It’s TGON’s Birthday Today! October 1st, 2013 is when The Game of Nerds was created on Tumblr and the first post was published. It is a place where being a nerd is encouraged and celebrated. Over the years, we’ve grown from a single person up to a 200+ person writing team. We’ve given so many authors and cosplayers the ability to share their work without fear of being rejected! If you want to know more about The Game of Nerds, follow me, we are going to go on a journey.
Our fearless leader is Shannon Parola, started TGON on Tumblr from her hospital bed and it has grown into what we know and love. During her 30-day ICU stay, she was sick but very bored. To pass the time, Shannon watched her favorite shows and new ones to pass the time and discussed all the points will her friends. When her friends started getting kicked out of the hospital for our passionate discussions about Doctor Who and Marvel, Mamma Zim said to “make friends online quietly.” So she did. Shannon wanted to carry the discussion further to give others a space to share their nerdy passions. Thus, The Game of Nerds was born. Shannon is one of the strongest and fiercest women I know. She’s affectionately known on staff as Mama Dragon because she’s always taking care of everyone. Frankly, there is nowhere else like TGON. The Game of Nerds is a place where there is no shame in having a passion for a fandom, it is, in fact, encouraged.
For me and TGON, it was an answer to my prayers. I wanted to write and really write about things I like while sharing with the world. TGON has given me that platform. I get to write about everything from Goddesses and Gods to Scooby-Doo with everything between and betwixt. Shannon was willing to take a chance on me when my writing experience was outdated, and teach me some new things to better myself. I get to use the skills I learned in college while having fun. I have had the best experiences with TGON like going to my very first ComicCon. I never understood the hype until I went. It was so much fun!
The Game of Nerds has space for all kinds of nerdy types. We have, of course, our writers. We also have artists, cosplayers, gamers, filmmakers, and more. Here at TGON, we talk about movies, books, video games, furries, tabletop/card games, comics, and all the content that comes as a result of these fandoms. We even have our own podcasts up on Spotify, Google, and Apple Podcasts. Back in 2013, we started with just articles on Tumblr and now we are on every social media platform! All of us work together to not only share our craft but to keep you up to date on entertainment content. On the flip side, we want to be a place for fun and relaxation. We’ve always aimed to make TGON an escape from the real world, and have maybe a passionate discussion about a fandom or three also.
The Game of Nerds is always adding new talent on board. If you want to join our team, you can find that info here. We always love to help our talent grow as writers and professionals. We’ve had writers go on to huge places like Times, Forbes, and TV Guide. Three such people (besides myself) are Blaike Trujillo, Andy Ruble, and Mark Francis. You may know Blaike for writing all of our indie gaming reviews. She is a talented writer and someone fun to talk to. Andy is newer to us and covers video games for us. Shannon personally loves that Andy finds the most out-there game just to put a smile on our face. Case and Point: The Goat Game. Mark started as a writer and has since grown past that. He’s now one of our top Twitch streamers and content! Come hear some of our writer’s stories about how TGON helped them.
Blaike Trujillo, shares with us that she has terrible social anxiety. Even phone calls cause her a large amount of stress. With TGON, Blaike has been able to talk to indie game developers and watch games grow despite her anxiety. She feels great knowing she has been able to do both things and watch a game grow along with its fan base which she has done with Graveyard Keeper. She writes some fantastic articles about cute games as well as grittier games. When she isn’t covering indie games, she’s watching Lego Masters with our #1 Facebook Fan, her mom!
You know Andy as TypeOhHiMark. He loves gaming and games. He covers a wide variety of them. I asked my co-workers if they had anything they wanted to share in this article for our anniversary. Andy has this to say about his time so far here: “When TGoN and I found each other, I had just returned from a regional fighting game tournament. I was riding high on a wave of comradery and honestly took up writing here because I just wanted to write. What started as a hobby became a light at the end of an, at times, really dark tunnel called 2020. Whenever I found myself being Ultra Combo’d directly in the life, I knew I could jump into some weird or stupid game and have a place to talk about it. Just something to look forward to can be a powerful thing. I’m glad I get to look forward to keeping writing for all you lovely nerds. Thank you for having me!”
As stated before, Mark Francis is a member of TGON who started as a staff writer for series like DragonBall Z. He now has a twitch channel that he loves to share and show off his gaming skills. Mark says TGON “helped me have a platform to improve my writing by letting me write articles I wanted to”. While Mark doesn’t write for us today, he is still a valued member of TGON. “TGON helps promote my Friday streams each week- giving me eyes on my work,” Mark says. He reciprocates the hype by talking about TGON during his streams. He even invites TGON members to drop in on his streams and he gives a shout-out to us. We love it and Mark. Mark loves that he has made new geeky friends that he can talk to about his similar likes and interest all around the world. Make sure you don’t miss out on our streams each Friday at 8 PM PST.
Whether you love The Game of Nerds and are always checking us out, or you are new here, you can support TGON. Just by reading this article, you are supporting us but you can also check out some more of our articles. We have weekly Nerdy Merchandise, cosplay articles, we even cover Neighbours in the UK. The Game of Nerds also has a store if you are interested in TGON merchandise. To further support us, you can find out more here. Here at TGON, we love our fans. Every one of us would love to hear from you and want to interact with you. Send us some love! Let me know what you keep coming back for in the comments below! Until next week…
Happy birthday