I think that Second Skin is an interesting look into the world of gamers. It aims to be unbiased and show a normal median of gamer life.

For me an important part of the movie is that gaming is just another outlet for our basic human needs. People venture into virtual worlds to fulfill the need for stimulation, conflict and human interaction.

IRL is slowing becoming a closed, shut down, place. Where class and station are less fluid than they were, or how we imagine they were. These virtual worlds offer a level playing field, a blind justice, where everyone starts with the same potential for greatness. And that’s what these games do, they allow for greatness. They take the mundane clicks and drags and turn them into accomplishments.

These closed ecosystems grow their own societies, with their own social norms and cultural histories. They allow for the players to escape what the real world has become. One power of the Internet is to bring together geographically dispersed groups of like interested people. No longer are we to make due with only those we can physically meet. And so with mmo games do we find other disenfranchised looking for more in their lives.

It’s an interesting documentary, if you get a chance you should watch it.

One morning at six o’clock he read the words of Amsterdam to Fernand, a restaurateur who was about to set off fishing for scorpion fish and conger eels for the bouillabaisse. Overcome, Fernand broke out in sobs and cut open some sea urchins to help control his emotion.