Second Skin

2009

Documentary

U.S.A. in English

Pure West Films

Distributed in Australia by Hopscotch / Roadshow

R4 DVD

Reviewer: Bob Estreich

This film is about the people who play online role playing games (RPGs) and it follows four players over a couple of years of their life. Computer games are nothing new and have been accused of causing antisocial behaviour for years. Adversaries point out the unreal nature of the games and say players flock to RPGs because they are unwilling to face real life. RPGs are blamed for suicides, breakdown of relationships, economic problems and irresponsible behaviour. How much of this is true? With over 50 million people paying for membership in such games it is a phenomenon that should be looked at carefully.

MMORPG = massive multiplayer online role playing game

Games such as World of Warcraft attract huge followings. Surely the players are not all head cases? One thing I noticed immediately in the film is that the online characters (avatars) don’t resemble their real world owners. The people we are following are all young men of rather heavy build. In the game they are all slim, muscular and, within the limits of the cartoon style of the game, handsome. Female players are similarly redrawn. In this respect the game is not about who you are as much as who you would like to be.

“….I just want to look badass.”

The performance of the avatars can also vary from that of their real owner. People in deadend jobs or with limited social opportunities can become more assertive and turn into leaders. There is a satisfaction in achieving in an online game what you are not in a position to achieve in life, and the game tends to become your life. Daily sessions of ten or more hours are not uncommon and it is at this point that the game leaves the area of pleasure and becomes addiction or obsession.

There is a chance to meet other people and get to know them better, but there is a line here that is rarely overstepped. You don’t pry into a person’s background unless that person reveals information about themselves. Male – female relationships just don’t happen unless both players feel the same way. Then one night there is that spontaneous moment when one or the other commits their feelings to the screen. From here the relationship changes. Joining up with your fellow player out in the real world has its own stresses, though – separation by hundreds of miles is a major hurdle. One partner must give up their life to start a new life in a new town. In the environment of a game its not possible to explore all the facets of another personality. Being together may bring out something that causes friction. In a good match, though, marriage and kids provides a satisfying alternative to online gaming obsession, as we see of one gamer couple. It doesn’t always work out, giving rise to the “gaming widow” syndrome. Incidentally we also get to see the geekiest gamer wedding ever. It doesn’t always work out, just like any relationship, and the film shows this too.

Meanwhile the online world is a safe place to meet people who have something in common with you in an environment that is often safer than the real world. There is an online anonymity that lets you be more yourself.

In the worst scenario, as shown by one of the players in the film, pleasure becomes addiction, then becomes obsession, which leads to a loss of contact with the real world. Our player is in financial trouble, developing health problems and heading into bankruptcy. In a really bad scenario a very young player develops depression and commits suicide. His mother blames the game, and not any mental weakness her son may already have. The trigger for his problem seems to have been the breakup of a relationship with an online fellow player with whom he was becoming quite intense. This is the sort of negative that newspaper reports thrive on without investigating the background.

We meet players who are trying to break their obsession and regain their health –a junk diet and no exercise takes its toll. The mother of the suicidal boy has formed OnLine Gamers Anonymous – with apparently little or no professional counselling training. Many of her clients profess to want help but are reluctant to stick to her withdrawal plan, including one of the group being followed in the doco. She responds “I cannot be around people who choose to stay sick”. Two out of five gamers would quit their day jobs if they could make a living online. Half of the MMO players say they are` addicted.

Four out of five players are in a “guild”, an online cooperative group that can take on larger more profitable challenges. In a guild they are more than co-players, they are friends. In the Guild they learn cooperation, planning and a respect for their co-players. Often they will arrange offline get-togethers for members. They are comfortable in this social environment since they already know these other people. Being in a guild has its own obligations though – you must be online when the guild plans a coordinated attempt at a prize, or you let your guild down.

“I had a moment of weakness and allowed myself six to seven hours of sleep” – after an all-weekend gaming session.

A game developer points out that less than five percent of people in the real world know their own neighbours, so gamers are possibly less socially challenged – they just get their social life in a different way. This tends to give the lie to the stereotype of a gamer being a sad, lonely, socially-challenged individual. An MMO community IS a community, just not what we have been used to. The picture has, as usual, been confused by the concentration on the negatives.

Values in online games are discussed. The object of most games is to recover artifacts or money that will increase your power, defence, or weaponry. The value of an item represents the time it takes to find the object and gain it, usually against strong opposition. This can take many hours of repetitious gameplay as you explore the area of the game or build up your fighting skills to overcome the opposition.

A subculture business, the “gold farmer”, has been spawned where employees gather online objects of value. These are then traded in the real world for real world currency. The farms are popular in third world countries – there are over 100,000 gold farmers in China alone. Other farms exist where the staff will take over your character and develop it for you for real-world money. Real gamers look down on the characters so developed because their lack of hard-won experience soon shows in their performance. Although the farm workers work long hours with only basic breaks, some employers are looking after their staff better with company outings to give them a social life and to encourage the good farmers to keep playing. It also gives the farmers a job in an area where other employment options don’t exist.

There are positive stories throughout the documentary, like the disabled young man who can’t speak, but can now have a satisfying social interaction online.

“Gaming can be looked at, not as a reflection to the real world, but as a complement to it, like sports teams…”

Extras include a short film of the premiere of the documentary at the South-By-Southwest Film Festival, a “talking heads “ discussion of the games, some extended scenes and a commentary by director Juan Carlos Pineiro Escoriaza and producer Peter Brauer.

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