As I mentioned in a previous post, I’m attending Fragapalooza 2009 this weekend. One of the biggest LAN parties in Canada, according to their website. Over 400 men, women, and children playing a variety of computer games from Team Fortress 2 to Starcraft, Left 4 Dead to World of Warcraft. And yours truly, playing EVE Online.
During the wee hours of the morning on Saturday, we were given the opportunity to see the movie Second Skin, a documentary that focused for the most part on a few people who play World of Warcraft or Everquest 2 and how their ingame lives collided with their out-of-game ones . Let me start by saying that I enjoyed watching this movie. It flowed well and was entertaining. However I’m pretty sure that the enjoyment that the audience here derived probably wasn’t the kind that the film makers had in mind.
Take a room full of several hundred people who enjoy playing video games. Of those several hundred people , I’m willing to say that about a quarter (at least), have logged into WoW, EQ, EQ2, DAoC, etc. etc. Show them a movie that has as its premise that all MMO players are fat, socially maladjusted people that are either hopelessly addicted to their games, or so emotionally dependant that they’re willing to move thousands of kilometres to meet up with their “soul mate” that they met in their online adventures.
The reaction? Laughter for the most part. The bar graph that determined that we only have an hour in a day to do everything but play and sleep? A few chuckles and nods of bemused agreement. The time-lapse sections where those guys are playing almost non-stop to get their WoW toons to 70, sleeping on the couch? This is Fragapalooza! That is how we roll this weekend. However, that is not how we roll every day (for the most part).
We were basically laughing at a movie that was working on reinforcing all the negative imagery that gets invoked when Gamers come to mind. As fellow blogger CrazyKinux eloquently described in his post about the movie:
What the folks behind Second Skin did though is focused on the “weird” behaviors of some MMO players. I’m not saying that everyone in the film is a weirdo, but what I am saying is that that’s where the filmmakers decided to focus on. As I was watching the film, I couldn’t help but tell myself that these were not the kind of folks I played with. These were not the types of people I had come to know over the last 5 years of playing EVE Online. And I don’t think it’s a “Well-this-is-how-WoW-players-are” kind of thing. I’m totally aware that a lot of MMO players have addictive-like behaviors when it comes to playing these games.
That’s my 0.02ISK about this movie.
Shinzann
August 9th, 2009 at 12:41
I agree completely. But as a documentary i think it did a good job of making someone think about the social dynamic of MMOs even if it is a completely skewed perspective. Also, I’m willing to bet we all have friends that have resembled people in this documentary at one time or another.
Then again I am a gamer and I am aware of how inaccurately it portrays the gaming community. For someone not familiar with the gaming community I can see them taking this more seriously. I’m on the fence with this one.
August 11th, 2009 at 15:11
I completely agree with Rakanishu. (LOL Diablo Reference > *)
I am a gamer and do nowhere resemble the few examples in the film, however, the film does touch on people’s social concern for video games. In essence, if you or your kids do not become suicidal or waste your life away playing 22 hours a day then you will be okay in society. And not to mention the statistics in the film are amazing. “Second Skin” is playing on hulu and snag films for two more days until it is taken off.
August 12th, 2009 at 18:18
I would love to view this film sometime, seeing it to be a hilarious comedy that I can laugh at!