It’s disarming and strange, but there’s no artifice to it. There’s production, but I don’t get the feeling that any of the emotions are crafted in a PR laboratory somewhere. You know what I mean; you can tell when a fan world is being forced on a group of people. It’s palpable when people are being told to care versus when they actually care. There’s an intensity of connection here that doesn’t even read as sensible to me, let alone something that I can engage in, and I’m left wondering why.

I couldn’t stay in the theater for long. Hundreds of people screaming is never my thing, and there was something strange and mystical about all of these people surrounding this shrinelike screen. The room was dark, and a blue glow lit their faces. It’s like sitting in a bedroom watching a stream with hundreds of your closest friends. It’s the gamer’s room blown out to its most extreme proportions. I didn’t leave the room because it was unnatural, or “too nerdy,” or too strange; I didn’t like being there because of how natural it all seemed.

Read more at Paste.