Second Skin

D: Juan Carlos Piñeiro; with Andy Belford, Anthony Cronin, Matt Ellsworth, Chris Mitchell, Heather Cowan, Kevin Keel, Dan Bustard

There’s an alternate reality living inside your computer, and to many gamers, it’s no different – and oftentimes more agreeable – than the daily grind. Second Skin is the story of seven hardcore gamers whose lives have been changed forever by massively multiplayer online role-playing games, be it love, friendship, or addiction. The 10 million World of Warcraft subscribers and the original EverQuest pioneers know that MMOGs smoke like fantasy crack, but Piñeiro equally illuminates the games’ therapeutic roles, for disabled gamers and introverts alike. The doc is a car wreck in rush hour, even from a gamer’s perspective: You can’t look away no matter how depressing, unbelievable, or grotesque the story becomes. But this isn’t just the pitfalls of the gaming industry; it’s a hell of a lot of fun. Mixing expert opinion with amazingly true testimonials, Second Skin might just be the most accurate and entertaining glimpse of the economy and psychology of technology since Tron.

Thursday, March 13, 1:45pm, ACC

This article appears in March 14 • 2008.

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