Anyone remember Wil Wheaton? He is mostly known for being Wesley Crusher on Star Trek: TNG. What most people don't know is that he has a HUGE presence on the internet, achieving a near God-like status in the world of geekdom with the help of his active blog, geek-related books, voiceovers in numerous video games, cameos in geek TV shows, podcasts and being a speaker at geek conventions. I recently went to one of these conventions (not one with Wil Wheaton), the Dragon Comic-Con in Philly with my family. It was fun, although comics are not my forte, it was still a geek-fest. Anyways, you get the point, he is heavily involved in the shadowy geek world. As proof of his epic nerdiness, at the recent Penny Arcade Expo, a huge gaming convention started by the writers of the famous webcomic of the same name, Wil Wheaton was serenaded by Jonathan Coultan with a song written just for Wil Wheaton all about Wil Wheaton. Jonathan Coultan himself is a bit of a star in the gaming world for having written a quirky and catchy song called "Still Alive" which played at the end of a popular video game called Portal.
So then, it might not surprise you to know that Mr. Wheaton has an account on Reddit, with the username "wil". It is one of the few accounts where the user's real identity is known. How do I know this you ask? For one thing, "wil" posts Wil Wheaton related items often, behind the scene pictures from his days on Star Trek, geek-related tidbits of information, and stories from his movie roles. The depth and quality of his postings correlate nicely with the person known in real life as Wil Wheaton. Second, I have bore witness to the wrath of the denizens of the internet. God help you if you have wronged a person who is knowledgeable in making websites and using software which can track IP addresses or iPhones. Its not pretty. If the user "wil" was not Wil Wheaton, someone somewhere would figure it out and the fake would be ostracized instantly for having usurped the persona of a powerful cyberspace entity.
How did this short exchange happen? Some backstory first. I am a regular viewer of "The Guild", a web-based show about a misfit group of people who play a World of Warcraft like game, when new seasons are released. Wil Wheaton headlined in the recent third season as the main antagonist, the leader of an evil guild. The main star is a female actress named Felicia Day, who by the way is slowly building her own Wil Wheaton-like internet fan base. She was recently informally interviewed by reddit users and the first question regarded her secret indulgencies, to which she answered trashy romance novels. All of this sub-pop trivia was safely locked away in my brain when I saw Wil Wheaton's reddit post of this picture someone had drawn for promoting the somewhat highly anticipated Season 4 of The Guild. I made a comment enlightening other users of Felica Day's secret need for cheap literary love which led to this brief exchange with Wil:
So there it is, my brief conversation with Wil Wheaton. I know, totally lame. But seeing as how I was a HUGE Star Trek:TNG fan back in the day, I couldn't help but giggle like a little school girl when he bantered with me. The entire incident is belittled even further when one considers that Wil Wheaton is essentially an internet slut and just about everyone with an IQ over 120 and a wireless laptop have had their typing fingers in his serial ports.
Bah I never heard of the guy >.< Gotta look up some of his god-like internet presence! Be good Shrubby ^^
Posted by: Dae | September 22, 2010 at 04:20 PM