As a nerd myself, I am proud of my vast reading, viewing and gaming history.  I have played hundreds of video games, including Massively Multi-player Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs) like Everquest, EQ2, Star Wars Galaxies, Dark Age of Camelot, World of Warcraft, etc.  I have been and am, Guild Leader, officer, organizer of several.  In First Person Shooters (FPS) I have also been in clans and player associations, often ranking in the top 5 out of 500,000 players world-wide.  I have a comic book collection, I have every star wars and forgotten realms books ever published.  I was a Dungeon Master for D&D and played wargames before that, going back to the original Chainmail rules, and boxed sets.  I read Lord of The Rings in the first grade.  I made my own first computer and programmed on a cassette tape deck with a Commodore 20.  At one point, I held world records for Space Invaders, Robotron, and and Battletank.  I could go on, but let it suffice to say that I have been, and always will be, a super nerd.

Oddly enough, my first actual convention was in 2010, at Phoenix ComicCon.  As a child I wanted to go to GenCon in the worst way, but I was too poor.  As an adult, I had a wife, kids, and very demanding jobs.  I finally decided to go in March of 2010.  I was very nervous, being 47 at the time, that I would be the old man wondering around looking stupid, that I would not know how to do anything, that all my gaming knowledge was archaic.  Instead, after my initial nervousness, and having my at the time normal, non-nerd wife go, we had a blast.  Films, fun, games, great guests, great vendors, costumes and great people abounded.  My wife had more fun than I, starting her perilous descent into my world of imagination, fantasy and sci-fi.  She dressed up as an original crewman from Star Trek, and was hit on by people while I was standing protectively near her.  I will have to scan the picture and post of her and Lou Ferigno.  John Schneider got cozy with her, the kid who played Boba Fett in Star Wars was grown up, early 20s and asking her out – in front of me…  Almost had to take down the bounty hunter…

The point is, outsiders view conventions as a bunch of geeks and nerds doing stupid things, even today.  In fact, they are awesome fun.  The other thing that outsiders do not realize is the existence of “cosplayers.”  Cosplay is short for costume players.  It ranges from dressing up in a costume but not on Halloween, to entire lifestyles of dress and counter-culture.  This has spawned the existence of the dream girl for male nerds.  The geekgirl, the cyberchick, the cosplayer, the nerdgirl…  Lots of terms, but none do justice to these new mega-stars of the convention scene.  You might not know them, but they have hundreds of thousands of fans and are well known names among us science fiction fans.

Here are some examples of why young guys flock to conventions, other than the science fiction: