Reviewed by Aaron Roxby

Before we begin, I feel I should explain my connection to online games.  Aside from having played many of them, I have been employed by two of the largest MMORPG publishers.  I have seen the art form at it’s cooperative, social best and its repetitive, mind-numbing, addictive worst.  Full disclosure aside, I mention this because I am not really the target audience for Juan Carlos' documentary, Second Skin, a film that seeks to be more an introduction to online "Second Lives", than an in depth analysis of this relatively new, but undeniably important phenomenon. 

For the few uninitiated, MMORPG stands for Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game.  While World of Warcraft (WoW) and Second Life are the most widely known examples, there are literally thousands of other MMOs, ranging from multi-million dollar blockbusters like Everquest II to simple browser and Flash based titles like Puzzle Pirates or Duels.  World of Warcraft alone has 10 million active residents while 50 million people worldwide play some kind of persistent online game.  That is a lot of folks attempting to escape reality and, like other reality escaping methods (Alcohol, drugs, television), what is good fun for most can turn ugly in the hands of someone with the wrong kind of personality.

Second Skin does attempt to touch on every aspect of online gaming and if you are completely unfamiliar with the phenomenon, this is probably a good primer for that world.  Unfortunately, the majority of Second Skin's running time is devoted to the lives of several real world online gamers.  A group of four friends who, as adult life descends upon them, are each forced to choose between gaming and beginning a family and moving on with their lives, a 35 year old, unemployed WoW-addict who has sacrificed everything to the game, and a couple who are in love in Everquest II traveling across country to meet for the first time are the primary focus, while short interviews with other gamers, including married couples who met online and handicapped people who use online games as a social outlet are also interviewed. 

This is the film's first problem.  Gamers are, for the most part, not the most cinematically dynamic people.  Most of the subjects are normal, everyday folks, except for the passion they hold for their hobby.  Said hobby, however, involves sitting at a desk, staring at a screen.  Since a fat guy staring near-motionless at a monitor, is about the least interesting thing you can put on a screen, what you are left with is the normal lives of everyday people.  Even with machinima-style animated segments and in game reenactments of real-life events, it is difficult to make the subject matter that interesting.  At the same time, more interesting fodder, such as Chinese gold-farming rings, the social implications of alternate worlds and the insane economics of virtual currency are touched on, without really being explored.

The filmmakers have an obvious passion for online gaming, but this works against the movie more often than for it.  From frame one, Second Skin feels less like an in-depth examination of the Online Gaming world, and more like a sales pitch to non-gamers.  The first half hour, which features (admittedly cool) animation of the subjects’ characters fighting a dragon, feels more like a slick, expensive Youtube fan video, or a World of Warcraft commercial than a documentary. 

Admittedly, my own experiences in the gaming industry have probably skewed my interest in the subject matter more toward the technical.  So, while there is little of interest for gamers contained in Second Skin, if you need to explain to your girlfriend why you missed her birthday so that you could raid Black Temple, this is probably going to be your best sales tool.  (Note:  I do not recommend missing your girlfriend’s birthday for anything video game related, except maybe standing in line overnight to buy her a Wii.)