I am a little ashamed to write this post and I’ve been struggling with it for some time now. The names and places mentioned in this story have been changed to protect those involved…

When you live with five dudes in a huge MANsion (big house of MEN), naturally the holidays bring out the feelings to decorate, hang stockings and do a little inter-roommate secret santa. Two of my roommates and myself were recently reminiscing about our middle school days when we’d spend hours playing and mastering Final Fantasy 7. Naturally, this led to each of us re veiling that we also played Magic: the Gathering, an extremely nerdy, highly addictive (and potentially expensive), card game.

If this card were in the game, then it might be cool...

We laughed at how funny it would be to play again and even suggested going out and purchasing a “starter deck” and “booster pack” for ol’ times sake. Another roommate, having over heard this, decided the perfect secret Santa gift would be 1,000 magic cards and proceeded to order them off eBay. Thus starting our slow decent into extreme nerdom. Here is an example of how I knew things were taking a turn for the worse:

Conversation between “Drew” and I pre-Magic card secret Santa gift:

Mitch: “Hey we going out tonight?! I want to drink and talk to girls!”

Drew: “Yeah! Lets try that new bar!”

Conversation post Magic:

Drew: “Duel me Mage!”

Mitch: “I’m not a Mage, I’m a wizard.”

Drew: “What’s the difference?”

Mitch: “I think Mages are evil, and since I play with an all White creature deck, I’m clearly a wizard.”

Drew: “My zombie deck is going to kill you in five upkeeps!”

Indeed this has cause division in the house. With the three of us almost constantly playing, even on friday and saturday nights, and the other three telling us to go up stairs and play since they are having girls over – clearly asshamed of us…

But there is hope. Luckily, Drew received NCAA March Madness 2008 for his secret Santa and the beginning of our Butler Dynasty has us using sports terms again, thus bridging the gap between nerd and jock, we’ll call him “Rory”.

Moral of this story? Video games are not nerdy – Magic cards are…it’s a fine line and a slippery slope, so make sure you check your hobbies for too much nerdiness. It might just save your social life…

Leave a comment of a hobby you might think is too nerdy – I’ll respond and let you know if its ok or not…