Mark your 2012 calendar for some serious geeking out
This year is going to be a huge one for nerds. Let's take a look at what 2012 has in store:
January 5-8: The 10th annual music and gaming festival, MAGFest, takes place in National Harbor, Maryland.
January 10-13: CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas is the first event this year to get an early look at upcoming video games, and much more in the world of technology. Will the upcoming "Diablo III" be there?
January 12: The first issue of the "Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic" comic book will hit store shelves.
January 16: "Alcatraz," J.J. Abrams' latest series, starring Jorge Garcia and Sam Neill, premieres.
January 19: The cult favorite animated series "Archer" returns.
January 26-29: Advanced Dungeons and Dragons gamers descend upon Fort Wayne, Indiana, for the D&D Experience.
January 27: So long, Nerd Herd. The final episode of "Chuck" airs.
January 31: It's a sequel to a sequel: "Final Fantasy XIII-2" comes to North American shores.
February: The nerd culture movie "Unicorn City" is scheduled to be released this month.
February 8: "Walking Dead" creator Robert Kirkman's next comic book, "Thief of Thieves" hits store shelves.
February 10: "Star Wars" returns to the big screen in 3-D. The first of the six movies to come out on an annual basis, of course, is "Episode I: The Phantom Menace."
February 12: New episodes of "The Walking Dead" TV series return on this date.
February 12-15: It's the big show for the toy industry: The New York Toy Fair.
February 17: Hayao Miyazaki's long-awaited "The Secret World of Arrietty" comes to U.S. screens.
February 17-19: One of the first big conventions of the year: MegaCon in Orlando.
February 22: The much awaited Playstation Vita handheld console is released in North America, including the game "Uncharted: Golden Abyss."
February 24: Image Comics formed 20 years ago (as reported by CNN at the time).
March 1-3: Emerald City Comic-Con in Seattle grows in attendance and importance each year.
March 2: Legendary sci-fi author Phillip K. Dick passed away 30 years ago on this date. Two of his stories that became blockbuster movies will reach milestone anniversaries this year: It will be the 10th anniversary of the release of "Minority Report" and the 30th anniversary of the release of "Blade Runner' this June.
March 6: The final chapter in the "Mass Effect" video game trilogy, "Mass Effect 3," is released.
March 14: It's Pi Day (yes, it is 3/14).
March 16-18: Wondercon takes a respite from San Francisco, this year turning up in Anaheim, California.
March 23: "The Hunger Games" finally comes to the big screen.
April: The new season of "Game of Thrones" is set to debut this month.
April 6-8: PAX East (the Penny Arcade Expo), one of the biggest gaming events of the year, takes place in Boston.
April 13-15: Chicago's C2E2, one of the fastest-growing pop culture conventions, returns to the Windy City.
April 13-15: It's JJ Abrams' favorite con, so you know Monsterpalooza is going to be great.
April 27-29: The neighbors to the north get their geek on at Calgary Expo.
May 4: As usual, May the 4th be with you, but for many geeks, this day is all about Joss Whedon's highly anticipated "Avengers" movie release (a mere three weeks after the release of the Whedon-produced "Cabin in the Woods").
May 10-31: The World Chess Championship takes place in Moscow.
May 11: Tim Burton and Johnny Depp team up to adapt "Dark Shadows" for the big screen.
May 22: Let your goth flag fly on World Goth Day.
May 25: It's Geek Pride Day, so switch to flying your geek flag.
May 25: Thirty-five years ago, "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away ..." first scrolled on screens with "Star Wars" (later known as "Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope").
May 25: It's also the release date for "Men in Black 3," so we'll see if Will Smith going back in time can recapture the magic of the original.
May 25-28: FanimeCon hits San Jose, California.
May 27-June 1: The annual Scripps National Spelling Bee, broadcast around the country, will once again determine the best young speller in the nation.
June 1 – Tentative release date for the "Bioshock Infinite" first-person shooter.
June 4 – "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" was released 30 years ago.
June 5-7: E3 in Los Angeles is a mecca for gamers each year.
June 8: The recent trailer for "Prometheus" has intensified the excitement for Ridley Scott (and writer Damon Lindelof)'s don't-call-it-an-"Alien"-prequel film.
June 11: Phone home on the 30th anniversary of the release of "E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial."
June 28: It's Tau Day, Pi Day times two.
June 29: "G.I. Joe: Retaliation," the second "G.I. Joe" movie, is released. This year is also the 30th anniversary of the iconic "G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero" figures and characters.
June 29-July 2: For the 21st year, Anime Expo hits Los Angeles.
3rd quarter: "Tomb Raider" reboots with a brand new game.
July 3: Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone and Rhys Ifans make up the cast of the new Spider-Man movie, "The Amazing Spider-Man" (coming one month before the character's 50th anniversary).
July 11-15: San Diego Comic-Con, the be-all and end-all event for many a geek, comes a few weeks early this year.
July 20: How does Christopher Nolan wrap up his epic Batman trilogy? We finally found out today with "The Dark Knight Rises."
July 27-29: Otakon, the convention for the Otaku generation, takes place in Baltimore.
July 27-August 12: The 41st Pennsic War takes place, put on by the Society for Creative Anachronism. Battles, tournaments, archery and stage performances are all part of the "War."
July 31: The original "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" movie was released 20 years ago on this date. (Buffy, the character, wouldn't really take off for a few more years on the small screen.)
August 3-5: The best "cubing" minds in the country meet as the national Rubik's Cube championships take place in Las Vegas.
August 3-5: Nerds have their own music festival: Nerdapalooza in Orlando, Florida!
August 5-9: SIGGRAPH 2012, the conference and exhibition on computer graphics and interactive technologies, takes place in Los Angeles.
August 11-12: After last year's success, GeekGirlCon returns for a sophomore event in Seattle.
August 16-19: "The Best Four Days of Gaming," Gen Con, takes place once again in Indianapolis.
August 23-26: The biannual gathering for Jedi and Sith alike, Star Wars Celebration VI takes place in Orlando.
August 26-28: PAX Prime (The predecessor to PAX East) takes place in Seattle.
August 30-September 3: The 70th annual (yes, you read that right) Chicon 7, home of the prestigious Hugo Awards, takes place in Chicago.
August 31-September 3: Cosplayers, gamers, fantasy and sci-fi geeks party all weekend long at Atlanta's Dragon*Con (sometimes called the geek Mardi Gras). The fanfare and accepting vibe at this con has helped Dragon*Con rival San Diego Comic-Con in the hearts and minds of nerds worldwide.
September 15-16: Comikaze Expo is back for a second year in the heart of Los Angeles.
4th quarter: "Halo 4" is set to be released at some point toward the end of the year. If you know anything about gaming, you know what a big deal this one is.
October: Nobel prize announcements and BlizzCon are expected to take place this month, but very few specifics are known at this time.
October 5: Tim Burton and the Halloween season go so well together, so leave it up to the director to remake his own early film project, "Frankenweenie" into a stop-motion feature.
October 11-14: New York Comic Con should once again pack them in at Manhattan's Javits Center.
November 9: Daniel Craig is back as Bond, James Bond, in "Skyfall." (the 50th anniversary of "Dr. No" was October 5, as well.)
November 15: Steven Spielberg captured the imagination 35 years ago with "Close Encounters of the Third Kind."
November 16: The "Twilight" film saga comes to an end with "Breaking Dawn Part 2."
November 17: Hug a Wookiee today. It's Life Day (as celebrated in the "Star Wars Holiday Special").
December 14: A nice finish to 2012 with the first of the two part "Hobbit" film adaptation from Peter Jackson, "An Unexpected Journey."
December 16: The third annual "Wear Star Wars, Share Star Wars Day," which began with the hashtag #maytheforcebewithkatie in 2010.
December 21: Well, it's been nice knowing you, if you believe the Mayan calendar ...
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Geek Out! 1.0
This ain't Geek Out!'s first nerd rodeo. We've been reporting geeky stories for quite a while.Go back in time
In "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra," released in 2009, the world was in danger because of a substance called nanomite that could be put on the head of nuclear warheads, allowing them to melt metal and cause more destruction. The plan to launch a set of nuclear warheads was thwarted, but apparently, not for good. In 2012's "G.I. Joe: Retaliation," the nanomite-laced warheads are back. Only this time, the nefarious shadow group called Cobra plans to use a new program to induce global domination with the nukes. They don't care how many lives they have to take, and they blow up the entire city of London to prove that they mean business. '.
Ciao for now
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you forgot the Terminator:The Sarah Connor Chronicles convention in Pasadena May 11 to 13, 2012. Details at http://www.nofate.com this will be the epitome of geek dome
Pax Prime is not August 26th-28th, that was for 2011. 2012 will be announced after PAX East. Please correct this.
It is just me or did we she nock the arrow with the fletching facing the wrong way? also why is the arrow on the outside of her hand? I think that might be a painful combination! 😎
I notice stuff like that all the time. I'm no archery expert, but I shoot a bow. How hard is it for Hollywood to just ASK someone who knows what they're doing and get it right?
This girl would destroy the back of her left hand shooting this way!!
Let's not forget about GDC 2012 (Game Developers Conference) in San Francisco, March 5-9.
This list is missing Gallifrey One over president's day weekend in LA (Doctor Who con) and Anime Boston is the same weekend as PAX East and I believe it's their 10th anniversary.
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HOW THE HELL IS TWILIGHT ON THIS LIST! SERIOUSLY TAKE THAT CRAP OFF!!!
Maybe because we'll never have to hear about another Twilight movie after this one?
Otakon 2012....I'm already planning it.
I am so excited for Otakon!! Highlight of my year right there!
looks great...is "ParaNorman" not geeky enough or just accidently overlooked. Same company that made "Coraline" but with a new protagonist and ZOMBIES!!! I think it's slated to come out in August.
did I miss Towel Day? or am I showing my geek ignorance?
May the 25th. Don't Panic.
Hey, anyone know what they mean by "the first issue" of a Knights of the Old Republic comic coming out in January? 'Cause one of those came out back when the first KOTOR game was released, it had somewhere between 8 and 10 issues. 😀 Yes, I am that big of a nerd.
Why have they not listed the Star Trek Convention??
Which one?
I have a few things I am looking foward to this year. The new Underworld movie, The 3D versions of the Star Wars movies (my dad told me about those...can't wait). Plus Walking Dead, the last Batman Movie....so many things to look foward to this year.
Should also be noted, September marks the 25th Anniversary of Star Trek:The Next Generation's premiere...
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Booldbowl Tourney
Heorclix Tourney
Dystopian Wars Mega Game
Warhammer 40K Tourney
Flames of War Tourney
Boardgame Lending Library
Phoenix Comicon. May 24-27. Best Con not on a coast. 🙂
Nice List!!!
So, if it's not underground it doesn't have geek chic? Whuteves, hipstahs.
You left off the only truly geek event that matters: WorldCon, ChiCon 7, 30 August to 3 September this year.
"John Carter" definitely on our radar – http://geekout.blogs.cnn.com/2011/12/03/
How about the March 9th release of John Carter? The long-awaited film adaption of one of literature's first true sci-fi action heroes will be HUGE for genre fans, and since it's Pixar's first-ever live-action movie, it might just cross over to mainstream appeal.
This list is full of things that no true self-respecting geek actually gives a damn about, but yet the general populace classifies as “Geeky.”:
January 16: Anything relating to JJ Abrahms is for wannabe geeks.
January 31: Final Fantasy XIII-2 [only mindless fans now give a damn about this insipid franchise. Just kill it already, Squenix]
February: “Image Comics formed 20 years ago,” and cast a pox upon the comic industry.
February 10: “’Star Wars’ returns to the big screen in 3-D” because Lucas hasn’t milked his fans enough, nor can he come up with anything better.
March 2: Blade Runner was never a blockbuster. It had a lukewarm reception in theatres that eventually grew into a hit as it became a cult hit over the decades.
May 11: Burton and Depp!? Not geek at all. More like, “another cash cow of weird middle-aged moms and their 13 year old daughters who obsess over yet another Burton movie in which Depp yet again has crazy hair and/or a weird hat and acts all brooding-yet-eccentric.”
May 25: “release date for ‘Men in Black 3,’” Really!? That’s not geek. That’s not even pseudo-geek. MiB is to Geek as the MW franchise is to ‘authentic military re-creation.’
June 11: ET? Really!? I’m… I’m not even going to justify that with any further response.
4th quarter: "Halo 4" Halo is the Superbowl of game franchises: overhyped, overrated, and enjoyed by fans who are just as mindless as the game. Seriously, how many tribal-tatto’ed, energy drink-consuming, ear-plugged, Slipknot and Disturbed fan, girlfriend-ignoring, machismo “brahs” can you cram into a single game release? We’re going to find out. These people give intelligent geeks a bad name.
October 5: “Tim Burton blah blah blah.” Seriously, Burton! Go away now! Oh, and which character does Depp voice in THIS piece of crap?
November 9: “Daniel Craig is back as Bond” See comments above regarding Halo 4.
November 16: “The ‘Twilight’ film saga…” LMFAO! Ha! Ha ha! Ha ha ha ha ha… *sigh and catches breath* This isn’t geek. It’s just pathetic.
December 21: “Well, it's been nice knowing you, if you believe the Mayan calendar ...” Because the Mayans were… umm… geek? What are you even getting at?
This comment is epic beyond words.
I love everything about this comment. Thank you.
Twilight. Not geeky. Hunger Games. Not geeky. ET. What? Tim Burton. Not geeky. Halo. Not geeky. Goths. Not geeky.
You know what, let me simplify this for you – if you can buy it at Hot Topic... not geeky. Just a way for people to "go against" mainstream society while buying in to main stream society's definition of a geek.
If you'll excuse me, I have code to write. And tonight I'm going to finish up the adventure I'm writing for my D&D group. <– geeky
Wow, geek snobs. I think what you meant to post was that some of the events in the article appeal to other genre-loving geeks rather than to you. Live and let live.
I applaud the epic-ness of this post.
You seem to think that any article on any "news" web page is actually going to get "geek" anything.
BTW, any real geek would already know the Mayan calendar doesn't "end" Dec 21. It starts over! Think of the Mayan long count as a millennium and more folks would get it. Add another tick, and start all over again. Coincides with the winter solstice because...well it's a good place to start counting over.
FYI, Pennsic is not a performance event. It is an event run by, and for SCA members.
There is no "visitor pass", there is no "one day pass." If you show up, you will be expected to pay either the full two week rate, or the one week rate, depending on when you show up. You should also plan on camping, and bring sufficient medieval clothes for your stay.
On the plus side, the SCA is a 365 day a year event. Check out http://www.sca.org for more information. We welcome newcomers of all ages and medieval interests.
–Hawk
Don't think the "stage performances" bit was mean to suggest a performance for the public as maybe some of the A&S stuff that goes on (translated for a general audience). Vivat!
Actually, Pennsic is by Scadians, but not only for them. Anyone can attend as long as they pay the whole fee and follow SCA rules.
Thank you Scott for your posting on Pennsic. Tearlag, you are correct that we do not turn anyone away as long as they pay the gate fees and agree to abide by our rules which include wearing medieval (not fantasy) clothing at all times and observing our fules of courtesy and honor. However, what Scott was attempting to keep people from getting the idea that Pennsic is like a Rennaissance Faire that is open to the public to come and watch. Also, we don't want people to be disappointed in that they will find very little camping space and few amenities if they are not pre-registered as part of a local SCA group. The best way to enjoy the Pennsic War is as a member of the Society for Creative Anachronism, and by visiting our website at http://www.sca.org intersted folks can connect with a local group and begin to have fun rught away. Thanks.
You left off ECCC (Emerald City Comic-Con) in Seattle!!
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That's bad. 😀 I got to watch dark knight rises unfinished movie from.
http://movieleakz.com/darkknight
I am sure the official one coming out in summer will look kind of differently than the one I watched since they have to change audio and add some more scenes.
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What? No mention of the hacker cons? DEFCON, HOPE, Notacon? I am disappoint.
Meh! Mainstream nonsense for mainstream nerd wannabes.
This
Don't forget BlizzCon in S.D. in Novemberish, or Octoberish
Well it's been nice knowing you too!
Not much geek fun for me on the tube this year. I'm looking forward to more Walking Dead but other than that I'm just waiting for Destiny and watching other stars. NASA's got some great shots coming up and other nations' are looking really promising. And, as always, life in the universe is full of surprises. Happy 2012, enjoy the shows. And keep looking up.
You forgot one. Anime Boston will hold it's 10th Anniversary on April 6 – 8 in the Hynes Convention Center (yes, that is the same weekend as PAX East, and in the same city – If you mention one, you need to mention both)
MacWorld is overlooked? January 26th – 28th.
I hate to burst anyone's bubble out there, but the "Mayan Calendar" does not end on Dec. 21 (or on the 23rd either)! It's the 12th B'aktun that comes to an end and then the 13th B'aktun begins. Sorry, no end of the world or Mayan calendar. The Mayan calendar goes on for about 23 Quintillion days. (go ahead, do the math! or Look it up!)
I can't wait until Batman comes out. This year is going to be epic movie-wise. Last year sucked.
Game of Thrones season 1 DVD released in March
True Blood and Dexters most recent seasons will be release on DVD, I don't know the dates
The Hobbit in December will be in theaters
umm what about the other marvel movies like Avengers!!!
Forgot Zombie Apolalypse on Dec. 22nd. When the world doesn't end on the 21st, the Zombies will rise the next day.
You forgot about Towel Day, which is also on May 25, and is in commemoration of Douglas Adams: http://towelday.org/
I can't believe Mole Day (10/23) isn't on here! CHEM GEEKS UNITE!
Where is Diablo III on this list!? XD
ya seriously, been waiting 10 years for it
Exactly! Final Fantasy mentioned but no D3? FAIL.
The game is didalonwong RIGHT NOW. Enjoyed the interview, it was interesting and like with everything you do, Spanos, seemed to take place slightly out of reality. []
Eric, it's Blizz. D3 will come out maybe possibly sometime in something like 2012 or maybe 2013.
That said, they'd better hurry it up. SWTOR is cutting in to their cash cow.
The international toy fair in NY is in no way comparable to the likes of comicon. It's serious business & not filled with people getting their geek on.
Is it now in vogue to invoke that things are 'geeky' to try to exclude people all over again?
There's always somebody trying to take advantage of naming cliques and trying to pidgeon-hole people. But its all oh so funny and light hearted humor! Yeah, so funny....
"January 31: It's a sequel to a sequel: "Final Fantasy XIII-2" comes to North American shores."
So you want to hire a real tech writer? Or at least one who realizes that Final Fantasies aren't "sequels" to one another?
so final fanasty x-2 wasn't a sequel to final fanasty x?
lol fantasy*
Geeks are a product marketer's dream. If you're a really serious thing X geek, they'll sell you thing X movies, thing X shirts, thing X toys, etc...
Ugh the way they worded this. And if they are trying to appeal to the internet community, why the heck would they include Twilight...
Watch out! She doesn't even have that arrow nocked!!! That baby could fly anywhere! What a geekette...
damn, you are right. Thats gonna hurt when she releases
It will hit the ground about 30 meters in front of her and some distance to the left.
"December 21: Well, it's been nice knowing you, if you believe the Mayan calendar ..."
A fool will believe anything you tell them if you tell them with the right tone.
mass effect 3, cant wait:)
Lol on your last event of the year!! thumbs up!!