Unveiling the Geeky Side to Australia
The clichéd image of Australians has very little that’s geeky about it. The land Down Under is presented as a world of tanned, toned surfers and beach-lovers. The climate and the fact that 85 percent of Australians live within 30 minutes of the coast mean there’s certainly a degree of truth to that. However, Australians are passionate about more than surfboards and grilled shrimp. Here we have dug beneath the surface to unveil the secrets of geekiness down under.
Playing with trains
Australian railroads are a sight to behold, crossing mile upon mile of absolutely nothing. They are an unmissable experience for any train enthusiast. Train geeks in Australia have recently been able to connect with like-minded enthusiasts from across the globe with the release of a special Australian version of Ride the Rails.
If you’ve not encountered it before, this is the ultimate game for train geeks, initially released in the USA but with expansion packs released for other countries. The basic idea is that you invest in railroad companies, build tracks across the country and convey passengers to their destination cities. Each new round introduces a new railroad company with its own particular rules. Extending the gameplay to Australia has proved inspired and its popularity proves there are more train geeks down under than you might have thought.
A passion for pokies
If Australians are truly geeky about anything it is pokies. This is the local term for what the rest of the world calls slot games. Pokies is an abbreviation for poker machines, but it is used to describe all kinds of gambling machines, not just video poker.
Pokies are all over Australia, in pubs and truck stops as well as at casinos, and there are hundreds of different titles. The sheer scale really becomes clear when you check out one of Australia’s most important online pokies sites at https://www.australiainternetpokies.com/ – with hundreds of pokies covering every theme imaginable, from ancient mythology to rock music to sport, there’s no chance of getting bored!
A Dungeons and Dragons revival
It’s been labelled as the least cool thing ever, but more than 50 years after it was first invented, Dungeons and Dragons endures. In fact, it is doing more than endure in Australia, where a combination of the game’s role in Netflix hit Stranger Things and some bizarre Tik Tok trend have pushed it back to the top of the Geek agenda.
Even prior to these events, Australia had one of the highest Google search scores for Dungeons and Dragons, and was ranked 4th biggest country for D&D. We can’t help noting, incidentally that whoever put this list together and keeps it updated deserves some kind of geek award just for having the idea.
The point is, Australia has a thriving Dungeons and Dragons community. We particularly like the weekly Dragon and Flagon at Fortress in Melbourne – these self-contained three-hour adventures are suitable for beginners and veterans alike, and are led by an experienced Dungeon Master.