Back in 2010, I attended PAX East for funsies and got to listen to Wil Wheaton’s inaugural key note for the event. As I shuffled to my seat, I was excited. This would be cool. I watched Wheaton on Star Trek: The Next Generation. This is like reliving a piece of my childhood*!
Then he started talking about video games and gamer identity and my skin started crawling.
I used to game a lot, too, and I gamed at the time of PAX. At the same time I never thought of myself as a “gamer,” because “gamer” isn’t a personality. Games are something you play. They aren’t you. So when he wrapped things up by saying that we are “mothers, we are fathers,” but most importantly, we are gamers, I wanted to get the fuck out of there.
Anyways, all of that uncomfortable energy he had at PAX 10 years ago is right here in Rent-A-Pal, which is a very good movie. You can read my full review over at Paste Magazine.
*I was in my mid-20s at the time, which as a 36 year old feels like childhood, too.
