Last night, I was supposed to perform in the Thrilling Adventure Hour at Largo with a bunch of my friends, and a bunch of people who I really admire. Unfortunately, the sinus infection I was fighting all week had other plans, so I stayed home and rested on the couch with a screening of Repo Man.
I ended up sort of live-tweeting the thing, with silly pictures and quotes from the movie, which I did with Forbidden Zone awhile back. I'm not sure if it was as amusing to Twitter as it was to me, but it was still fun.
At that point, I could have gone to bed, but I thought I'd check Twitter to see if anyone had clever Repo Man references to toss back at me (they did) or if anyone was amused by it (some were). Then I caught this thing that made me explode into HULK SMASH for the first time in … I can't even remember the last time I was as angry. Here's an image that someone uploaded of the ensuing ragefest, which was captioned "Damn, Wil Wheaton is a jerk."
(click to embiggen at Imgur)
So reading that back today, I can totally see how I come off as a raging asshole. I make no excuse, but I wanted to offer a bit of context and perspective that 140 characters doesn't allow.
First, a little history: At PAX in 2007, I was approached by some folks from the ECA, who asked me if I'd endorse their organization. I'm very reluctant to do this sort of thing, because I feel like high-profile people tend to throw their support behind every cause in the world, and when I support an organization, I want it to actually mean something, instead of being just another entry on a list.
I looked at what ECA does, and I was impressed. I thought that it was a good idea for gamers to have a lobby in government, and I thought it would be great to educate non-gamers about who we are in a way that would dispel the hysteria spouted about us by politicians and other moralizers who demonize gamers and the games we play for their own political purposes.
I signed up, and I gave ECA a quote that I've since forgotten, but was signed, "Wil Wheaton – actor, author, gamerdad."
About a week after that went live on the ECA website, some guy who apparently trademarked the term gamerdad – oh, excuse me, gamerdad™ – e-mailed me with this long and rambling rant about how I was using his trademark without his permission, how he had some history with ECA that made this nefarious, and a bunch of other stuff I've also forgotten. I forget how ECA got involved, but the end result is the organization caved to this guy almost instantly, and took the "gamerdad" out of my endorsement.
You know, writing about this now, the whole thing seems really stupid and petty, but I was pissed. I remember saying to a friend of mine, "The ECA won't stand up to some crackpot who's basically being a patent troll, and I'm supposed to expect them to stand up to Congress? I can't be part of this organization."
I didn't want to make a big public scene (I waited until last night for that! Yeah! Go Wil! You're SMRT!) and the ECA people seemed nice and genuinely interested in making a positive difference in gamers' lives, so I kept my annoyance to myself, but I didn't renew my membership. I saw Hal Halpin at PAX the following year, and I told him how disappointed I was in ECA for not standing up to that guy and leaving me sort of out in the wind, and I couldn't vocally support the ECA because of it.
So last night, when I saw GamePolitics, which is part of ECA, Twittering what I interpreted as a passive/aggressive slam at me ("Ya, Wil is good, but what does he advocate for gamers/gaming?") something in my brain snapped, and I went HULK SMASH.
Maybe I misinterpreted it — I tell my kids that you can't get tone and nuance in text messages, so it's important to think carefully about how you engage people when you're only using text — but when GamePolitics replied to my "Really?" with "Other than Net Neutrality…" and "While I've really enjoyed your keynote speeches at PAX, it's not really representing" it seemed pretty clear to me that whoever writes GamePolitics was being deliberately obtuse, was genuinely ignorant, or was just being a jerk. Take my history of annoyance with ECA and stack this on top of it, and I was Godzilla in Tokyo. Hell, I was MechaGodzilla cranked up to 11 … ON FIRE.
If GamePolitics was just some random person, I probably would have just ignored it and gone to bed, but since it's part of ECA, I expected GamePolitics to know better. Since I expected GamePolitics to know better, I assumed that he/she/it was either deliberately insulting me, or making a conscious effort to minimize the things I've worked really hard to do.
See, I've worked really hard to advocate for gamers. I spent months writing my keynotes for PAX Prime in 2007 (message: We're not the bloodthirsty psychopaths some in the media say we are, and the best way we can prove them wrong is by example. Also, don't be a dick.) and my keynote to PAX East earlier this year (message: Playing game brings people together, and PAX is a time and place where we can celebrate the things we love.) I published a chapbook for GenCon this year called Games Matter, for frak's sake, about exactly that!
I've written dozens of columns for a number of diverse publications about games and gaming, and I've worked really, really hard to remove the media-created stigma associated with being a gamer.
When I got pissed at GamePolitics last night, I wasn't saying, "I'm Wil Fucking Wheaton, man. Don't you know who I am?" (Which, I was very sad to see, a lot of people seem to have thought I was saying) as much as I was saying, "I'm really hurt and offended that: a) you are supposed to represent gamers and don't know how I've tried to advocate for us; or b) you're minimizing the things I've done to advocate for us."
The responses I got on Twitter from GamePolitics last night just made me more and more angry. I felt like I was talking to a child who had broken my Death Star, and then sat next to it in mock innocence wondering why it was in so many pieces. Taken in context in the clear light of day, it doesn't seem to be quite like that, but that's how I interpreted it at the time, and I reacted accordingly.
I hope this gives some context to why I got so angry. I'm not offering excuses, just hoping to clarify. I should have just written a private e-mail, but I let my passions get the better of me. I'm human, and I do things I regret from time to time.
I'm sorry that so many people had to witness me explode in furious anger, and I am embarrassed that I lost my temper. I hope this doesn't get me voted off of Gamer Island, or invalidate the times I've tried to live my life's philosophy — Don't Be A Dick — by example.
Added: after much thought, and some discussions with trusted friends, I publicly apologized on Twitter to GamePolitics for losing my shit at him/her/it last night. I'm not saying that I'm sorry for getting upset, and I'm still not entirely sure what his/her/its motives were, but that's not really the issue: I regret the way I behaved, and I'm embarrassed that I did it in public. I don't view this as some Team Wheaton / Team The Other Guys thing, and I hope we can all learn something from this about how we communicate and treat each other. Well, I hope I can, anyway; what you do is up to you.
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You were right. They initiated the exchange so it’s kind of on them when they call you out. You could have chilled a little but you weren’t wrong for being offended that’s for sure.
Maybe you came off as a jerk, but you demonstrated your complete passion for gaming.
This explains yesterday. I was totally oblivious.-_-
You’re human (I think?),Wil. It’s normal to blow up on occasion.
If they vote you off,we’ll vote you right back in! <3
And honestly,a jerk? Not really. You came off as passionate.
Maybe it could’ve been handled better but you were in the right to respond. The way they belittled what you’ve done was terrible.
Yeah, I was watching last night, and to me is seemed like you only overreacted very slightly. GamePolitics did seem a little rude to me too.
Wil,
As I tweeted to you I feel your reaction was in context, at no point did it come across as a “dont you know who I am Hollywood rant”.
It came across as what it was, a guy who works pretty damn hard for us geeks feeling hurt by a comment that made out that did not happen at all.
I dont think you saw some of the outcry on the internet for people totally onboard with you.
Stepto wrote a really nice blog about it instantly – http://www.stepto.com/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?List=47972f52-f025-4805-bea4-f515e4269a3a&ID=626
And the wailing and gnashing of teeth was well waily and gnashy by a lot of the people who realise what you do, often for free for the community !
If anything I thought Gamerpolitics had made the comment themselves without reading it first and thinking about the tone it came across in.
I was pretty annoyed at the time and told them as much via feed.
phew long comment, summary – you didnt over act, you came across as offended rightly so and quite rightly called them on it with a direct challenge.
Good for you.
I think at the time it seemed, at least to me, that you were in fact being like “don’t you know who I am?”, but having some context now, I totally see where you were coming from, and this guy definitely was being a bag of dicks either way
It’s true you’ve made efforts to moderate and improve the image of the modern gamer, I would like to thank you and you’re forgiven. Everyone has a bad day, even “…just this guy…” named Wil Wheaton.
And I followed the ‘Repo Man’ tweet-a-thon, inspired me to watch it tonight.
I’m really glad to see you post this entry. I was confused by last night’s TwitBeef, and was put off by how the whole thing went down. I know you were only reacting to your interpretations of their tweets and I can see how you reached the conclusion you did, but it came off as dickish. We all have those heat-of-the-moment cock-ups, though. Glad to see that a little daylight allowed you to see things more clearly.
I totally got where you were coming from, Wil. If they’re a “news” organization (like it says on the banner of their website), it’s kind of expected that they’d do some research before approaching you and saying “So what do YOU do?”
Cause really… it’s not THAT hard to find if you’re totally in the dark about it.
And while I eventually figured out that they were, honestly, in the dark, I was still offended FOR you at the dismissive tone they took (even if it wasn’t dismissive).
And really, I want a T-Shirt that has a picture of you in a rage with the caption “I’M WIL WHEATON, BEYOTCH!”
The whole thing lost me from message one: who says stuff like “Yeah, but what does he advocate for gamers?” It comes off as grumpy that someone suggested you as a high profile gamer (which is, by the way, pretty much impossible to deny, isn’t it?) instead of, you know, GamePolitics. Also, @-tagging you then acting shocked that you saw it is pretty disingenuous.
Yeah, you raged out, but, I dunno, who enjoys being put on the defensive like that? “Justify your existence in our community!” Feh.
Don’t frak out on us, I think we got it.
First up, you are Somebody in gamer circles. Anybody who actually had seen or read your PAX keynotes wouldn’t have asked “Yehbut, what has Wil Wheaton ever done for us?”
If you describe yourself as a representative of gamers, it’s your Goddamn job to know who said what at PAX. If you don’t, then you’re not a gamer advocate, you’re just a general purpose Fight Teh Powah activist coat-tailing on a handy cause.
So yes, in context, you weren’t being a dick. You were just calling out a nobody who is trying to be a somebody by association. Let’s see their keynotes, their track history, their picture of themselves laughing it up in a cloak.
Like as not, the GamePolitics poster is some youngling who thinks that the revolution started when they moved out of their parents’ basement (if they have). But every generation needs a sharp reminder that the ground that they’re fighting on is already wet with the blood and sweat and tears of us gamerdads. Blister-wrap cuts, flop sweat, and quit-without-saving tears maybe, but these trenches are only here because we dug them.
Gamerdad posse represent.
I appreciate the post, because this was a bit confusing to read yesterday. I think it’s perfectly reasonable to feel incredulous and outraged at their comments. Even if the person on the other end was genuinely ignorant re: your contributions, they could have taken an “I didn’t realize…” approach rather than a “What has Wil Wheaton ever done….” approach. Their initial tweet still seems like provocation.
I don’t think that you were being a jerk at all. I felt that Gamepolitics post was very rude and insulting. When someone with some fame gets upset by another person being genuinely rude to them, people tend to jump on the “he thinks he’s better than us” bandwagon. I was further frustrated by Gamepolitic’s act (yes, it was an act) of innocence with his “What? I was only trying to compliment my hero” bit. He was NOT trying to compliment you Wil and I believe that to be obvious.
What I saw was that GamePolitics was careless in his wording of his messages. Other messages from GamePolitics evidence his carelessness and I fully understood then, as now, how his comments could have been construed as negative. No, Wil, you did not come off as a jerk last night. The onus was on GamePolitics to make his messages understood. It’s good to see your openness with this issue, but it is not necessary, as your feeling of insult was warranted. Besides, it was late, dude.
If someone belittled my major contributions to something, I’d be pretty pissed off too. GamePolitics should have done their homework before saying anything.
I interpreted it the same as you did Wil. If it was some stranger without any sort of apparent contextual knowledge you might be called for over reacting.
But for someone who writes for a blog, dedicated to gaming and the law, as well as being part of a professional lobbying organization dedicated to gaming and gamers to call you out like that.
Basically my reaction reading the message was, how can anyone with that “professional” background be that unknowledgable.
To compare, it would be like someone in the gaming press not knowing who Major Nelson is.
Or, to put it in more general terms, it would be like a political reporter not knowing who Rahm Emanuel is, or who President Obama is.
If you are a journalist, and you cover gaming, well, let’s just say, you ought to know. And heck, if you don’t know, you might want to take a moment to do some research before spouting off.
I think you were totally justifiable calling them out like that. Perhaps you weren’t diplomatic, but I say fair game.
hey, Wil. I caught this on twitter as I follow you. I then went to the following to see what I could find.
I did not know the background on this with you and the ECA. knowing now what I do? they need a “don’t be a dick” tattoo on their hand to remind them every time.
(there’s an idea… temporary tattoos of “don’t be a dick” for sale on the WheatonStore…)
Hooray for prompt clarification! In context, your Hulk rage makes a lot more sense than it did last night (their comments by themselves seemed more worthy of phasers set to something a bit lower than DIE DIE DIE). Island status: safe, Wheaton’s Law status: not invalidated, Gamerdad status: you more than any douche with a trademark.
Another chime in on the “You didn’t come off as the Don’t you know who I am guy” side of things.
You were passionate. I think that is something we, the human “we” have forgotten about and
every so often it maybe a good idea to let that passion show through whether its “HULK SMASH, MechaGodzilla turn to 11 on fire” or just with a simple < rant > and < /rant > tag.
For me its the “The Coast Guard is not a military service/branch” statement. (I will get wound up and start quoting chapter and verse and…..see even just typing the above statement gets me fired up).
Was also happy that you don’t throw your name behind a cause lightly. So many folks do these days. I will now know that if I ever see you name as supporting something, you really
are behind the cause.
I think it all just got blown up. The person from the gamepolitics site didn’t seem to know what he was talking about, so he threw a comment out there. I think he was shocked that you actually replied. He didn’t have the facts to back up what he said, so he waffled and it looked like you kind of railroaded him. But he was wrong, you do so much for gaming… It’s easy to see how you would have become angry. Honestly, it wasn’t that bad. If that’s your HulkSmash, you really are a nice guy.
*pat pat*
Everyone does that some time, and after reading the conversation it does appear the individual, was trying to call you out. If they make a big deal about it, you have the conversation saved, they can see it for themselves. However it appears that you were in the right when it came to saying this individual appeared to not have any idea about how much you’ve actually done for us, and for that, they should be apologizing to you.
I read this as it unfolded last night, between a full rail of tickets at work. You had every right to be pissed, and never once did it come off as “I’m Wil Frakking Wheaton!”.
It is because of the things you do for gamers, that has brought me back into the fold after many a moon. You are an inspiration for us all (though I guess I shouldn’t speak for everyone).
We all have our breaking point, this guy/girl/it knew exactly how to push your hot button. It’s part of the online culture, see who we can piss off and how fast.
More than likely he’s bragging to his buddy about how he got Wil Wheaton to loose his shit. He basically rung the gong,and you sprung the acid pit trap.
Shake it off man, we all have these moments. We learn from them and move on.
Sorry Wil, but you really did come off as a dick. I understand that it’s hard to interpret tone in a Twitter message, but they weren’t questioning your contributions, they were asking what they were. If someone isn’t clear on that, you don’t get angry at them (it’s not like this is some official story they were writing, they were asking a FAN a question on Twitter). You really did come off as “don’t you know who I am?!” when, instead of telling them what your contributions were, you said, “If you don’t know what I’ve advocated, you have no business claiming to represent us.” They weren’t the one acting like a child, you were.
Oh Wil.
I completely agree with your reaction, it wasn’t “Hulk Smash” so much as it was someone who has done quite a bit for their community, a community which they are very passionate about, being questioned by someone who feigns ignorance about what they do.
Game Politics (and I watched the back and forth last night) came off in a way that seemed to either A) Downplay what you’ve done or B) Just completely oblivious to what you’ve done.
As a passionate person I feel you were well within your right to lose it a bit.
So, yknow, chin up big guy, keep up the good work.
P.S. To Nick Nelson, this would be true about some random guy, but Wil has been out in the spotlight on a regular basis when it comes to fighting for gamers. So asking what you’ve done is a very LMGTFY type of question.
P.P.S. On another note thanks for the help with Salmon Security at PAX. Wish schedules would have worked out better. Next year though, or east.
I didn’t see it as you being a jerk at all. I think there was some sort of mis-communication being as it was via twitter messaging but as you said you can’t always really go by what you read in a text or online as it could have been written in one view and taken in a totally different view. It also seems that whomever was having that discussion with you isn’t completely aware of perhaps things they should be and thats on them, so I would think it as I said a bit of mis-communication, as well as misinformation on the other party, with a bit of ‘being human’ tossed in there.
And as for the guy with the “gamerdad” trademark… trademarks, as well as patents are really getting ridiculous and I wish someone would step in on those issues because some people are just hording every little patent, trademark, etc… but thats another issue.
Wil,
As someone who has watched (and shared via YouTube) your PAX 2007 speech, And was sitting 5th row center at your PAX East speech, I can say with all that I am that you are someone that is “One of us” and you can speak for me ANY time.
And the person who is behind that GamePolitics Twitter Feed REALLY needs to do some research before he opens his… well… fingers (???) and types. That is also not to say that it didn’t get out of hand a bit on both sides. But that’s OK, when we defend some things that we believe in, sometimes, to use a phrase, we get “a little stabby “.
Thank you for being who you are and for what you believe in. And by the way, you owe me a beer for making me well up in public during that PAX EAST speech 😉
I think a lot of people try to bait celebrities with their useless comments. If he wanted to pick a fight, he got one.
I think this is really a debate about Twitter, and how (like it or not) if we use it, people can just say something (without any justification) and get away with it. Especially if it’s something close to our hearts (like gaming.)
If this guy understood what you have been saying all along (especially the fact that you have taught your children how to game, and game well among many other examples of advocating for it as a healthy way to spend time) he wouldn’t have said anything.
Either way, he obviously got your attention. I hope you blocked him. He’s a troll.
Honestly, I think that the question posed by Gamerpolitics was an honest one, and not one that was meant to be rude or ignorant. They were asking for more information, and I think it would have been neat to see a measured and thoughtful response.
And I would hope that folks would follow Wheaton’s Law and not be a dick to the guy behind the GamePolitics twitter feed.
Sometimes, being a Dick for the right reasons, is completely justified. Besides, he questioned your “geek” in a way that would have made anyone put up the defenses.
Perhaps, building off your motto, Don’t be a Dick, unless someone is a Dick to you.
“I tell my kids that you can’t get tone and nuance in text messages, so it’s important to think carefully about how you engage people when you’re only using text.”
^ This
I was following along with the whole thing last night, and it just seemed to go in a direction it didn’t need to. Whoever is behind the GamePolitics account should have just stopped responding to you on twitter and emailed you instead. It’s pretty clear that the person had no idea who you are, despite their “big fan” empty comment. At the same time, I think it was pretty clear that you weren’t in the best of moods.
It’s good to be passionate, but I think both parties involved overreacted and weren’t really getting what the other was saying. You were sick, the other person ignorant and/or self-righteous. Perhaps it would have been better if it had been taken to DM or email.
It’s too bad that some people only saw half the conversation, or misinterpreted the whole conversation into “Man, This Wil Wheaton guy is a dick.” Or “Fuck, GamePolitics should be more self-aware and actually do some homework before criticizing a person who advocates pretty openly about gaming.”
I was looking forward to this post, actually, to see how you would react in the morning.
I don’t think you were wrong. There is more to the conversation that I am assuming you missed. The person behind the twitter said he did his research and all that he could find was “net neutrality and ECA… Period”. A lot of people, including myself, came back with, “then you didn’t do your research. Have you read any of his books? Read his blog? Listened to any of his interviews, podcast?”
And to make it even more sad, if he really did his research and looked in GamerPolitics own archives, he would have found the following: http://gamepolitics.com/2008/05/01/actor-wil-wheaton-weighs-in-on-gta-iv-controversy
I had tweeted, “I almost gave @GamePolitics a Pro Tip on how to go about getting an interview. But my nerd rage is about to get the better of me so I won’t” because honest to Bob, if his intent was to get you to do an interview or talk to him about how you’ve advocated, the dude went about it the wrong way.
IMO he should have done his research first, found out every thing you have done, made notes about information he wanted but couldn’t find and, most importantly, found out who you were. And by who, I mean who you are as a real, normal, every day person. Someone who just happens to have a high profile job, giving him some extra leverage to bring light to certain issues. And then approached you with something like, “Hey Wil. You do loads for the gaming community! Mind if I ask some questions for a story?”
But then again, what do I know. I’ve only had the awesome pleasure to interview normal people who are lucky enough to have high profile jobs.
The guy claims his intentions were free from malice. However, if he had any clue about the gaming culture or who you are as a person, he would have approached it in a completely different way. IMO, he was completely off base. He ended up following me after I sent him a lot of near nerd rage-y tweets. I followed him back, only so that I could find out what more was to be said on this matter.
Anyway, just my two cents.
I had a feeling there was more behind it than you being a dick, since you don’t seem to be that kind of person otherwise. That perhaps you were seeing something in those comments that others weren’t, and clearly that was it. You’ve lived your life relatively in the public eye and I can imagine that lends to a bit of vulnerability. When someone questions something you are unquestionably passionate about and proud to be a part of, the need to defend that no doubt supersedes one’s ability to keep a calm temperament, especially when you work in an industry where asswipes feel its their right to come up and judge you and criticize you without really even having met you. I would guess your defensiveness is a little sharper than the average person’s, having lived the life you have.
Props to you for having the balls to admit a bit of regret for snapping, as we all are prone to doing being human, but not totally groveling and making excuses for it. YOU STILL ROCK! 😀
I think the context and background you provided was important. I didn’t see the one-sided exchange until this morning, and when I read it against the replies it still didn’t make sense.
I think that your anger was justified. First, if someone is going to post from GamePolitics’s public Twitter account and they don’t know what Wil Wheaton has tried to do for gamers, then I question why they have a job. It’s not like you’re hiding in a corner or working backroom deals to help the public perception of gamers. This isn’t supposed to be some half-assed blog by a single person, either. And, instead of doing the research himself, he tried to outsource to it Twitter? Is using Google so hard? Was it too difficult to send you an email or an @reply for information if he REALLY didn’t know?
Sidenote: Does this person know anything about Net Neutrality? It doesn’t apply to or help just gamers. It is meant to help EVERYBODY.
I do think you violated Wheaton’s Law, but only because you deliberately made your replies public by adding the “.” before the reply. You wanted all of us to see what you were saying, not just the person you were talking to or people that viewed your page. You injected your anger into our Twitter streams. This whole exchange should have been done via email.
Your punishment is to produce an episode of Radio Free Burrito, the one we were promised weeks ago before you went all bat-shit crazy with work. ;-D
Well, it’s certainly OK to be human. I can certainly understand your reaction to someone (quite falsely) calling you out in a public sphere. It became a bit of a Striesand Effect; I’d certainly never have heard of @GamePolitics otherwise, but then I’m not really involved in political efforts anywhere, really, so maybe that’s moot. You’ve certainly been a visible and good advocate for gamers and games. One person’s ignorance is not necessarily something get riled up about, but it is understandable when someone smashes your Death Star. When someone else is acting like a jerk, perhaps it’s possible, even necessary, to be more strident in your response. I don’t think you came off like a jerk, though. Calling out an incorrect calling out is appropriate.
As for the gamerdad thing, that was really craven of ECA to cave on that. Trademarks aren’t universal ownership of words or phrases. Having a trademark doesn’t give one exclusive use of that term, only in the context of doing business where there might be some confusion. It isn’t a license to browbeat anyone or any company into complying with their demands for exclusivity. And especially in a comment like that, there would be no real confusion of you for this other person. Too many people do not understand intellectual property laws at all, and improperly apply them all the time. Just read TechDirt sometime and you’ll see it done over and over again. Yet the IP bullies always seem to win, which just strengthens their position for the next time they feel entitled to bully someone into submission on their mistaken belief of ownership.
Ideas can’t be owned. Words alone can’t be owned. You have as much right to call yourself a gamerdad as anyone else, in most every context except where there might be confusion as to business trade with this other person — which doesn’t extend to all aspects of the commercial world, and certainly not the non-commercial world.
Chin up Wil, chalk it up to a bad day.
You had me laughing with your tweeting of RepoMan, first off. Having a somewhat stressful night myself, it was a nice distraction, and thank you.
Therefore I caught your tweet back to GamePolitics and started following it. I thought he/she was a bit off, to be honest. A quick Google search of ‘Wil Wheaton Game politics’ came back with a couple of articles they have done (for heaven’s sake) about you and your advocacy work. So if this individual, who is supposed to represent that body, can’t even look through the group’s archives, yes, they come off as an idiot. Furthermore, someone who is representing a group that uses written communication as a business model should be able to understand the nuances of the genre. The question came off as a blatant violation of the Wheaton’s Law, at least in my book.
I completely understand how you got so angry if you go to the gamepolitics website and search your name an article comes up saying how you argued against Grand Theft Auto haters. So it seems to me like they were trying to bate you with the remark what has he advocated other then for net neutrality. Also PAX is one of the largest gatherings of gamers outside of the internets so they should have known about your keynote speeches.
How can a person trademark gamerdad it is like trade marking “car guy”
I have to confess, I was very confused when I saw this in my Twitstream this morning. I appreciate the context you have provided. I think this leads to one object lesson: Don’t be sick and Tweet!
Thanks for the post Wil–I was trying to figure out what was going on and I appreciate you explaining it, even though you shouldn’t have to. For what it is worth, I’ve followed you long enough and read your books to know that you are most certainly not a dick, so even though I couldn’t tell what was going on, I just thought “Wow, Wil seems really upset about something”. One reason why I don’t tweet much and rarely text is the lack of context. So, whenever I read anything, I tell myself not to read too much into it, because without emoticons you really have no idea what the tone is supposed to be. 🙂
If they really wanted to know what you’ve done for gamer advocacy, a Google search would have told them in about a second. Why ask on Twitter?
The problem with politics is that someone is *always* an asshole. No exceptions, no 200 dollars, straight to jail.
And btw, I’m a long time gamer chick, complete with the blue dice cred: Never heard of “Gamer Advocacy”. WTHell is that supposed to be? Could we get just a little more politically correct?
Pathetic.
Thank you for writing this blog post. It restores my faith in your integrity in two ways.
First, I know you only as an actor and (more importantly to me) an all-around, unabashed nerd. I’m not a gamer — sadly, I suck at almost every game that exists — so I knew nothing of your history with ECA until now. As I watched the Twitter exchange, it was clear that @GamePolitics was being a jerk, but I was surprised at your behavior as well. My exact thought was, “Wow, what the heck?! This doesn’t sound like Wil at all.” But the context absolutely explains your reaction and I appreciate you sharing it with us. Obviously it would have been handled better privately but, as you say, we’re all human and make mistakes. Live and learn.
Second, your humble admission that you didn’t handle the situation as well as you might have shows a lot of character. I always knew you had it in you. It’s really good to see it again. :¬)
Wil Wheaton in “I’m a human being” shocker.
Sure it was a slight over-reaction, but you realise that, however it was a supremely stupid question. I’m sorry but I read it exactly the same way you did last night and I’ve got no emotional ties to the situation in the same way you have.
I was wondering what all that was about….and I was with you for a while but then I read Gamerpolitics feed as well and tried objectively to figure out whether they were being snarky/ or just asking a legitimate question.
Tone is an incredible thing, and if you read what GamePolitics asked that girl objectivly, to me, it looks like they are saying “Yes, Wil’s good, but I don’t know exactly what Wil Wheaton adovcates, do you?”…which is probably the way they meant it. Now how they handled themsevles after that is questionable but I believe they weren’t trying to be snarky [at first]. You both over-reacted but now it’s over and done with. They just came off wrong.
And we all get like that once and a while.
We all have our sore spots that, when poked, hurt more than they really should. Given all that you’ve been dealing with (busy work schedule, busy PAX, and illness, plus the history with ECA), it’s not surprising that when poked in that particular sore spot, it hurt more than it should have. I think the majority of people who have been your fans and followers for a time will understand and will cut you some slack.
The fact that you are willing to post this very public explanation and apology should show the people jumping to the conclusion that “Wil Wheaton is a jerk” that maybe they should take a second look – at both you and themselves. Anyone so quick to condemn a man for his actions should beware when faced with his own tribulations.
You genuinely make a habit of sharing your happiness with everyone else and it is something that I, for one, look forward to and appreciate. Enough to share a little of your pain, hurt, outrage and embarrassment when called necessary.
We’ve got your back.
“Honestly, I think that the question posed by Gamerpolitics was an honest one, and not one that was meant to be rude or ignorant. They were asking for more information, and I think it would have been neat to see a measured and thoughtful response.”
Yeah, I agree. As @lavahot said in response to the whole thing last night: “There’s a difference between questioning your devotion and asking what you’re devoted to. I believe @gamepolitics was doing the latter.”
Unfortunately, the original question was poorly worded–I interpreted it exactly the same way Wil did, and said as much–and whoever is behind GamePolitics didn’t provide the necessary context in their follow-up tweets to Wil. Then couldn’t understand why he was taking offense to what they thought was a genuine question…
Anyway, it’s good to see that cooler heads have prevailed the morning after. I just hope GamePolitcs takes as much away from this experience as Wil has. I’m curious to see what their response will be.
I admit, I was a little confused last night what exactly was making you so angry … so thank you very much for the context. Reading this now, I don’t blame you a bit for getting pissed off. Yeah, you’re human, and entitled to blow up every now and then (especially when provoked!). But don’t worry. You’re definitely not a dick.
First, Wil you were correct in your assessment of their attitude
Second those of you defending the troller, they claimed that they KNEW what he said in those keynote speeches. So what MORE explanation did they want? When I do an interview I ALWAYS do my homework, why should they be less professional than a writer for a very small newsletter? They claim to advocate for gamers yet they don’t bother to check before dismissing one of the most outspoken gamers on the planet?
Here is how I read it:
Guy crowdsources for gamer celebs on twitter. (kinda lazy if he’s a journalist)
Guy gets a recommendation.
Guy asks respondant, twitter, and then Wil, to justify it.
If he’s writing about a topic, shouldn’t he do the legwork, or at least frakking google it before he looks like a tool.
Wil, you’re good people, You sholdn’t have had to justify anything to this guy. If he wants to decide if you’re a good choice for this column or blog or whatever, he needs to sort that out, not ask you to justify yourself to him.
Their whole account and blog kinda reads like one big scrape of other folks content and suggestions…so I get the idea he’s just skimming the web for ideas.