It can sometimes be daunting, shopping for a geek. You’re pretty sure sweaters and socks aren’t going to cut it, but at the same time, you’re not sure what to get them other than a gift certificate to the big store with the yellow letters.
Plus, we geeks can be maddeningly unhelpful when it comes to offering up suggestions when you ask us, “What do you want for Christmahanukwanzaka?”
Sure, iPhones and PS3s and laptops are great geek fodder, but they’re not quite the thing you get for your Secret Santa.
Happily, there’s a middle ground.
Stocking stuffers
Never underestimate the power of the flash (or thumb, or jump, or USB) drive. These little doodads run for $10 to $30, depending on their capacity. They’re great for students, and you can find them just about anywhere nowadays.
Yeah, we like gift cards, too. While you can always go the old-standby route and get them gift cards to the Big Yellow Letter store (hint: rhymes with West Fly), don’t be afraid to go the online route.
Newegg.com offers everything (and more) that West Fly does, but at cheaper prices, and most orders show up within a day or two.
Think outside the Xbox
While we may enjoy being glued to our computer or video game screens, there are times (believe it or not) when a geek will cheerfully get off the couch—maybe to take an opportunity to blast loved ones with a burst of focused infrared rays.
Not, not with the remote control. I’m talking about a game of laser tag at Motionz.
A two-story indoor laser-tag arena at the Santa Maria Town Center, Motionz appeals to the little kid making “pewpewpew” noises in all of us.
And best of all, at just $5 a game, you’ll be able to make your geek happy without breaking the bank.
Frag-fest, force feedback
Sometimes, when I’m playing online and I pull off that wicked headshot or score the game-winning goal, there’s something missing. That something is the ability to reach over and smack the person I’m playing with.
In the days before the proliferation of high-speed Internet, the only way to get your (more than two people, that is) multiplayer on was to have a LAN party. Everyone would bring their computers over, pizza would be ordered, and the night would be spent trying to cheerfully kill each other.
Bringing that in-person vibe back to gaming is the goal of David Larson and the GoodGame Computer Lan Center.
With their 38 computers running everything from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 to World of Warcraft and everything in between, GoodGame has become the go-to place for gamers since it opened in October.
Open seven days a week from noon until midnight, GoodGame charges just $3 an hour to play. There’re also bulk rates of $5 for two hours, $10 for five hours, or $15 for all day.
The shop doesn’t offer gift certificates yet, but all you need to do is go down to 1777 S. Broadway in Santa Maria, open an account for your geek of choice, put some money on it, and they’re good to go.
Electricity’s for chumps
Mention a power outage to a geek, and he or she is liable to get the shakes. That’s because said geek doesn’t know about Leisure Time Games, where analog still reigns supreme in the form of board and card games.
Also located at the Santa Maria Town Center, the shop offers something for everyone’s price range, from stocking-stuffers to The Gift. They have packs of collectible card games like Magic: The Gathering and Pokémon that run between $3 and $12.
If your budget is a bit higher, there’s a bevy of board games to choose from. The Risk-on-’roids Axis and Allies will give you (quite literally) hours of play time.
And owner Ken Guge isn’t making an idle boast when he says these games “require the use of brains rather than thumbs,” when it comes to newer classics like Settlers of Catan and Carcassonne.
At the top end of the spectrum is Warhammer 40,000, a tabletop miniature wargame. Seventy-five dollars gets you the starter box with all the miniatures you paint yourself. But don’t think it stops there. Players can customize their armies from a host of different miniatures out there.
The geeks in your life might thank you when they open up the box the first time; whether they thank you or curse you when they’ve been sucked in down the road is another matter entirely.
Staff Writer Nicholas Walter is pretty sure “a pony” wasn’t very helpful when his wife asked what he wanted for Christmas. Help him make up his mind at nwalter@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Dec 17-24, 2009.