PAX 2008: Ken Levine Keynote Address
Kicking off this year's PAX, Bioshock creator Ken Levine barely mentioned any of the games that made him an industry superstar, nor did he spill any details about top secret future projects. Instead, he got a little more personal, and delivered a story about the events in his life that led him to that stage, a tale less "coming-of-age" than "coming-of-nerd."
From a middle school outcast pining for Wanda Maximoff to a late bloomer in high school finding his "tribe" among other role players, the first two acts of his life saw him move from terrified closet geek to a relatively out and proud nerd, before his compatriots discovered girls and he started over in the drama club, with its "Greased Lightning, bad Shakespeare, and jazz hands." He described living in Hollywood, where he repressed his geeky ways in an attempt to gain credibility as a screenwriter. After a miserable pass at a romantic comedy, he found himself out of a job, taking dull office work and hiding his growing videogame habit from the outside world. Finally, after applying for a job at Looking Glass Studios, he regained that sense of "tribe" he had lost along the way, and explained how that has ultimately given him more than he could have imagined.
The address was hilarious, familiar, and a little bit dirty (especially knowing his mom was sitting right in front). It's likely his story echoed the experience of many watching, minus the massive success and near universal acclaim. Just before finishing, he thanked Jerry and Mike (Gabe and Tycho) from Penny Arcade for creating PAX, and shared a note of inclusivity:
We are united by a common element, but it is not the color of our skin that brings us together. It is not the shared political ideology or the country of our birth. No what brings us all together at PAX is we're a giant bunch of fucking nerds.
Dawdle
Posted to Hot Stuff, Video Games on 30 August 2008
· Comments (2)
Other stuff like this: bioshock, ken levine, keynote speaker, nerds, pax 2008
after a week of big, emotional speeches at the DNC, it was nice to hear Ken bring a meaningful and enjoyable keynote with some lev-ity. ;-)
So, I'm not the only one that thinks Ken Levine is a total babe, right?