You disturb me to the point of insanity. There. I am insane now.

Some early reviews of the forthcoming MMO documentary Second Skin, and it looks like the film is taking on a subject we've tackled a few times before. Namely, that lots (if not most) MMO gamers are, to put it delicately, somewhat odd. To quote one reviewer: "After seeing the film, it stacks up as quite an accomplishment that the filmmakers were able to drag these folks away from their computers to attend."

Yes, we know there are a lot of MMO players out there who play their game and enjoy it for what it is: a game. But if you've ever spent a lot of time around people who are really into these games, it doesn't take long to get the feeling that all is not well in the state of Denmark.

For our own part, we tend to get bored with MMO's as soon as the novelty wears off. Once the prospect of repetition ad nauseam removes itself from the realm of the possible and becomes something actual, we find the enjoyment of exploring and interacting with a fictitious environment to loose lots of it's luster. And no, we aren't unfamiliar with the idea of crack-like games that keep us up for hours on end without sleep food or human interaction. (Dark memories of The Legend of Zelda spring quickly to mind.) But whenever we find ourselves similarly drawn, for some reason the entertainment value quickly dissipates. Maybe it's because we enjoy the creative elements more than the visceral elements (creating a character and specializing their skills being the creative, while the visceral is all the feudin and a fussin), but whatever it is, we think MMO's have a very limited place in our lives. All the MMO gamers out there who's games take up increasingly large portions of their lives are a unique sub-culture, and we're eager to see how Second Skin shows us their world.

'Til next time, true believers!

There is no spoon.

We came across this movie traler recently. It was posted on YouTube only a few days ago, but it already has 40,000+ hits. It's a documentary about MMO gamers, and how their games have changed their lives.

The trailer and promotional material give the impression that the movie looks at the MMO phenomenon, and apparently makes some disturbing observations. Any gamer since The Legend of Zelda knows how intense and time-consuming a video game can be. The fact that MMO's are now simulating entire worlds, nay, virtual realities, make them that much more immersive. If films, art or literature are escapist in that they allow the consumer to experience a fictitious reality only accessed by using the product, MMO's are combining multiple elements from numerous transportive media into a single, glossy package. Game addiction? We've always thought it was not only possible, but actual. We've known a lot of gamers (and not just MMO gamers) who's lives have been consumed by their favorite pass-time.

MMO's, in the end, may just be the newest, shiniest, noisy things that appeal to our simian nature. Transportive entertainment that allows our brains to inhabit a place that only exists in our brains.

But how is that different than anything else?