Wil Wheaton will be delivering the keynote address at PAXEast in Boston this March. Here’s hoping he appears as Ensign Wesley Crusher.
At PAX Prime 2007, Wil Wheaton took the stage in Seattle and entertained the crowd with his references to games of bygone days and allowed gamers to take pride in their hobby with the rallying cry, “Don’t be a dick!” It was announced today that he is returning to PAX, this time the Eastern edition in Boston, Massachusetts on March 26th-28th. Wheaton will be delivering the keynote address, and will undoubtedly expand upon his gamer cred with another stellar speech.
A child actor in the 80’s, Wheaton first drew national attention when he starred in the film Stand By Me, but he skyrocketed to geek stardom when he played the young Ensign Westley Crusher in the first three seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation. His career was relatively quiet throughout the 90’s until he began blogging regularly about technology, his career and geek culture in 2001. Since then, his writing has spawned books, reignited his acting career (with roles on The Guild and Big Bang Theory), and appearances at, well, gaming conventions.
“We’ve always considered Wil as the keynote speaker for PAX, so it’s only appropriate he kick off the first PAX East,” said Robert Khoo of Penny Arcade. “Wil is one of us. We accept him. Wil speaks to all gamers, from the console jock to the keyboard fanatic to the pen-and-paper devotees.”
Several Escapist staff members are psyched to go to PAX East, and we will be providing a plethora of coverage of all that goes down at the event, including Wheaton’s speech. Our esteemed E.I.C., Russ Pitts, will even be moderating a panel at PAX East called “The Death of Print” covering the rise and fall and rise of print media/game journalism with Jon Davison (GamePro), Chris Dahlen (Kill Screen), Jeff Green (EA.com) and Julian Murdoch (freelance).
See you there!
