Faraway, So Close … blogging, the drug of the nation…

Second Skin takes an intimate look at computer gamers whose lives have been transformed by the emerging genre of Massively Multiplayer Online games (MMOs). Second Skin introduces us to couples who have fallen in love without meeting, disabled players who have found new purpose, addicts, Chinese gold-farming sweatshop workers, wealthy online entrepreneurs and legendary guild leaders - all living in a world that doesn’t quite exist.

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This is something that is either completely greek to you or something you identify with way too closely. I’d definitely lean towards the latter. I have, on occasion, lost myself and hours (days???) to video games.

I’ve never descended into the truly dark pit of MMORPGs (Wikipedia) that this documentary looks to be dealing with. If you put video games on a scale of addiction using drugs to represent the game styles, MMORPG games (like World of Warcraft) are the crack cocaine. Sports games would be the occasional cigar you enjoy with some friends. Halo 3 (3rd person shooters) is your daily/weekly cigarette puff. I’m not sure where crystal meth fits in here, but all analogies break down at some point. Suffice to say, I’ve stayed as far away from the crack cocaine.