Gifts For Gamers

What do you get the nerd in your life?

I was talking to one of the lads earlier about the buying of presents. It is that time of year after all. The nature of the conversation was about the difference between men and women. It has been my experience that women like surprises. Nice surprises. A light activated electric spider would probably not count as a nice surprise for my other half as an example. Men on the other hand are not all that keen on surprises.

If I might slightly misquote Dave Gorman, there is a world of difference between gifts and presents. My fear is that I am going to get all gifts and no presents. A gift being the kind of thing that someone buys out of a sense of duty. In my childhood this was socks, anything that could be vaguely useful for school such as pens and copies of the Guinness Book of Records. Presents on the other hand are things that people actually want. At Christmas gifts are pretty much anything purchased without much thought that are not on somebody's letter to Santa.

A while back I mentioned that I had made myself a birthday list. I didn't get much off that list so it's still floating around. What I tend to do is put things on the list that I probably would not go out and buy. As an example, I am a big Blood Bowl fan but I can't see me spending a huge amount of money to get some of the single Star Player figures from Forgeworld. This is definitely a present.

So the time is coming where gifts are getting ordered. Don't leave things to fate. If you want something let people know. If you want a surprise, give them a big list. You might just get all of it.