It has been suggested that American board games, 1843–1935 be merged into this article or section. (Discuss) Proposed since March 2012.

French earthenware tray and board game, 1720–50

A board game is a game that involves counters or pieces moved or placed on a pre-marked surface or "board", according to a set of rules. Games can be based on pure strategy, chance (e.g. rolling dice) or a mixture of the two, and usually have a goal which a player aims to achieve. Early board games represented a battle between two armies, and most current board games are still based on defeating opposing players in terms of counters, winning position or accrual of points (often expressed as in-game currency).

There are many different types and styles of board games. Their representation of real-life situations can range from having no inherent theme, as with checkers, to having a specific theme and narrative, as with Cluedo. Rules can range from the very simple, as in tic-tac-toe, to those describing a game universe in great detail, as in Dungeons & Dragons (although most of the latter are role-playing games where the board is secondary to the game, helping to visualize the game scenario).

The amount of time required to learn to play or master a game varies greatly from game to game. Learning time does not necessarily correlate with the number or complexity of rules; some games, such as chess or Go, have simple rulesets while possessing profound strategies.

History[link]

Men Playing Board Games – from The Sougandhika Parinaya Manuscript (1821 CE)

Senet is among the oldest known board games.

Board game with inlays of ivory, rock crystal and glass paste, covered with gold and silver leaf, on a wooden base (Knossos, New Palace period 1600–1500 B.C., Heraklion Archaeological Museum, Crete)

Ancient Greek hoplites playing a board game, ca. 520 BC, Olympia, Greece

Another gameboard found in the Jiroft civilization

Board games have been played in most cultures and societies throughout history; some even pre-date literacy skill development in the earliest civilizations.^{[citation needed]} A number of important historical sites, artifacts and documents exist which shed light on early board games. Some of these include:

• Jiroft civilization gameboards
• Senet has been found in Predynastic and First Dynasty burials of Egypt, c. 3500 BC and 3100 BC respectively.^[1] Senet is the oldest board game known to have existed, and was pictured in a fresco found in Merknera's tomb (3300–2700 BC).^[2]
• Mehen, another ancient board game from Predynastic Egypt
• Go, an ancient strategic board game originating in China
• Patolli, a board game originating in Mesoamerica played by the ancient Aztec
• Royal Game of Ur, the Royal Tombs of Ur contain this game, among others
• Buddha games list, the earliest known list of games
• Pachisi and Chaupar, ancient board games of India

Timeline[link]

• c.3500 BC: Senet is played in Predynastic Egypt as evidenced by its inclusion in burial sites;^[1] also depicted in the tomb of Merknera.
• c.3000 BC: The Mehen board game from Predynastic Egypt, was played with lion-shaped game pieces and marbles.
• c.3000 BC: Ancient backgammon set, found in the Burnt City in Iran.^[3][4]
• c.2560 BC: Board of the Royal Game of Ur (found at Ur Tombs)
• c.2500 BC: Paintings of Senet and Han being played depicted in the tomb of Rashepes^{[citation needed]}
• c.1500 BC: Painting of board game at Knossos.^[5]
• c.500 BC: The Buddha games list mentions board games played on 8 or 10 rows.

	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h
8									8
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3									3
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	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h

Chaturaji: played in India, starting position. Pieces with different colors (some shown as inverted) were used for each of four sides.

• c.500 BC: The earliest reference to Pachisi in the Mahabharata, the Indian epic.
• c.400 BC: Two ornately decorated liubo gameboards from a royal tomb of the State of Zhongshan in China.^[6]
• c.400 BC: The earliest written reference to go (weiqi) in the historical annal Zuo Zhuan. Go is also mentioned in the Analects of Confucius (c. 5th century BC).^[7]
• 116–27 BC: Marcus Terentius Varro's Lingua Latina X (II, par. 20) contains earliest known reference to Latrunculi^[8] (often confused with Ludus Duodecim Scriptorum, Ovid's game mentioned below).
• 1 BC–8 AD: Ovid's Ars Amatoria contains earliest known reference to Ludus Duodecim Scriptorum.
• 1 BC–8 AD: The Roman Game of kings is a game of which little is known, and which is more or less contemporary with the Latrunculi.
• c.43 AD: The Stanway Game is buried with the Druid of Colchester.^[9]
• c.200 AD: A stone go board with a 17×17 grid from a tomb at Wangdu County in Hebei, China.^[10]
• 220–265: Backgammon enters China under the name t'shu-p'u (Source: Hun Tsun Sii)^{[citation needed]}
• c.400 onwards: Tafl games played in Northern Europe.^[11]

	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h
8									8
7									7
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2									2
1									1
	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h

Chaturanga: played in India, starting position.^[12] Note that the Ràjas do not face each other; the white Ràja starts on e1 and the black Ràja on d8.

	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h
8									8
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1									1
	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h

Ashtāpada, the uncheckered 8×8 board, sometimes with special markers, on which chaturanga was played

• c.600 The earliest references to chaturanga written in Subandhu's Vasavadatta and Banabhatta's Harsha Charitha early Indian books.^{[citation needed]}
• c.600: The earliest reference to shatranj written in Karnamak-i-Artakhshatr-i-Papakan.^{[citation needed]}
• c.1283:
  

  

  The game of astronomical tables, from Libro de los juegos
  Alfonso X of Castile in Spain commissioned Libro de ajedrez, dados, y tablas (Libro de los Juegos (The Book of Games)) translated into Castilian from Arabic and added illustrations with the goal of perfecting the work.^[13][14]
• c.1930: Monopoly stabilises into the version that is currently popular.
• 1957: Risk is released.
• c.1980: German-style board games begin to develop as a genre.

Many board games are now available as video games, which can include the computer itself as one of several players, or as sole opponent. The rise of computer use is one of the reasons said to have led to a relative decline in board games.^{[citation needed]} Many board games can now be played online against a computer and/or other players. Some websites allow play in real time and immediately show the opponents' moves, while others use email to notify the players after each move (see the links at the end of this article).^{[citation needed]} Modern technology (the internet and cheaper home printing) has also influenced board games via the phenomenon of print-and-play board games that you buy and print yourself.

Some board games make use of components in addition to—or instead of—a board and playing pieces. Some games use CDs, video cassettes, and, more recently, DVDs in accompaniment to the game.^{[citation needed]}

Psychology[link]

While there has been a fair amount of scientific research on the psychology of older board games (e.g., chess, go, mancala), less has been done on contemporary board games such as Monopoly, Scrabble, and Risk.^[15] Much research has been carried out on chess, in part because many tournament players are publicly ranked in national and international lists, which makes it possible to compare their levels of expertise. The works of Adriaan de Groot, William Chase, Herbert A. Simon, and Fernand Gobet have established that knowledge, more than the ability to anticipate moves, plays an essential role in chess-playing. This seems to be the case in other traditional games such as Go and Oware (a type of mancala game), but data is lacking in regard to contemporary board games.^{[citation needed]}

Additionally, board games can be therapeutic. Bruce Halpenny, a games inventor said when interviewed about his game, “With crime you deal with every basic human emotion and also have enough elements to combine action with melodrama. The player’s imagination is fired as they plan to rob the train. Because of the gamble they take in the early stage of the game there is a build up of tension, which is immediately released once the train is robbed. Release of tension is therapeutic and useful in our society, because most jobs are boring and repetitive.”^[16]

Linearly arranged board games have been shown to improve children's spatial numerical understanding. This is because the game is similar to a number line in that they promote a linear understanding of numbers rather than the innate logarithmic one.^[17]

Luck, strategy and diplomacy[link]

Most board games involve both luck and strategy. But an important feature of them is the amount of randomness/luck involved, as opposed to skill. Some games, such as chess, depend almost entirely on player skill. But many children's games are mainly decided by luck: e.g. Candy Land and Chutes and Ladders require no decisions by the players. A player may be hampered by a few poor rolls of the dice in Risk or Monopoly, but over many games a good player will win more often. While some purists consider luck not to be a desirable component of a game, others counter that elements of luck can make for far more diverse and multi-faceted strategies, as concepts such as expected value and risk management must be considered.

A second feature is the game information available to players. Some games (chess being the classic example) are perfect information games: every player has complete information on the state of the game. In other games, such as Tigris and Euphrates, some information is hidden from players. This makes finding the best move more difficult, but also requires the players to estimate probabilities by the players. Tigris and Euphrates also has completely deterministic action resolution.^{[clarification needed]}

Another important feature of a game is the importance of diplomacy, i.e. players making deals with each other. A game of solitaire, for obvious reasons, has no player interaction. Two player games usually do not involve diplomacy (cooperative games being the exception). Thus, negotiation generally features only in games for three or more people. An important facet of The Settlers of Catan, for example, is convincing people to trade with you rather than with other players. In Risk, two or more players may team up against others. Easy diplomacy involves convincing other players that someone else is winning and should therefore be teamed up against. Advanced diplomacy (e.g. in the aptly named game Diplomacy) consists of making elaborate plans together, with the possibility of betrayal.

Luck may be introduced into a game by a number of methods. The most common method is the use of dice, generally six-sided. These can decide everything from how many steps a player moves their token, as in Monopoly, to how their forces fare in battle, such as in Risk, or which resources a player gains, such as in The Settlers of Catan. Other games such as Sorry! use a deck of special cards that, when shuffled, create randomness. Scrabble does something similar with randomly picked letters. Other games use spinners, timers of random length, or other sources of randomness. Trivia games have a great deal of randomness based on the questions a player has to answer. German-style board games are notable for often having rather less of a luck factor than many North American board games.

Common terms[link]

Simple wooden "pawn-style" playing pieces

Wooden tokens from the Carcassonne board game

Although many board games have a jargon all their own, there is a generalized terminology to describe concepts applicable to basic game mechanics and attributes common to nearly all board games.

• Gameboard (or simply board)—the (usually quadrilateral) surface on which one plays a board game. The namesake of the board game, gameboards would seem to be a necessary and sufficient condition of the genre, though card games that do not use a standard deck of cards (as well as games which use neither cards nor a gameboard) are often colloquially included. Most games use a standardized and unchanging board (chess, Go, and backgammon each have such a board), but many games use a modular board whose component tiles or cards can assume varying layouts from one session to another, or even while the game is played.
• Game piece (gamepiece, counter, token, bit, meeple, mover, pawn, man, playing piece, player piece)—a player's representative on the gameboard made of a piece of material made to look like a known object (such as a scale model of a person, animal, or inanimate object) or otherwise general symbol. Each player may control one or more game pieces. Some games involve commanding multiple game pieces (or units), such as chess pieces or Monopoly houses and hotels, that have unique designations and capabilities within the parameters of the game; in other games, such as Go, all pieces controlled by a player have the same capabilities. In some modern board games, such as Clue, there are other pieces that are not a player's representative (i.e. weapons). In some games, pieces may not represent or belong to any particular player.
  See also: Counter (board wargames)
• Jump (or leap)—to bypass one or more game pieces or spaces. Depending on the context, jumping may also involve capturing or conquering an opponent's game piece. (See also: Game mechanic: capture)
• Space (or square)—a physical unit of progress on a gameboard delimited by a distinct border. Alternatively, a unique position on the board on which a game piece may be located while in play. (In Go, for example, the pieces are placed on intersections of lines on the grid, not in the areas bounded by borders, as in chess.) (See also: Game mechanic: Movement)
• Hex (or cell)—in hexagon-based board games, this is the common term for a standard space on the board. This is most often used in wargaming, though many abstract strategy games such as Abalone, hexagonal chess, and connection games use hexagonal layouts.
• Card—a piece of cardboard on which instructions are given.
• Deck—a stack of cards.
• Capture—a method that removes another player's game piece(s) from the board. For example: in checkers, if a player jumps the opponent's piece, that piece is captured.

Categories[link]

There are a number of different categories that board games can be broken up into, although considerable overlap exists, and a game may belong in several categories. The following is a list of some of the most common:

• Abstract strategy games like chess, checkers, go, Reversi, or modern games such as Abalone or Stratego
• Dexterity games like Tumblin' Dice and Pitch Car
• German-style board games, or Eurogames, like The Settlers of Catan, Carson City or Puerto Rico
• Educational games like Arthur Saves the Planet, Cleopatra and the Society of Architects, and Shakespeare: The Bard Game
• Family games like Roll Through the Ages, Birds on a Wire, or For Sale
• Historical simulation games like Through the Ages and Railways of the World
• Large multiplayer games like Take It Easy and Swat (2010)
• Musical games like Spontuneous
• Race games like parchisi, backgammon or Worm Up
• Roll-and-move games, like Monopoly or Life
• Share-buying games (in which players buy stakes in each others' positions; these are typically longer economic-management games)
• Spiritual development games that have no winners or losers, like Transformation Game or Psyche's Key
• Two-player only games like En Garde and Dos de Mayo
• Trivia games, like Trivial Pursuit
• Train games
• Wargames, ranging from Risk and Diplomacy to Attack or Conquest of the Empire
• Word games, like Scrabble, Boggle, or What's My Word? (2010)

See also[link]

	Strategy games portal
	Sports and games portal
	Chess portal
	Role-playing games portal
	Dungeons & Dragons portal

• Going Cardboard (Documentary, including interviews with game designers and game publishers)
• Card game
• DVD games
• History of games
• List of board games
• List of game manufacturers
• Mind sport
• Tabletop game

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Austin, Roland G. "Greek Board Games." Antiquity 14. September 1940: 257–271
• Bell, Robert Charles. The Boardgame Book. London: Bookthrift Company, 1979.
• Bell, Robert Charles. Board and Table Games from Many Civilizations. Mineola, New York: Dover Publications, 1980. ISBN 0-486-23855-5
  • Reprint: New York: Exeter Books, 1983.
• Falkener, Edward. Games Ancient and Oriental, and How To Play Them. Longmans, Green and Co., 1892.
• Fiske, Willard. Chess in Iceland and in Icelandic Literature—with historical notes on other table-games. Florentine Typographical Society, 1905.
• Gobet, Fernand; de Voogt, Alex, & Retschitzki, Jean (2004). Moves in mind: The psychology of board games. Psychology Press. ISBN 1-84169-336-7. 
• Golladay, Sonja Musser, "Los Libros de Acedrex Dados E Tablas: Historical, Artistic and Metaphysical Dimensions of Alfonso X’s Book of Games" (PhD diss., University of Arizona, 2007)
• Gordon, Stewart (July/August 2009). "The Game of Kings". Saudi Aramco World (Houston: Aramco Services Company) 60 (4): 18–23. http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/200904/the.game.of.kings.htm.  (PDF version)
• Murray, Harold James Ruthven. A History of Chess. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press, 1913.
• Murray, Harold James Ruthven. A History of Board-Games Other Than Chess. Gardners Books, 1969.
• Parlett, David. Oxford History of Board Games. Oxford University Press, 1999. ISBN 0-19-212998-8
• Rollefson, Gary O., "A Neolithic Game Board from Ain Ghazal, Jordan," Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, No. 286. (May, 1992), pp. 1–5.
• Sackson, Sid. A Gamut of Games. Arrow Books, 1983. ISBN 0-09-153340-6
  • Reprint: Dover Publications, 1992. ISBN 0-486-27347-4
• Schmittberger, R. Wayne. New Rules for Classic Games. John Wiley & Sons, 1992. ISBN 0-471-53621-0
  • Reprint: Random House Value Publishing, 1994. ISBN 0-517-12955-8

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Board games

• Board Games at the Open Directory Project
• International Society for Board Game Studies

Wil Wheaton
Wheaton in May 2011.
Born	Richard William Wheaton III (1972-07-29) July 29, 1972 (age 39) Burbank, California, United States
Occupation	Actor, writer
Years active	1982–present
Spouse	Anne Prince (m. 1999)
Children	Two stepsons, one adopted[1]
Website
wilwheaton.typepad.com

Richard William "Wil" Wheaton III (born July 29, 1972) is an American actor and writer. As an actor, he is best known for his portrayals of Wesley Crusher on the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation, Gordie Lachance in the film Stand by Me and Joey Trotta in Toy Soldiers. As a writer, he is best known for his blogs Wil Wheaton Dot Net and WWdN: In Exile.

Early life[link]

Wheaton was born in Burbank, California, to Debbie (née O’Connor), an actress, and Richard William Wheaton, Jr., a medical specialist.^[2][3] He has a brother, Jeremy, and a sister, Amy. Both appeared uncredited in the episode "When the Bough Breaks" of Star Trek: The Next Generation.^[4]

Career[link]

[edit] Star Trek and early career

Wheaton made his acting debut in the 1981 TV film A Long Way Home, and his first cinema role was as Martin Brisby in the 1982 animated film The Secret of NIMH, the movie adaptation of Robert C. O'Brien's Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. He had a minor role in the 1984 movie The Last Starfighter. He first gained widespread attention in 1986 as Gordie Lachance in Stand by Me, the film adaptation of Stephen King's The Body. In 1991, he played Joey Trotta in the film Toy Soldiers.

From 1987 to 1990, he appeared in the role of Wesley Crusher on Star Trek: The Next Generation throughout its first four seasons.

Although his Star Trek character, and by extension Wheaton himself, was disliked by a vocal group of Trekkies during TNG's first run, he commented about his critics in an interview for WebTalk Radio:

Later, I determined that the people who were really, really cruel – like the Usenet weenies – really are a statistically insignificant number of people. And I know, just over the years from people who've e-mailed me at my web site and people who I've talked to since I started going to Star Trek conventions again in the last five years, that there are so many more people who really enjoyed everything about the show, including my performance, including the character.^[5]

After leaving Star Trek, Wheaton moved to Topeka, Kansas, to work for NewTek, where he helped to develop the Video Toaster 4000, doing product testing and quality control.^[6][7] He later used his public profile to serve as a technology evangelist for the product.^[8] Wheaton said this was a period of growth in his life, and living out of Los Angeles helped him deal with anger issues. He came back to Los Angeles, attended acting school for five years, then re-entered the acting world.^[9][10]

Wheaton's popularity among Star Trek fandom is covered in a number of web comics. ArcaneTimes of March 25, 2005 offers a sympathetic position.^[11] Something Positive presents a range of opinions as part of the storyline Mike's Kid.^[12] Abstruse Goose tries to distinguish between the character and the actor.^[13]

He was a contestant on a 2001 episode of The Weakest Link featuring Star Trek actors as contestants to win money for a charity each had chosen.

[edit] Post-Star Trek

In the late 1990s, Wheaton appeared in several independent films, including the award-winning The Good Things, in which he portrays a frustrated Kansas tollbooth worker;^[14] it was selected Best Short Film at the 2002 Deauville Film Festival. He received the Best Actor award at the 2002 Melbourne Underground Film Festival for his performance in Jane White Is Sick & Twisted.

He has worked as a voice actor in many original series, video games and anime, which started as young Martin Brisby in The Secret of NIMH when he was 10 years old. His most noteworthy credits include the roles of Aqualad in the cartoon Teen Titans, the voice of radio journalist Richard Burns in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas,^[15] Kyle in the Nickelodeon cartoon, Kyle + Rosemary, Himself and various other characters on both Family Guy and Seth MacFarlane's Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy, the second Blue Beetle, Ted Kord, on Batman: The Brave and the Bold in the episode "Fall of the Blue Beetle!", Yakumo in Kurokami: The Animation, Menma in Naruto, Hans in Slayers Evolution-R and Aaron Terzieff in Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn.

Wheaton has performed improvisational and sketch comedy at the ACME Comedy Theater in Hollywood. He has a traveling sketch comedy/improv troupe called "EarnestBorg9" that performs science fiction-related comedy at conventions.

Wheaton at San Diego Comic Con 2010

He appeared as himself in a skit on nerdcore rapper MC Frontalot's album Final Boss attempting to be a rapper, whose rhymes only involved shellfish. He later collaborated with Frontalot on "Your Friend Wil", a track from the album Zero Day on the subject of Wheaton's Law. Wheaton and Frontalot have both appeared at the Penny Arcade Expo (PAX).

From September 2006 to September 2007, he hosted a Revision3 syndicated video podcast called InDigital along with Jessica Corbin and veteran host Hahn Choi.

Wheaton's more recent acting work includes guest appearances on the November 23, 2007 episode of the TV series Numb3rs, and the October 22, 2008 episode of the series Criminal Minds. He has also appeared in Internet presentations, including a cameo in a comedy sketch ("Lock Out") for LoadingReadyRun ^[16] (and a reprise of the same the following year in CommodoreHustle 4), and the May 30, 2008 episode of the Internet series Gorgeous Tiny Chicken Machine Show.

Wheaton appears in seasons three, four and five of the web series "The Guild" as Fawkes, the leader for a rival guild known as Axis of Anarchy.^[17] He also appears in seasons two, three and four of the TV series Leverage, as rival computer hacker Colin "Chaos" Mason, antagonist to Leverage team hacker Alec Hardison.

He appeared in "The Creepy Candy Coating Corollary" (2009), the fifth episode of the third season of the situation comedy The Big Bang Theory, playing a fictionally antagonistic version of himself, as the focus of Sheldon Cooper's ire for not having attended a Star Trek convention at which his appearance was scheduled.^[18] He later appeared on the show in episodes "The Wheaton Recurrence", which involves a bout at a bowling alley,^[19] and "The 21-Second Excitation" at a screening of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Wheaton returned in Season Five of The Big Bang Theory in the episode "The Russian Rocket Reaction".^[20] In it Leonard gets invited to Wheaton's house-party and Sheldon is angry because of this. However, his conflict with Wheaton is brought to an end when Sheldon turns up to the party and Wil gives him a signed Wesley Crusher action figure which Brent Spiner opens, causing Sheldon to put Spiner on his list of "Mortal Enemies". He also makes an appearance in the episode "The Stag Convergence" as a guest to Howard's bachelor party.^[21]

Wheaton has done the reading for the audio CD of Peter and Max: A Fables Novel by Bill Willingham, which was released on December 8, 2009.^[22] as well as the audio CD of Ready Player One written by Ernest Cline.

Wil is one of the three headline acts of the w00tstock shows, appearing in nearly all of them when his filming schedule has allowed.

Starting in the July 23, 2010 episode, Wheaton has appeared in a recurring, guest-starring role on Eureka, playing Dr. Isaac Parrish, the head of the Non-Lethal Weapons Lab at Global Dynamics and a thorn in Fargo's side.^[23]

Writing[link]

Wheaton runs his own weblog, Wil Wheaton Dot Net.

Between 2001 and fall 2004, he operated a message board, known as "The Soapbox" or "Paracosm", as part of the blog site. Two collections of writings taken from postings to the message board have been published, titled Boxer Shorts (ISBN 1-932461-00-0) and Boxer Shorts Redux (ISBN 1-932461-03-5).

He contributes regularly to the Los Angeles-based Metroblogging site. In June 2005, he became that month's featured Tech writer for the SuicideGirls Newswire.^[24] He had a monthly column, entitled "Wil Save," in the Dungeons & Dragons-based magazine Dungeon; in May 2005, he ceased writing it. From January 2005 to October 2006, he wrote a column for The Onion AV Club about early video games, called "Games of Our Lives." On December 12, 2008, he returned to his role as Geek in Review editor,^{[clarification needed]} with his editorials being published every second Wednesday of the month.

Wil Wheaton (left) meets Tim O'Reilly at the 2003 booksigning of Dancing Barefoot at Powell's in Portland, Oregon.

In spring 2003, he founded the independent publishing company Monolith Press and released a memoir entitled Dancing Barefoot. Monolith Press was "founded on the idea that publication should not be limited by opportunity."^[25] Most of the entries are extended versions of his blog entries. Dancing Barefoot sold out three printings in four months.

In winter 2003 Wheaton signed to publisher Tim O'Reilly with a three-book contract. O'Reilly acquired Dancing Barefoot, and published his extended memoirs, Just a Geek, in summer of 2004. He has since written about his bitterness regarding how the book was marketed, believing it was pitched as a Star Trek book when he intended it as more of a personal memoir.^[26]

In February 2009, Wheaton released Sunken Treasure: Wil Wheaton's Hot Cocoa Box Sampler. As a chapbook, it contains several small extracts of various different projects, including two short stories from Ficlets, an ACME comedy sketch, and a Criminal Minds production diary. Instead of using traditional publishing, Wheaton decided to self-publish using Lulu Publishing, something he has continued to do with all his publications since. Since publishing with Lulu, he has made all of his books available as both paperbacks and digital downloadable files.

Later that same year, Wheaton released Memories of the Future: Volume 1, a humorous critique of the first thirteen episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Memories features a review of each episode, as well as an account of Wheaton's own experiences with and memories of that episode.

Closing up 2009, Wheaton published "Happiest Days of Our Lives", and his son, Ryan, contributed by writing the afterword.

Wheaton has also recorded several of his non-self-published books as downloadable audiobooks. These include Just a Geek, The Happiest Days of Our Lives, and his Criminal minds diary from Sunken Treasure. He also released excerpts of Memories of The Future: Vol 1 as free podcasts.

Politics[link]

Wheaton described himself as a liberal in 2005.^[27] In September 2006 he criticized George W. Bush's plan to permit torture of unlawful combatants: "Shame on President Bush. Shame on his Republican allies in Congress."^[28]

A column that he wrote for Salon.com in 2005, The Real War on Christmas, attacked commentators like Bill O'Reilly and detailed his arguments with his conservative parents over current political matters.^[27] Wheaton's parents were very offended by the article, and he posted a lengthy apology on his site and an interview in which his parents clarified their political views.^[29]

On August 24, 2007, he gave the keynote for the yearly Penny Arcade Expo, which was subsequently made available online.^[30] He stepped in following a public battle between the formerly-scheduled keynote debate participants, noted anti-games activist Jack Thompson and Hal Halpin, the president of the Entertainment Consumers Association (ECA). Much of Wheaton’s address focused on the debate over violence in video games. He also gave the keynote at PAX East 2010 in Boston, MA.

He supported Barack Obama in the 2008 Presidential Election^[31] and opposed Proposition 8, calling it "nothing but hate and discrimination".^[32]

Games[link]

In 2003, Wheaton mentioned his love for the game of poker on his blog. The following year, he began writing more extensively about his poker-playing experiences, including stories about playing Texas hold 'em tournaments locally and in Las Vegas. Eventually, he worked up to regular play, including a run at the 2005 World Poker Tour Championships. On June 23, 2005, Wheaton accepted an invitation to join Team PokerStars.^[33] He went on to play in that year's World Series of Poker and was the guest speaker for the 2005 B.A.R.G.E Banquet. In June 2007, he announced he would no longer be on Team Pokerstars due to changes in the U.S. legal system that would cause poker sites to have to focus on European and Asian markets^[34] and held a farewell Pokerstars tournament on June 5, 2007, which he titled So Long and Thanks for All the Chips.^[35]

Wheaton is a Dungeons & Dragons player,^[36] and played during the PAX 2010 and PAX 2011 events using the 4th edition rules. Wheaton, along with webcartoonists Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik of Penny Arcade, and Scott Kurtz of PvP, played in front of a live audience. The game was hosted and recorded by Wizards of the Coast with Chris Perkins as the dungeonmaster.^[37]

Comic book[link]

Wil Wheaton made a guest appearance in the comic book PS 238. He appears as himself, but with the power of telekinesis. A PS 238 teacher, Alloy, is his adoring fan.

Wheaton's debut comic book "The Guild: Fawkes" which he wrote alongside Felicia Day was released on May 2012.

Audiobooks[link]

Wil Wheaton narrates many audiobooks, including Ready Player One by Ernest Cline^[38], "Fuzzy Nation" by John Scalzi^[39] (and other Scalzi works), and "Byways" part of METAtropolis: Cascadia by Tobias Buckell^[40].

Wheaton's law[link]

During his keynote speech at the 2007 PAX (Penny Arcade Expo), Wheaton made a note about sportsmanship when playing games online. It has since become known as Wheaton's rule or law, which states "Don't be a dick!"^[41] This was intended to apply to life in general, not just online gaming.^[42]

A revision of Wheaton's law is an expansion by comics artist and writer Bill Willingham, which states: "Don't be a dick, but it's okay to play one on TV."^[43]

Personal life[link]

Wheaton was roommates with Chris Hardwick for some time.^[9][44] They met at a showing of Arachnophobia in Burbank, California.^[9]

Wheaton married Anne Prince in 1999. They and Prince's two sons from a previous relationship, Nolan and Ryan, live in Arcadia, California.^[45] When Ryan was 19, he asked Wheaton to legally adopt him, which he did.^[46]

Wil Wheaton has been friends with writer and radio-host Lazlow Jones, as revealed in The Lazlow Show in several episodes in both anecdotes from the hosts and in Wil's participation as a guest.^{[citation needed]}

Filmography[link]

Television[link]

• Meat Puppet (1980)
• A Long Way Home (1981)
• The Shooting (1982)
• Highway to Heaven (1985)
• St. Elsewhere (1986)
• The Defiant Ones (1986)
• Long Time Gone (1986)
• Family Ties (1987)
• Young Harry Houdini (1987) (ABC)
• The Man Who Fell to Earth (1987)
• Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987–1994)
• My Dad Can't Be Crazy... Can He? (1989)
• Family Double Dare (1990)
• Monsters (1990)
• The Arsenio Hall Show (1991)
• The Last Prostitute (1991)
• Star Trek 25th Anniversary Special (1991)
• Tales from the Crypt (1993)
• It Was Him or Us (1995)
• Mr. Stitch (1995)
• The Outer Limits: "The Light Brigade" (1996)
• The Love Boat: The Next Wave (1998)
• Diagnosis: Murder (1998)
• The Day Lincoln Was Shot (1998)
• The Flintstones: On the Rocks (2001)
• The Invisible Man: Perchance to Dream (2001)
• Twice in a Lifetime Episode 22 "The Choice" (2001)
• Weakest Link (2001) (Star Trek-themed edition)
• Beat the Geeks (2002)
• A&E Biography: "Eclipsed by Death – The Life of River Phoenix" (2002 - narrator)
• Walking the Tracks: The Summer of "Stand by Me" (2002) (Stand by Me documentary)
• Arena (2002) (also as writer)
• Favorite Stars: Then & Now (2003)
• Book of Days (2003)
• The Screen Savers (2003, 2002)
• Call for Help (2004)
• Teen Titans (2004–2005) (voice of Aqualad)
• Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go! (2005) (voice)
• CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2005)
• I Love the '80s 3-D (2005)
• I Love Toys (2006)
• Legion of Super Heroes (2006) (voice of Cosmic Boy)
• Ben 10 (2007) (voice)
• Ben 10: Alien Force/Ben 10: Ultimate Alien (voice of Mike Morningstar/Darkstar)
• Numb3rs: "Graphic" (2007) (as Miles Sklar, 1 episode)
• What I Learned From the Movies (2007)
• Batman: The Brave and the Bold (2008) (as Blue Beetle/Ted Kord)
• I Love the New Millennium (2008)
• Criminal Minds (2008) (Episode "Paradise" as Floyd Hansen/Wayne Dryden)
• Kyle + Rosemary (2008) (voice)
• Family Guy (2009 & 2010) (voice) (Episodes "Not All Dogs Go to Heaven" and "Partial Terms of Endearment", as himself and a protester)
• Naruto (2009) (voice of Menma)
• Kurokami: The Animation (2009) (voice of Yakumo)
• Seth MacFarlane's Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy (2009) (voice)
• The Big Bang Theory (2009–2012) ("The Creepy Candy Coating Corollary", "The Wheaton Recurrence", "The 21-Second Excitation" , "The Russian Rocket Reaction" and "The Stag Convergence" as himself)
• Leverage (2009-2012) ("The Two Live Crew Job" (2009), "The Ho Ho Ho Job" (2010), and "The Last Dam Job" (2012) as Chaos)
• Slayers Evolution-R (2010) (voice of Hans)
• Naruto Shippuden: The Movie (2010) (voice of Taruho and Shizuku)
• Eureka (2010) (Season 4) (as Dr. Parrish)
• Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn (2011) (Episode 3: "Ghost of Laplace") (voice of Aaron Terzieff, Additional Voices)

Movies[link]

• The Secret of NIMH (1982) (voice)
• Hambone and Hillie (1983)
• The Last Starfighter (1984) (scenes deleted from film but included as DVD extra)
• The Buddy System (1984)
• Stand by Me (1986)
• The Curse (1987)
• She's Having a Baby (1988) (uncredited cameo)
• Toy Soldiers (1991)
• December (1991)
• The Liars' Club (1993)
• Pie in the Sky (1996)
• Boys' Night Out (1996)
• Mr Stitch (1996)
• Trekkies (1997)
• Flubber (1997)
• Tales of Glamour and Excess (1997)
• Fag Hag (1998)
• Foreign Correspondents (1999)
• The Girls' Room (2000)
• Deep Core (2000)
• Python (2000)
• Speechless... (2001)
• The Good Things (2001)
• Jane White is Sick and Twisted (2002)
• Fish Don't Blink (2002)
• Star Trek Nemesis (2002) (briefly; extended scene deleted but appears as DVD extra in some regions)
• Book of Days (2003)
• Four Fingers of the Dragon (2003)
• Neverland (2003)
• Americanizing Shelley (2007)
• Star Trek (2009) (voices various Romulans)^[47]

Internet video[link]

Video games[link]

• Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge (2003) (voice)
• EverQuest II (2004) (voice)
• Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (2004) (voice)
• Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon 2 (2004) (voice)
• Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Lockdown (2005) (voice)
• Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter (2005) (voice)
• Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 (2006) (voice)
• Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories (2005) (voice)
• Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (2006) (voice)
• Grand Theft Auto IV (2008) (voice)
• Fallout New Vegas (2010) (voice of Robobrain)
• DC Universe Online (voice of Robin)

Bibliography[link]

• Dancing Barefoot (ISBN 0-596-00674-8) (2003)
• Just a Geek (ISBN 0-596-00768-X) (2004)
• Stories of Strength (ISBN 1-4116-5503-6) (2005; contributor)
• The Happiest Days of Our Lives (ISBN 0-9741160-2-5) (2007)
• Sunken Treasure (2009)
• Memories of the Future Vol. 1 (2009)

References[link]