of my balcony with “webs” made from the old AV cables from my Super Nintendo (I got a little excited).
The makers of Google release G-mail, an e-mail service with one gigabyte of storage. To date no G-mail users have deleted an old e-mail.
On the video game front, much to the dismay and disapproval of worried mothers everywhere, Doom Three comes out. I’ve never understood the concern toward this game. I mean, sure it teaches kids to use gratuitous violence, but its wanton violence directed toward demons and we all know that if nobody thins out the demon herds then more will just die of starvation over the winter.
Fall
Hands down the geek event of the fall was the re-release of the original “Star Wars Trilogy” on DV-freakin’-D. Sure, they were changed a bit. But, who cares. It’s still “Star Wars” …. on DVD!
It was hard to explain to some people about why this was a big deal. It wasn’t the fact that I could watch the movies again, I can watch them any time I close my eyes. There was something about watching them again all together and owning them in a format that (hopefully) I can share with my kids that took my back to when I was a kid. Back when the force was real, I’d never heard of Gungans and no could beat up a Jedi, except my dad (and maybe Hulk Hogan).
The sequel to the award-winning Halo comes out for the X-box system. It’s stupid. And not because I’m bitter that there’s a game that jocks can beat me at. It’s just stupid.
Fall 2004 also held perhaps the great event in geek history: the premier of the very first Geek Beat. Students all over campus came to wonder who Tony Danza is.
Winter:
The trailer for “Star Wars: Episode Three” begins running before the “Incredibles movie.” Worried that he may have lost many of his loyal fans with Jar Jar Binks, Lucas fills the trailer with all the things that he knows will bring us back: Old Jedi, and shiny black Darth Vader and of course wookies, lots and lots of wookies.
Blizzard entertainment releases its latest game World of Warcraft. A MMORPG set in its 10 year running Warcraft world (holy crap, I think I just figured out where they got the name from, I’m a genius!). The game shattered all computer game sales records selling over 240,000 copies in on day. Game retailers were an absolute nightmare this day, with long lines, angry shoppers and gamers using babies to club old women. It was nasty, but she deserved it for cutting me – I mean them off.
The “Return of the King” Extended Edition is released on DVD. Hundreds of normal versions are returned to their rightful owners. Those waiting for the Super Special Extraordinary with Cheese Edition continue to mooch.
In conclusion 2004 was a great year to be a geek. Let’s look forward to 2005 and make it a year in which we can all continue to geek on.
Steve Shinney’s column appears in the Statesman every Monday. Comments can be sent to him at steveshinney@cc.usu.edu