I'm posting this from an airplane that is currently 37966 feet above Port Stanley, Ontario. It's -78 Fahrenheit about 7 feet from where I'm sitting.
And I am currently on the internet, while my position is updated on Google Maps in front of me in almost real time.
There's just enough turbulence to be annoying, but not enough to be upsetting or frightening. It should stop in in about 15 minutes, if I am reading the map I have from Weather Underground in another tab correctly. A small child a few rows behind me is having a full-on tantrum. I feel really terrible for her parents, who are doing everything they can to calm her down. I am very grateful for noise-cancelling headphones.
Now we are over Detroit. Hi Detroit, sorry I keep missing Penguicon.
This is the first time I've flown with in-flight internet, and while I totally understand that a lot of people take this completely for granted, it's pretty awesome to me that I can do this. You see, I remember a time when our headsets were nothing more than plastic tubes with uncomfortable foam cylinders on the ends. We paid up to $4 to use them, and we watched the most banal and idiotic programming ever, because it was all we had. I remember airlines switching to headsets that were deliberately incompatible with our Walkman (remember those?) headsets, so they could continue to charge us outrageous fees to be "entertained" in-flight.
The captain just turned off the seatbelt sign, earlier than I expected. (In my defense, I was estimating my position.) My Weather Underground map says that the flight should be smooth until we get over the Colorado/Nebraska border. When I was a kid, turbulence freaked me out. When I was a teenager, and understood what caused it and how planes were designed to handle it, it stopped freaking me out, but I always wanted to know about how long it would last. It's was easier to deal with something like that when I knew it would eventually be over. It blows my mind that I can not only be online, but I can access a map to find out that information for myself.
Behind the Google Map, I was listening – live – to The Rachel Maddow Show until it ended. now I'm watching Vanguard (probably the greatest investigative journalism show on TV today) on Current TV. Anne was watching a rerun of The Big Bang Theory next to me, and now she's channel surfing.
We're over Lansing, Michigan, right now. Someone with math skills may be able to figure out how fast I'm writing this.
I know it's not a big deal to a lot of people, but the fact that we can do this brings me as much joy and excitement as being able to carry a mobile version of the Internet in my pocket. I was so excited, the very first thing I did once I got connected was tell Twitter, "I don't know what's more amazing to me: that I can say, "hey, I'm online from the airplane," or that I can say it to 1.6M people at once."
All of this is prelude to something I really wanted to post about, which is in itself a prelude to what I imagine will be a fairly lengthy post about PAX…
Last night, I joined Scott Kurtz, his awesome former intern Mary, and Kris Straub in the lobby bar for a quick Guinness. We didn't get to see each other very much during PAX (I almost reflexively wrote that #PAX) so it was our only chance to catch up since we last saw each other.
The lobby was filled with gamers, playing all sorts of games: Magic, Dominion, Settlers, a euro board game I didn't get close enough to positively identify, but could recognize from the scoring track.
After I'd finished my Guinness (about 5 rings, I guess, for those of you who know what that means; it was the end of the con, after all) a guy who I figured was in his early thirties stopped me on my way back up to my room. He pointed to the guy next to him, who had some card games in his hands, including Zombie Fluxx and We Didn't Playtest This at All.
"Would you like to play with us?" He asked.
I told him I'd love to, but I was on my way upstairs to go to bed, because I'd had a really long day, and I was pretty close to dead on my feet.
He told me that he understood. Then, I saw this look in his eye that told me he wanted to say something more, so I waited a second, and he continued. I'm going to recall the things he said as best as I can:
"I've played games my whole life, but this is the first con I've been to," he said.
"That's awesome," I said. "You picked a great place to start, but I should warn you that you've been ruined for all future cons that aren't PAX."
He grinned and said, "I really wanted to play games with people, but I'm here by myself. I wouldn't have had the courage to find people to play with if I hadn't heard your keynote where you talked about playing games together. So I just came down here and found some people who were playing, and joined them."
I felt myself starting to tear up. This had been a theme throughout the weekend, because I lost count of the number of people who told me something I said in my keynote inspired or validated them in some way. Shit, I'm tearing up now just thinking about it (while I'm over Lilly Lake, Wisconsin, listening to South Park behind the map).
"So I started playing with them, and that guy over there," he pointed to a guy sitting on the other side of a nearby table, "has a weekly game night that he invited me to. I'm going to start playing with him.
"I just wanted to say thank you, because if I hadn't heard your keynote, I wouldn't have come down here to play games, and I wouldn't have met these guys. This is something I've wanted my whole life."
Something was seriously getting into both of my eyes. I would have hugged him, but I was doing my best to leave a PAX without getting sick, so I gave him the Iron Guard Salute and told him how much it meant to me that he took the time to share his story.
See, I try to speak as eloquently as I can about why I believe games and gaming are meaningful and important, and why PAX is awesome … but it's never going to be as meaningful or as good an example as meeting someone who exemplifies those words.
I'll have much more to say about PAX when I get home and have time to reflect on the weekend, but now I'm thinking about watching something on-demand, just on principle … or maybe I'll build an amazing downtempo playlist from the giant MP3 library, and listen to it while I play my DS.
Whatever I do, I'll be doing it from the future, where I live, because I am one of the luckiest people in the world … but I'm waiting until South Park is over, because this one (about Catcher in the Rye) is surprisingly funny.
(For those of you who are keeping score at home and need closure, I'm now over West Liberty, Iowa.)
Sorry, I think I’ve got something in my eye just now…
I can’t tell you how awesome it was to meet you, and to get your autograph on my wheelchair (and book)! I’m also thrilled that you liked the “His Name Was Aeofel” wristbands. If you still want the name of the site that I used to make them, I can list it here or email it, if you’d like to keep it to yourself. 🙂 Oh, and I remember my promise…I will finish my book.
Posting to the internet from an aeroplane 38,000 feet up in the air… Living in the future is awesome, isn’t it?
Beautiful. Make it home safe and sound. Looking forward to hearing much more about your awe inspiring time at PAX East.
Wish I could have been there but I knew that I couldn’t survive a convention after spending a week in Japan. I think that would have killed me. Actually, I’m sure of it.
I wish we had in flight internet during our 14 hour ride to Japan but I had to be content with my PSP and iPod. Actually, it’s an iPhone but it might as well have been an iPod since it was in flight mode. The on-flight entertainment thing was pretty nifty, though. Safe journey home!
That is an awesome story. It’s stuff like this that make me proud to be a gamer. We are the best fraternaty there is and i have yet to meet a gamer that mocked his fellows. Sure we have good natured ribbing about the OPnes of Blue decks ( god i hate Blue.) and we might give someone crap because they rolled a Blood Elf, even though it was the only way to get a pally, which is another reason to give them crap :). But in the end we’re gamers, geeks, nerds, dweebs and everything else you said in your keynote from Pax Prime a couple years back that i found on Youtube while looking for the keynote from this years con. So game on, ladies and gentlemen, game on.
I love the Iron Man salute. I think we need to move that from a standard greeting for celebs at cons to a standard greeting, period.
Great story, Wil, and written in the fucking sky, no less. You all made #PAX look like a big damn blast this weekend, and I’m taking heart just from the fact that so many people got together and treated each other so well and had so much fun, together. My jealousy is vast and deep.
Please don’t keep us waiting too long on your keynote. I’m dying to read it or, better yet, hear it performed.
Speaking as somebody who feels like he was home sick during prom, thanks, still, for such a great #PAX.
Wil, as far as I’m concerned you are the heart and soul of PAX. Thanks for making it awesome.
That is remarkably touching, and exactly why I believe you’re doing something that matters with your life, Wil. Bringing people joy, and helping them to share these experiences with others, are wonderful gifts to the people who hear you.
I must say, you’re the reason I got interested in roleplaying, and now I spend most sundays in a pub, with a banjo-band, a massive fluffy dog, some great friends and some funny dice. Wouldn’t have happened without you, so thank you. So much.
In related news, I won a contest today (!) and I’ve got to choose one of the following board games as a prize: Android, Fury of Dracula, Kingsburg, A Touch of Evil, or Pandemic.
I’ve never played this kind of board game before, so I just thought I’d ask your opinion!
So thanks again, Wil Wheaton, pretty nice guy and secretary of geek affairs. Live long, and you know the rest.
I just wanted to share my story with you too. I’m the one who asked you to sign my Dungeon Master’s Guide Thursday night. I really do apologize for the rudeness, but you helped change my life and I just needed to tell you. As you might be able to tell from my twitter name, I started playing D&D soon after the podcasts came out, at age 30. I had been around D&D pretty much my entire life, but it never felt quite right. The podcasts were the trigger that finally made me want to play. To top it off, your appearance on them helped me find your blog and your book Just a Geek. Both really spoke to me, and now, not only am I playing, I am a DM and am constantly evangelizing the game.
The fact you signed my book gave me the courage to ask Phil to look at an adventure I wrote for the challenge that weekend and, eventually, the courage to run it. I also asked Scott Kurtz to sign it and got to tell him how much the podcasts meant to me as well. Then I met the D&D guys and that led to running a game in a bar. There is a decent chance that I would have withdrawn completely if you hadn’t been so gracious with your time. Thanks so much for such a great first con experience!
Someone has already uploaded a video, check it out!
On a related note, I finally made something today, I don’t really know if I was excited, though. I sat down to write a little, with no real aim in mind, between two of my classes today. About halfway through I realized I was writing a letter to my self and others like me encouraging us to, well, get excited and make something. Your keynote was playing in the back of my head as I wrote it, and was ultimately the reason I decided not to send it off into the digital oblivion of my trash can. Instead, I showed it to my literature professor who loved it. We immediately sent it to Tor Echo, our school’s newspaper.
I don’t know how much writing I’ll continue to do, but I do know one story I wrote and deleted before I heard your keynote that I will resurrect, though maybe with a different tone. So thanks for helping me make things, and I even feel a little exited about the next one.
I’m extremely sad that I missed PAX East. I really hope that at some point your keynote will be available to download from somewhere. It would make me incredibly happy.
The Sheraton lobby was a mecca for tabletop gaming this year. I don’t remember anything like it at the main Prime hotels. We played Munchkin there until 1:30 AM and were never hassled by hotel security. I just hope there’s as good an experience when East moves to the new venue.
I wish I could get a copy of the indie game the guys at the next table were playing. At one point one of them said, “Okay, my team is the cast of Dr. Who and they’re all endowed with Dr. Manhattan powers!” Liono wielding a light saber figured in at some point later on, too. The cards had barely any printing and it sounded like the gameplay was 95% imagination. They were having a blast!
I just got done reading this fantastic story. I too remember the greatest friends I ever had I found holding a controller, or rolling a dice. I currently am in the army away from friends and family, but I still find soldiers who love a good game of Pokemon. I wanted to be at PAXEast so bad due to it finally being close to my home. Maybe next year. I read all about it on the Twitters, everyday listening to Keynotes, and panel discussions. I missed everything this year, and this made me realize how much I miss those friends who helped me slay dragons, take over a continent, and gave me a good challenge on the battlefield. I was inspired by your speech much like everyone who saw it. I am inspired more by this story of a man who much like the rest of us geeks timidly approached not only as a fan, but as a gamer looking for someone to play. Good Job good sir, and may your dice always roll 20, Your DPS be high, and your ring stay green.
Man, I haven’t even been to a PAX and can feel the love. Keep it up Wil, at least until I’ve been to PAX. 🙂
(And, uh, you can watch Rachel Maddow live through the Internet? How?! Inquiring minds want to know!)
Seriously, dude: finish your book.
And thank you for the wristbands. I can't wait to give some of them to my friends.
Congrats! I suggest checking out the entries for those games on Board Game Geek. You should be able to make an informed decision, then.
Holy carp. I NEED to know what that game was. HELP US, INTERNET!
I did lean over and ask them. They said their buddies at a comics store (maybe?) had developed it for themselves. It’s called, “Who’s Fighting Who?” (though I might have remembered that wrong) and it’s in the vein of Apples to Apples.
I really should have written this down, but I was attacked by a Floating Nose.
Wish I could have made it to PaxEast… maybe next year I’ll bring my teenage nephew who I just taught how to play Magic.
That sounds like a great idea, and something I'd like to play. Thanks for the info!
When I was a teenager, and understood what caused it and how planes were designed to handle it, it stopped freaking me out, but I always wanted to know about how long it would last.
Oh, please explain. I am a horrible flyer, and have panic disorder on top of that. (And yet I still braved 7 hours on a plane to fly to ECCC, because you’re THAT AWESOME.) 🙂
I was excited when a friend told me ‘Hey, WilW mentioned Playtest in his post!’ and I rushed over to see. And the best part is that it’s next to a simply awesome story. This is what PAX is all about, and why I’m infinitely glad I attended: Connections. I met more new friends this weekend than I have at the last couple years of cons, and I’m already looking forward to seeing each and every one of them next year. Games are important, games bring people together. I get to make things that bring people together, and I have never been more proud. Thanks, Wil, for helping me realize that.
I really wanted to go to PAXEast. I mean I REALLY wanted to.
When I realized I couldn’t swing it financially, I was miffed. When I found out Wil was going to give the keynote, I was beside myself. I knew nothing that I wound up doing could possibly measure up to a weekend in Boston spent among thousands of my fellow nerds in celebration of gaming and getting the chance to meet Wil Freaking Wheaton, a person I’ve come to look up to quite a bit in recent months.
I was wrong.
This weekend I went and visited my Friend Brian who lives about an hour and a half away. We went and walked around a mall, checked out a comic shop, played video games, talked about how ridiculously good looking Zooey Deschanel is, and generally geeked out.
Brian and I became casual friends during a fiction class we took in college. We both have writing degrees and we share our work with each other when we want honest feedback. I recently sent Brian the opening of what I’m calling my “Crappy Fantasy Novel.” We talked about that a lot this weekend.
Even though I’d known Brian for a while it wasn’t until we started playing D&D together about six months after we met that Brian and I became what I call “Capital F” Friends. Brian is one of those people who makes me feel like my life would be somehow diminished if he were to leave it. We don’t see each other as often as I’d like because we’re both pretty broke and gas is wicked expensive.
The good news is we were hanging out this weekend getting ready for a new D&D campaign that will hopefully start up Saturday after next. The plan is to play twice a month and I really hope it works out. Not just because it means getting to see Brian more often but I also get to see Phil, our DM, who I hadn’t seen in two years until this weekend. And since we need to round out the party, I’ll be meeting a few new people. People who love to play D&D. People with whom I more than likely have a lot in common.
I may not have been able to make the trip to Boston but i spent the weekend reveling in my geekdom with friends who love to game. I was worried the weekend would wind up being a waste. I am glad I was mistaken.
Thanks for that link. I’m watching the keynote even now, because of you.
Suffice to say, Wil: The keynote is getting to me.
http://twitpic.com/1awiuz Dinosaur Attack Fund. Tried tweeting it at you but I know you must be overwhelmed with the number of tweets you get.
Wil, you’re an inspiring guy. I didn’t get to PAX, but met you on Boylston Street and, I know this seems ridiculous, but it was just one of those things. The future’s been up in the air for me; what to do, what to be, but the sheer exuberance you had for everything that was going on and, later, the feeling behind everything you said in your keynote*, it was really just awesome and made me happy knowing that we can all be the people we want to be and the people we know we are. We can be and do what makes us happy. And it’s never too late.
*it’s online in full at Techland, here: http://techland.com/2010/03/27/pax-east-2010-wil-wheaton-keynote-video/
The long and short of it is that you are somebody with legions of fans in the MILLIONS and still you’re able to stop and chat with some random dude who stopped you on the street as if you, at the very least, are friendly acquaintances. Thank you for that, sincerely, it was one of the best moments of 2010 thus far, and not for the “OMG I MET WIL WHEATON”element (although that was awesome) but for just genuinely feeling great about life. So thanks.
Hi Wil, it’s Becky from the Paul and Storm booth. I wanted to thank you again for your tremendous kindness this weekend. I hope you enjoy the Stone canvas bag. I would also like to apologize for interrupting your short break yesterday.
You (as well as Paul and Storm) made my first PAX experience, the best con experience ever! I came to check out the convention and work for a couple of hours, but after your keynote (that I was so thankful I was able to get into) I was full of so much energy, that I was able to work and offer my time as much as I possibly could.
Over a year ago, you inspired me to look harder for a gaming group in the area (which is hard to find in Torrance, CA). And surprisingly my current group landed into my lap in January. I even went to Orccon for my first time ever. I could not have been happier about it, we even have sessions which can last anywhere from 4 hours to 12 hours.
Now I have more inspiration from you, to start writing, just like I wanted to do when I was in elementary school. Being an author/writer was a big dream of mine since I love books and have a never ending imagination. I started hand writing my blog entry of PAX for my gaming weblog. I will send you the link once I have part 1 up there.
Then after yesterday, I was so full of emotion and did not want PAX to end. Thank you for saying goodbye to me before you headed out to the closing ceremonies. I apologize again for stepping on your toes (I hope I didn’t hurt you) and thank you for letting me hug you, it was just something I am accustomed to doing with people that I care about.
Sorry for the large comment. I guess I should have emailed it to you.
That guy, who had the balls to reach out at PAX and find someone to game with?
He’s why those of us who write the games do that — because he’s part of what makes the gaming community AWESOME.
Iron Guard Salute from Austin, sir!
I felt the exact same way. Even though I didn’t really get a chance to socialize the way I would have liked to, I still had the best experience of my life. You have a huge part to play in that, and I can’t thank you enough.
Seriously, I’ve looked up your Keynote on Youtube at least 3 times now, and every time I do, I get this feeling… like something’s missing. I only wish I had the money to go to PAX Prime, because I don’t know how long I can last without being surrounded by so many awesome people at once.
I hope you have a great flight, and I can’t wait to see you again next year!
Hey, I loved your keynote speech and PAX was a blast. My friend Ana still remembers talking to you in the lobby of the convention center and she absolutely melted while talking to you. 🙂
I mentioned you briefly on my blog, since I loved the topic of your keynote address and plan on going into more detail about how gaming has helped my life.
http://writingincarnate.com/?p=36
Glad you had fun in Boston!
Wil, your keynote was funny and truly moving. As a gamer since I was a child playing Monopoly with a friend at 2am while camping out in my backyard (our two little penlights at either corner of the board as “streetlights”), it was all too true. I to this day have a few friends due purely to gaming and my current game group’s core members/friends have met weekly to game for over a decade. The inclusion of gaming and it’s fans, particularly at PAX is something that is truly remarkable and wonderful.
I saw you once or twice chatting with people (and might’ve seen you dashing through the Expo hall when I nearly plowed someone in the wheelchair I was in while they were dashing through to the back of the hall. Looked vaguely like you and, if it was, so sorry!), but felt bad going and interrupting your conversation just to say high and flash a cross. As much as I would’ve liked to, I feel like you and Mike and Jerry and Khoo and others were getting stopped so often that I honestly felt like I would rather not stop you, since you guys should get to enjoy the con too without being stopped every two minutes. Perhaps at PAX2011 I’ll stop by and say hi and tell you just how much I laughed and was moved by your keynote (and how much I laughed my ass off at you, Paul and Storm’s intro).
Wil~
What an awesome story and thanks for sharing..I’ve never been to any Gaming Cons or any Cons now that I think about it and I would love to someday and find a group to play with here in Alberta. Sometimes I feel like I’m the only 40+ gamer Girl Greek around here:)
I really want to find someone people to play Settlers with especially
Fiona
Edmonton, Alberta
Almost reminds me of “Who Would Win?” by Gorilla Board Games: http://www.gorillaboardgames.com/index.php/category/who/
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/44614/who-would-win
Wil, this post (and your others about why gaming is important) are such an inspiration. I was crying over it, much like we had half the room crying at your session at #PAX Prime last year. Heck, I think I’m /still/ misty-eyed.
At any rate, I am glad you are able to share with us all, why #PAX is such an amazing event. I run into people who say, “I don’t like that Penny Arcade comic. Why would I want to go to their stupid convention?”.
I will use my mighty powers of +65wpm to throw this link right at them and say “THIS IS WHY YOU SHOULD GO. NOW SHUT UP AND BUY A PASS.”.
Finally, thank you for making the Iron Guard salute even more popular. I’m hoping I won’t have to stand in line at the doctors office like last year. 🙂
/salutesandstopsrambling
Wil,
You are our geek mouthpiece 🙂
You walk the path while you waive your geek flag high and proud. We are envious of some of your experiences, proud of your accomplishments (married geeks with kids ftw!) and overjoyed that that you share these experiences with everyone. We proudly stand up and say we are geek, along with our friend Wil Wheaton.
Keep up the great work bro,
jason
It’s not until mid-October, but the Pure Speculation Festival will be in YOUR HOME TOWN, and I know for a fact that they’ll have gaming there, because they’re flying me up as a guest and they wouldn’t do that just for my charming personality.
I hope to meet you there, Fiona!
Andrew Hackard
Munchkin Czar, SJ Games
Damn it Wil. This is the second PAX-related post that manage to get something in my eye.
I was so involved in Wil’s keynote address via youtube, I completely ignored the fresh box of donut holes that was delivered to my desk! Ha ha! Awesome Wil!
I really freaking appreciate your ability to be so present. You’re keenly aware of your world, which is so cool it makes me do a happy dance. I hope to see you at E3 so I can tell you in person that you rock.
Speaking of impacting people’s lives for the positive, if someone was inspired by your ‘Make Things’ post a while back and finally got it done, is there a P.O. Box where he could send you some totally non-creepy free swag?
Also, what size t-shirt do you wear? 🙂
Wil, I wasn’t at PAX (mainly for it being on the other side of the planet, please use your influence to make a Europax happen). But you did have the same effect on me as you did on the gentleman you described in your post.
So, after 15 years of hoping that somehow I could get enough friends together to play games, I found a group of people who were just like me just waiting for the right people to come along. And now I’m reading my D&D Players handbook in preparation of my first character and our first game next month.
Thanks man.
“You see, I remember a time when our headsets were nothing more than plastic tubes with uncomfortable foam cylinders on the ends. We paid up to $4 to use them, and we watched the most banal and idiotic programming ever, because it was all we had. I remember airlines switching to headsets that were deliberately incompatible with our Walkman (remember those?) headsets, so they could continue to charge us outrageous fees to be “entertained” in-flight.”
Please tell me that I wasn’t the only one hearing this in Dana Carvey’s “Grumpy Old Man” voice.
I’m currently researching which college to attend. After watching your PAX keynote, a game design major just got more interesting. Thanks for all the work you put into it.
Unfortunately there’s still no Internet in economy class of some long trans-atlantic flights. What I usually do is bring an image of Wikipedia with me, or use an ebook reader on my phone. I have a noise-canceling ear-phones that cancel most of the noise, but not all. What brand are you using?
Hey Wil,
Thanks for signing my Penny Arcade pirate ship at PAX, I wanted to talk to you when you came over to sign in but I got a little tongue tied. Fortunately my friend was there to pick up the slack 🙂 That was my first PAX and it was a great time and I’m so psyched that I got all of the members (/former members… sorry for acid) of Acquisitions Incorporated to sign my ship (my main goal of PAX besides to have fun). What I had wanted to say to you was that I had never played D&D before listening to the D&D podcast and that the pirate ship was a direct result.
Here’s some pics of the actual ship that you and the guys at penny arcade inspired me to build (that’s right, it’s all your fault 🙂 ):
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/25688/Pirate%20Ship%20Mod/Pics%20of%20penny%20arcade%20ship/Full%20ship%20pic%203.jpg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/25688/Pirate%20Ship%20Mod/Pics%20of%20penny%20arcade%20ship/Back%20sails.jpg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/25688/Pirate%20Ship%20Mod/Pics%20of%20penny%20arcade%20ship/Decking%20pic%202.jpg
The Deep Crow mast got lost in transit so can’t be seen in pics, consider it a PAX exclusive 😛
On a related note: I wanted to make an Aeofel sail as well, if you have an PSD or JPG that I don’t have to rip the text out of (like this one: http://www.wizards.com/global/images/dnd_4pod_20090925_picMain_en.jpg ) I’d love to make the sail (maybe for the next PAX?).
What I really wanted to say to you that I didn’t get a chance to though was this: Thanks for making me feel more comfortable with the fact that I am a geek. It’s been something I’ve struggled with my entire life and people like you have really helped me feel comfortable in my own skin.
My own Wil Wheaton story from PAX:
I brought my 4ed Player’s Handbook to sign because I didn’t have anything physical from Wil, although I’ve bought three of his books. He wrote “Roll 20’s!” when he signed.
I also told Wil that I wrote a lot when I was in high school and college and that his writing made me want to start again. Rather than just blow it off, he said enthusiastically “You should!”
I think that’s one of the things that makes Wil great – he is quickly becoming the king of all things geeky but he never takes it for granted and is extremely respectful and caring towards his fans.
You really are an inspiration, that’s for sure. And you’re nice….not something many well known people can claim. Oh, and yes, I remember the walkman….still have mine somewhere. Now look at what we have. It’s amazing.
Damn, Wil, that story brought tears to *my* eyes. Having been in that guy’s situation, going to events alone feeling like a total loser but then finding other people to hang out with and even making friends with is a pretty damn cool feeling. I bet that guy is over the moon about meeting you and getting to have an actual conversation with you about gaming.
The fact that you have so many fans, yet take the time to stop and chat with us regular people is one of the reasons why you’ve endeared yourself to so many of us. You’re a down-to-earth guy, and that’s just awesome, man. It’s one of the reasons we all come here, to hear your awesome stories about every day life events that you’re gracious enough to share with us. Thanks for that, Wil. When people that *don’t* get it ask me why you’re such a big deal to so many people, I tell them to come here and find out for themselves. So far, not one person has asked me twice.
Thank you for being a part of what was a fantastic weekend. Your keynote was one of the best descriptions of how gamers can become incredibly attached to the story and characters of games and how that affects our decisions within them. Also getting my stuff signed by you made the trip out from Glasgow even more worth it.
Again THANK YOU.