City rankings are at best entertaining and good conversation starters and at worst obnoxious.  I think this one falls in the former category.

A site called “Movato Blog: The Lighter Side of Real Estate“, has ranked cities across the country based on their appeal to self-described “nerds”, and Atlanta came out #1 ahead of Portland and Seattle.

What this ranker lacks in website name recognition, it makes up for in providing a detailed methodology.  Each city was rated on nine factors:

• Number of annual comic book, video game, anime, and sci-fi / fantasy conventions

• People per comic book store

• People per video game store

• People per traditional gaming store

• People per computer store

• People per bookstore

• People per LARPing group

• People per science museum

• Distance to the nearest Renaissance fair

How did Atlanta manage #1?  Well, apparently it has more bookstores, more video game stores, more LARP groups per person than any other city in the country.  Oh, and of course Dragon*Con didn’t hurt either.