Movie Review - Second Skin

Second Skin

Here's a movie that touches on an issue I can claim to know about. Not only do I play MMORPGs pretty regularly (read: daily) but I've even done a bit of academic readings, researched, wrote and even presented papers on gamers. Heck, my honors thesis on race and games got quite an international media splash (search my name in Google and check out all the trash talk I got, don't you just love how 'brave' the Internet makes people?).

But I digress, in essence, 'Second Skin' is a documentary film that takes a close look at the lives of online gamers, centering specifically around 'World of Warcraft' players (but also a few other games too) and are introduced to a variety of gamers who deal with a wide spread of issues. We meet the Fort Wayne boys, a group of friends who live and play together for over 40 hours a week, following their lives as they prepare for the upcoming expansion pack of 'The Burning Crusade.' The undercurrent of their narrative though, is a coming of age story as they struggle to deal with their online responsibilities vis-a-vis emerging 'real life' issues, particularly marriage and ultimately parenthood.

We are introduced to Kevin, an 'Everquest' player who has already had several stormy online relationships and his love interest Heather who is about to meet him for the first time. We are encouraged to think about how online relationships are mediated not only through virtual space (in-game) but also in the material world as they try to establish a life together despite the fact that they live hundreds of kilometers away from each other.

Then there's Dan, a WoW player who's life was ruined as his addiction escalated out of control. He ends up checking himself into On-Line Gamers' Anonymous, who's founder and owner ends up having just as much baggage as he does. His story ultimately becomes one of self-control and his ability to champion his demons on his own accord.

All of these stories are heartfelt, well-documented and very thorough in exploring the nuances of MMO gameplay. Moreover, on top of these main 'players' in the film's storyline there are also some side themes that are explored. We meet the WoW guild 'The Syndicate' to explore issues of community, we meet Andy a man who is confined to his wheelchair and the sense of empowerment he feels from interacting with people online without prejudice, and we visit a 'Chinese gold farm' in Hainan to see the globalizing role video game economics are having across the globe.

With so much to cover in the confines of a feature length documentary, there is only so much time the director (Juan Carlos Puneiro Escoriaza) can commit to each and the film bounces from one person to the other at breakneck speeds and far too much emphasis is placed on dealing with love and personal relationships than anything else, and as a reuslt the film drags on quite a bit.

The causalities? Interesting and previously unexplored issues of video gameplay are tossed in as filler throughout the film. For example, the section of Chinese gold farmers was amazingly interesting and raised plenty of questions not only about the nature of global capitalism through virutal markets, but also in-game racism. The time spent on these issues? Roughly 2 minutes. And then we never see them again. As well, it would have been great to hear more from Andy, confined to a wheelchair and unable to talk, as he is able to transcend his disabilities through friendships and interactions in-game. Again, he has probably less than a minute of facetime in the entire film. In the end, the film explores a few issues in great detail and tosses tons of others in for flavor, but significantly less rigor.

This is not to say however that Escoriaza hasn't done his homework. The viewer is provided with plenty of statistics about the demographics of MMO players and even consults several experts in the field. The movie certainly works well as a documentary and will interest gamers and non-gamers alike. Moreover, it refrains from placing a moral standpoint on gaming, but instead explores it for what it is, both the good and the bad. Certainly it isn't the first documentary done on video game players, and at this moment its probably the best. However, there's still a lot that could have been done to improve it. The film spends a lot of time following the lives of several gamers, trying to get us to understand and relate to their lives, but end up unconvincing and bland. The exception to this is Dan who's ability to overcome his addiction was probably the most emotional part of the movie. Other than that, its a pretty run of the mill documentary that tries to tackle too much and harps too heavily on a far too easy storyline (that of love, relationships and growing up) on a much more complicated issue. While I'd suggest you see it if you get the chance, lets hope this isn't the final say on video game docs.