Comments on: Second Skin: The MMO Documentary

By: TouristofLife

TouristofLife — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 20:02:15 +0000

I don’t understand why people are so harsh. I play WoW and yeah, there are people who do go overboard, but there are people who go overboard with everything. Alcohol, Smoking, Drugs, Sex, Workaholics, Food. While at the same time alot of the people I play with are just normal people, with problems, sicknesses, promotions, new relationships and etc.

I think its great when a documentary like this comes out to educate but when people view it as a means of simply bashing a lifestyle (or lack thereof i suppose one could say) it truly defeats the purpose of the video.

By: Danarchist

Danarchist — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 18:48:56 +0000

That in itself is depressing but does go back to the comment above about “If people are enjoying these mmo worlds more than the real world, what does that say about our current reality?”
In most cases the drones they use for these types of movies are people with either severe mental or social issues, or hyper focused types. The irony being the most commonly hyper focused gamer has add or adhd.
Games, like drugs and alchohol, have an escapist component that can be emotionally addictive. The problem is when people are talking in a general way about alcohol they do not only interview alcoholics as most of us have a drink now and then and only a percentage have no control over it. If someone made a film like that the general public would cry foul. Since the general public is still unaware of what hardcore gaming entails though crap films like this can be made and everyone goes “Oh! Hrmm thats what thats about…”

By: Gl3n

Gl3n — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 15:07:03 +0000

Did anyone else find the whole thing morbidly depressing? People trying to be awesome inside a game instead of out there in the real world.

By: Kwanchu

Kwanchu — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 12:55:51 +0000

hahahaha that was a good one, “and in-game (”from this time forward, you will share the name “Soulslayerrrrrrrr”).” Of course only people who play mmo’s would get that one.

By: Leeks!

Leeks! — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 09:10:09 +0000

I quite liked that. The aesthetics of the thing really stand out–cool blend of the usual talking heads and machinima esque stuff going on. When the film does offer analysis on gaming/reasons for gaming, I found it reasonable enough, with plenty of positive stories to go along with the negative ones. We shouldn’t forget that documentary film making of this kind still very explicitly holds storytelling as its chief intent, and criticizing the film for not offering a detached, empirical study of gaming culture only reveals your own biases.

As an anathema on gamers and gaming, the film obviously fails, but that’s only because it isn’t a condemnation on gamers and gaming. As an exploratory portrait of a subculture often misunderstood and dismissed by the mainstream that acknowledges the horror stories often reported in populist media while also demonstrating something of the nuance and positivity of gaming (i.e.: The only thing the film ever presents itself as), it succeeds in many ways.

By: Scandalon

Scandalon — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 00:58:25 +0000

Actually, make that 98% of all games.

By: Scandalon

Scandalon — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 00:58:01 +0000

I just wish that MMORPG’s were half as “dynamic”/cool as the “WoW” animation cut-scene-alike made it look.

By: CryingTheAnnualKingo

CryingTheAnnualKingo — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 23:24:10 +0000

I like the notion of a documentary about this subject, but this is just a bad documentary. It is far less intererested in offering scientifically based anwsers to the issue of phyisical addiction to MMOs than it in its tiresome line-up of talking heads, most of them annoying white trash. WoW addicted Dan is the perfect example of the kind of pathetic faux-gamer that makes me steer clear of MMOs.
The only interesting notion was completely glossed over; the idea that the rise in vitual worlds should be taken as a worrying condemnation of reality. Someone should make a documentary exploring that idea to its potential.

By: Concept

Concept — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 22:53:18 +0000

Was anyone else a bit scared that the Bioware guy was saying that people are who they really are online?

That guy was creepy.

By: Sagan

Sagan — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 21:10:44 +0000

It was surprisingly good. Yeah, they did focus on the extreme ends of the gaming spectrum, but nobody would want to watch a documentary about a regular person playing for three hours a day.
And it was very well balanced for that. I even thought it presented gaming as something positive. Sure, they spend a lot of time on addiction and treat it as the serious thing it is. But then they put it in perspective by showing how the people got out of their addiction, simply by moving on in their lives. You know, by having kids or finding a new job.

And they did show some of the advantages of playing MMORPGs. Like meeting people, (1 in 3 girl gamers is dating someone they met in the game? I had no idea!) being your true self online, or doing stuff you can’t do in real life. (the disabled kid being really happy in Second Life)

I’d recommend this to people. I might buy this, but searching Amazon.de for “Second Skin” only returned men’s tangas.

By: rei

rei — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 19:33:12 +0000

They’ll never catch me.

If I’d read that just two seconds earlier, I would now be cleaning a mouthful of vitamin-fortified juice off of my monitor.

By: Danarchist

Danarchist — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 19:15:30 +0000

I watched it myself and for the most part I found it to be very focused on showing gaming as almost a mental disability. The gamer “hive” they kept going back to I have never seen the like of in close to 20 years (thats right i played zork!) of hardcore gaming. In the end it showed the guys that had quit gaming in brightly lit rooms or wedding settings smilling and happy, and the guys that were still gaming were shown in messy houses looking depressed with their girlfriends/wives crying or upset. As someone that has spent a big chunk of his life around a director I can tell you that was shot that way on purpose. Everyone loves to watch a train wreck, that’s why the news has 1 segment on happy things and 4 on horrible murders etc. The director of this isnt a bad person, he just knows how to make money for his work.
In the end it was the usual diatribe on gaming destroying modern civilization with a couple of token “Happy pretty people” thrown in to make it look different than the other half dozen of these films. I would love to have one of these film crews come visit me or my much more hardcore gaming brother. Were both well employed, own homes and have happy female counter parts that dont collect unicorn figurines. And besides being a wow raid leader my brother is a personal trainer and fights in the UFC bush leagues. There are lots of very normal people that play online games MODERATELY without life destroying side effects. You will never see them in a movie like this for more than a few seconds.