When we decided to re-launch The Pixel Parlor (formally known as 101 Militia Gaming), I had a single motive in mind. I simply needed an outlet to talk about all things, well, nerd related. See, the truth is that I don’t really have many nerdy friends at all. Like, maybe one that we talk about a video game that’s cool, but usually just end up playing Rainbow Six Siege instead leaving me to just dwell on retro gaming pages on Instagram and Youtube for some kind of sense of community that I desperately longed for. Then I had a vision: What if I just made my own community to have all the people I would ever dream of having to talk about nerdy stuff!

And here we are, all enjoying retro gaming and all things nerd culture together!

I love writing about nerd culture for more reasons than simply to find friends, but it allows me to do something I always promised myself I would do. I promised myself when I went out into the adult world for the first time that I would never let that kid in me die. I’m not going to lie, it almost happened on a few occasions, but I always came through it with my passion still holding strong within me. The thing is that life wants to beat things like that out of you, but I’m here to tell you that you can have a life, family, successful career, AND be a nerd too.

For me, it helps that my wife is a gamer. Yeah, I’m lucky, I know it. We adventure through worlds, fight hordes of relentless zombies, dive into the deepest darkest dungeons, and fight bad guys every single night. Frankly, I’m not quite sure she’ll ever know how much that means to me. I daydream about it throughout my busy day, probably more than I should, but I simply can’t help it. I look forward to gaming with her every night to discover our next otherworldly adventure together!

It’s not just about the games or the act of playing games that drives my passion for nerd culture. It’s the memories I make doing it. The real nostalgia comes from who you were playing with or what was going on in life at the time you played a certain story. Video games, for me at least, have always been a place where I can go far away from the troubles that surrounded me.

Full disclosure, I simply didn’t have a great childhood. It was quite dreadful, to be honest, but as far back as I can remember, there was always a game on my mind that I couldn’t wait to escape to. Games like Baldur’s Gate, Kingdom Hearts, Super Mario Sunshine, Windwaker, and Quake 2 were some of my earliest memories of games that took my mind to places far away from the hardships that were around me, and each one still holds a place in me that nothing can replace.

It wasn’t always an escape, though! Gaming brought me one of my best friends in life. He and I would talk for hours in 8th grade about Zelda and other games we were playing at the time. Gaming went from being an escape for me to becoming a community, and it was that realization that made me fall in love with the hobby even more. We still play stuff to this day online even though we live 800 miles apart, but that’s the beauty of it, isn’t it? As we evolved into the adults we were going to become, so did gaming. When life is all squared away, you better believe we’ll be on playing something.

This is why I love writing about nerd culture. It’s that feeling we all got when we first stepped into a game store, or first woke up at 2am to hear the ending song of Inuyasha playing because you left the TV on, and when you finally beat that boss in your favorite game. It’s those memories that we all cherish that I’m chasing. I came to the realization recently that those memories don’t have to stay memories. We can live those moments again whenever we want. All you have to do is look past the veil of adult life to see your inner child waiting for you on the other side, controller in hand.

For the best in nerd culture, keep it here with The Pixel Parlor!