Out on DVD: Second Skin
By Jiun Kwon
Virtual gold? MMO-huh? World of WTF-craft? Who are these people?
Well… they’re everyone, actually. At least according to Second Skin, a fascinating documentary about the world of online gaming.
Computer games have come a very long way since the original days of Oregon Trail (isn’t there an online version of this game now?), in which the average virtual lifespan was maybe 4 minutes (or however long it took to have to cross the river and inevitably someone would die from dysentery or something equally horrifying). With the advent of the internet, gaming has gone almost post-interactive, allowing those who participate to not only live vicariously through these narratives… they are actually living them. It is a virtual civilization with virtual property that is exchanged within virtual space, and actually translates into real world dollars (many, many dollars) that circulate in the real world market, creating a hugely viable industry (virtual and real).
But Second Skin paints a much bigger picture, showing the evolution of gaming as more than a cross section between opportunism and technology. It is a global phenomenon of people, one that speaks volumes about the reach of our inherent human connectedness. With so many people (and there are a lot, the numbers are sort of staggering) choosing to spend so much time in these virtual worlds, ‘what does that say about the world we’ve created out here?’
The film offers a generous glimpse into the lives of several gamers, all at various levels of immersion in the virtual world, beginning with a group of housemates –all committed gamers– one of whom is soon expecting twins and another in his last few throws of single life, who plan their weekends around marathon sessions of World of Warcraft. There is the recovering gamer, whose intrigue-turned-obsession with the virtual world has caused his life to spiral into unemployment and depression. And, since every film needs a love story, there is also a budding romance; sprouted within the pixelated gardens of Everquest. While they may remind you of some people you may have sat next to in your high school math class, which doesn’t exactly dispel any misguided stereotypes, what becomes clear over the course of the film is that none of them really care. Success or failure in the gaming world is very much a measurement of skill and mental strength.
Yes, gaming has certainly had its time serving as a pop culture punch line. South Park even made an uproarious/completely disgusting episode revolving around the ethos that seems to drive this particular group. But tongue-in-cheek mockery is not the aim, here. In fact, the film treats its subject with a certain amount of reverence, devoting time to industry experts and gaming pioneers who view the growing number of virtual inhabitants as a sign that more and more people are choosing to live outside the obvious rigidity of the rules that govern our real world. And for the gamers in the film (unlike many who agonize over online profiles and spend hours crafting their perfect virtual personalities), the world that exists behind their computer screens allows them the freedom, not to be someone else, but to be who they truly are… at least for the most part. There are tragedies, unfortunately, which the film neither ignores nor exploits, though it does expose a deficiency within the mechanics of our society and the separateness that seems to have developed out of our tendency to organize and exclude.
The truth is, we’re all living online now in some form or fashion. But hopefully, we’re all living as ourselves.
And for anyone a little too eager to ridicule gaming as an indulgent exercise in an imaginary and pointless competition, I have two words: Fantasy. Football.
