“Second Skin” so far feels a bit
like a time capsule of the public perception towards online gaming in the much
simpler year of 2008. It has a surplus of archaic stereotypes of gamers as fat,
unemployed slobs, who never see the sun and can only communicate effectively
through a keyboard. It also at times feels like a heartfelt documentary about how
humans connect with one another in the 21st century. I guess it all
depends on perspective. The movie either feels like an intelligent documentary
on how a virtual world can significantly affect the actual one around us, or it’s
a glorified freak show where were meant to laugh at, and feel sorry for, the
neck-beards on display. What the movie actually is probably lies somewhere in
the middle of those two extremes, but that doesn’t change the fact that the
message feels dated. Since the movie’s release, MMORPGs have been parodied by South Park, accepted by the masses, then
been thrown into freemium hell along with iPhone games. It just feels like we’re
beyond the point where we would need a documentary to tell us about the miracles
and horrors of online gaming. But I haven’t seen the ending yet so it might be
able to wrap up by saying something profound. Either way it gets bonus points
for having the insight to focus on the people affected by the phenomenon of
online gaming, instead of just making a statistic heavy snooze fest about the phenomenon
itself. People are more interesting than numbers.
The experiences shown in the video
are certainly not new to me. I would imagine they would only be new to someone
who hasn’t been living under a big enough rock the last decade, and who seriously
needs to anti-socialize more. Even out of a class of less than twenty, one of
our classmates had met her husband from online gaming. This is not some sort of
isolated group of weirdos who only speak Klingon. They’re just people you can
see anywhere. I’ve had a lot of friends who play online games, and the list is
extremely varied. This includes men, women, teenagers, adults, students,
teachers, and a few soldiers in the mix as well. I’ve also met people similar to
the guy who joined Online Gamers Anonymous, but he isn’t accurately
representative of the whole. Some people just have addictive personalities, and
the excessive level of video game playing is likely a symptom of a larger
problem, not the problem itself.
Speaking of addictive personalities,
I am well versed in the art of the video game coma. Although I don’t play as
much now as I did three years ago, I always either play a game for an excessive
amount of time or not at all. I’m not great at the whole moderation thing, so I
can find myself spending upwards of 10 hours a day in front of a screen. Luckily
I’ve developed a system to ensure none of my vital organs shut down during one
of these sessions. When a new game comes out that I’m excited for, which
happens roughly every six months or so, I play the hell out of it for about four
days, then never touch it again. It’s not an effective system but it’s the only
one I have the discipline for. Also, I’m not much of a fan of online games, I prefer
a single player experience I guess. I like RPGs like Mass Effect and Elder Scrolls.
I’m also planning on breaking ties with all my friends when Fallout 4 comes out, because I probably
won’t have time for them anyway. So if you don’t hear from me again after mid-November,
take it as a compliment. It meant you were my friend.
