Growing through the 80s loaded me up with a number of insecurities thanks to my constant passion for videogames. Perhaps you made it through the 80s unscathed, or perhaps you were born after all that silliness was done with. If that is the case, dear reader, I am quite happy for you. However, during my impressionable and formative years, video games were something I had to play quite close to the chest (get it? Play? Har). In my school’s social circles, games were just about the nerdiest, most ostracizing activity any poor sap could be caught doing. In junior high, even the kids still wearing Romper Room t-shirts got a free pass to ridicule. High school didn’t fare much better -- the comic book kids, greasy nerds toting around magic cards, and wolf shirt-wearing future Furcadia enthusiasts were all in higher social castes.

You have an NES? *snort* Good luck never getting any.

Things weren’t better at home either. My father bought wholesale into the fear that video games would make me a stimulation addict -- socially maladjusted and incapable of employment. Amusingly, it’s hard for me to justifiably tell him that he was wrong as I sit here writing for a gaming website while listening to music, indoors, alone. However, this is a column, not a song by Staind, so no more daddy issues. Several factors in my past have bred the idea that games are solitary, socially unacceptable, and fundamentally unsound.

Imagine my absolute joy then, when I not only learned of social gaming events, but also gaming culture.

Suddenly I realized that I wasn’t doomed to a life of ridicule and loneliness because of my passion. Here were people that loved what I did – perhaps not in the exact same way – but still enough to identify and share. And as is what happens when any group of people gather, you get a communal spirit and culture that is absolutely intoxicating. Perhaps my love of these things is simply reactionary to my fears of youth, but I think it’s more than that.

So to all the young gamers and outcast elders, here’s a BITMAPS PSA: there is a society out there for you. You can find it in a few different forms, depending on your taste. Here are some of the events in which I like to participate, and how to get started. All you need is an adventurous spirit and deodorant.