By Stone Martindale Aug 26, 2007, 4:01 GMT
Wil Wheaton was a guest panelist at the Seattle Penny Arcade Expo, where he addressed a rollicking crowd Friday afternoon at game conference in downtown Seattle at Washington State Convention and Trade Center.
Chinese gamers EPA/ADRIAN BRADSHAW
Wheaton was a "Star Trek: Next Generation" alum, and also had his break out role as Gordie LaChance in Rob Reiner's "Stand by Me."
A regular blogger, his writing is also hosted on the Suicide Girls website, where he has entertained fans with unfortunate career encounters with William "F***ing" Shatner.
Seattlepi.com blogger Todd Bishop reports that Wheaton referred to his acting career only briefly during the panel.
According to Bishop, Wheaton shared memories of his growing up in Southern California in the 1980s. He discussed the parallels of arcades versus online games.
"Arcades were to my generation what Xbox Live and World of Warcraft are to this generation. They were social gathering places as much as anything else, and I really miss them. I miss the flickering neon on the walls, the weird-smelling smoke, the stained casino carpet, the Van Halen and Joan Jett on the jukebox," quipped Wheaton.
Bishop notes that Wheaton reminisced about the advantages that arcades provided in lieu of solitary game play.
"They were a vital part of my generation's social development. If I beat another kid in a two-player game and taunted him mercilessly with explicit references to his mother's sex life and my role in it, the way some online gamers do, he would have justifiably kicked the ever-living s*** out of me."
Wheaton cited his lessons learned of "good sportsmanship," noting the arcades had staff that monitored all behavior.
"We had to worry about a lot more than getting kicked off a server if we were complete idiots in a game. And I feel like a cranky old man by bringing this up at all, but there's a lot of you here, so would you do me a favor? When you're playing online, have fun, but don't be a d***, OK?"
To read the full Todd Bishop piece, click: FULL-WHEATON-TRANSCRIPT
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you're not kiddingAug 27th, 2007 - 20:54:37
How's this for truth in advertising?
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