Chances are, you already spend at least a little time on Flickr, whether you have an account on the site or you just follow links there. The Yahoo-owned image-sharing site boasts upward of 87 million members and untold billions of images. Most people use Flickr to post and share family pictures or showcase their photography skills with artistic shots of nature. Even so, it’s hard to spend much time on the internet without ending up on Flickr at one point or another.
What you might not know is that Flickr has its roots in a now-defunct Massively-Multiplayer Online (MMO) game called Game Neverending. The company that owned both, Ludicorp, developed Flickr from tools they made for Game Neverending. Surprisingly, however, Flickr’s popularity far exceeded that of the game! With an origin story like that, it shouldn’t be any surprise that there is an abundance of geeky groups on Flickr. Prepare yourself, though; the level of geekiness of some of these groups is not for the faint of heart. Here are the top five geekiest Flickr groups.
5 – WotC’s Magic: the Gathering
Number 5 on our list is a group composed entirely of pictures of Magic: the Gathering cards. For the uninitiated, Magic: the Gathering is sort of like the Pokemon or Yu-Gi-Oh cards of yesteryear. (Speaking of which, there are groups devoted to both of those card games, as well.) You may have seen Magic: the Gathering battles at school, the park, or that shady corner of your local comics shop. The game itself is pretty fun to play, but you may have to be a hardcore M:TG lover to understand the appeal of 500 photographs of individual cards lying on a plain beige background.
4 – Games Workshop
If you’re not familiar with the world of tabletop miniature war games, they’re pretty much like chess meets Dungeons and Dragons. Warhammer 40,000 is probably the most well-known game utilizing miniatures, and its manufacturer, Games Workshop, maintains a Flickr group for their nearly 5,000 members to post pictures of their figurines. The game can be baffling to non-players, but fans of Warhammer 40k and similar will definitely drool over this super-geeky Flickr group!
3 – LAN Party
If your idea of fun is posting pictures of your gaming rig in semi-pornographic megapixel counts, the Flickr LAN Party group might just be the one for you. A LAN (Local Area Network) Party involves two or more gamers hooking up their computers to play a multiplayer game together. If you or someone you know has ever played an online multiplayer game on XBOX live, Playstation, or a computer, then you understand the basic concept of a LAN party. But instead of using the internet, players create a local connection to play together. The LAN Party group features a lot of gaming computer eye-candy to gaze at in a longing manner.
2 – The Eclipse: Science Fiction LARP Pool
Let’s be honest: it’s hard to get too much geekier than dressing up like aliens and holding lightsaber battles in the middle of public spaces. That, essentially, is what is known as LARPing: Live Action Role-Playing. You’re probably more familiar with role-playing in the Dungeons and Dragons context, or, if you’ve never even heard of that, then almost certainly in the bedroom context. LARPing goes a few steps further than either of those. If you’ve ever walked past kids dressed like Harry Potter characters shouting spells at each other, you may have witnessed LARPing. In addition to dressing like the characters, LARPers also act and talk like them. Most even have elaborate rules for the game, which may or may not include keeping track of scores, stats, or other numbers.
The intergalactic role-players of The Eclipse are based in Atlanta, Georgia, in the USA, on the planet Earth. The Eclipse has a little bit of everything in its mythos: epic space wars, alien races, sentient robots, and advanced technology. Even if you can’t make it to Atlanta, you can enjoy their well-chronicled adventures through their Flickr group.
1 – The Cuckoo’s Nest LARP Photos Pool
It might be hard to get geekier than a science fiction LARP group, but it’s not impossible. Indeed, The Cuckoo’s Nest Society takes geekiness to a whole new level. If you thought aliens and space fights were a sight to behold, you should check out these imaginative folks who dress up like be-goggled Tolkien characters and host fantastical, medieval-style battles.
The Cuckoo’s Nest Society was created (and is currently maintained) by students at Glasgow University, although the group is open to anyone who wishes to join. Aside from their LARPing adventures, the group also meets for banquets, weapons practices, and tavern nights. Their ranks include everything from dwarves to elves to halflings (read: hobbits). Whether or not you live close enough to join one of their epic battles, you can live vicariously through their Flickr group’s 800+ photos.
Conclusion
Flickr is known for its artsy photography and family pics, but that doesn’t mean that geeks can’t find plenty of groups to pique their interest! From computers to role-playing games to all sorts of other activities, geeks and their hobbies happily occupy a solid chunk of Flickr’s server space. Fans and spectators alike can lose hours exploring the delightfully dorky underbelly of the website. Move over, aspiring photographers, chefs, and wedding planners! We’ve officially entered the Age of the Geek.
This is a guest post by Jessy Troy. Jessy Troy is the editor behind Sexy Social Media, a fun blog covering social media trends and news.
