Second Skin Review- Extra Credit

Second Skin is a documentary that follows gamers who play MMO games. The documentary follows the gamers through-out their daily lives to show how the game has effected them. The documentary offered both the positives and negatives of the gaming world.
In the beginning a group of men is followed. These men became best friends through the MMO they play. They ended up moving in together and because of their gaming they are like a family. The documentary follows them and what their daily lives look like. The next set of people the documentary follows are couples that have started dating because of the game. The couples state that their dating relationship was started similar to how any online line dating site would be. Many of these couples of been together for an adequate period of time and many of them are living together. The documentary then follows a couple where the woman is pregnant with twins and who is also a very understanding wife when it comes to her husband's gaming. The documentary follows the couple up until the babies are born.
All of these gamers spend hours playing their game of choice. The documentary gave a statistic saying that at least 11 hours per day are spent playing an online game and about 171 days out of the year are spent from start to finish playing the game. The game is a huge time commitment. The documentary offers the positives and the negatives of what the online gaming has created for these people. Many of these people find a sense of belonging because of gaming. These gamers say they easily get caught up in the mundane activities of everyday life of waking up, going to work, coming back from work, and doing housework. These games offer a sense that these people can escape the real world momentarily. The lecture we watched in class explains these issues a little further. The speaker stated that online games offer gamers a sense of belonging and make them feel like they can accomplish important things. When life bogs them down with situations that are difficult to solve and people start to second guess their capabilities, they can look to gaming as an outlet where they know they can solve difficult tasks. Also, for people with social anxiety or feel like they don't fit in with most people in real life, these people can find a variety of people in the online gaming world that they are able to make strong connections with.
The gaming world also has a lot of negative downfalls to it. The documentary states that 1 out of 5 gamers actually say they live in a virtual world. Also, many of these gamers have lost touch with their real life because they are too caught up in playing the game. Many people that the documentary follows have lost their jobs and have lost their friends in real life because they chose the game over everything. The man whose wife is about to have twins is actually scheduling his time with the babies around his gaming. This is a little pathetic and it is obvious to see that the priorities of these people are a little mixed up. Online gaming can also be addicting and pretty soon people are spending days straight on the computer and the only time they stop is because they physically aren't able to play the game anymore.
This documentary can tie in with the argument of feminism as well. Female gamers can feel empowered by these virtual worlds but they can be scrutinized against as well. One of the creators of an online game describes a situation where gaming can be positive for girls. The example was that if a heavy set girl that has been scrutinized against her entire life has to live in a small town. There is no chance for the girl to get out of the small town because she has to take care of her mother. Online games can offer a sense of escape where this same woman can chose the body and features she wants to have. To me, this may be liberating for some, but degrading at the same time. Society is creating these ideals where these types of women are being scrutinized against in real life. Gaming is an escape from their reality when these women should not have to feel like they need to escape in the first place. Another issue with feminism is when the creators of the games or men get to chose the women they want to have in their games. These women characters normally end up looking like a "Dolly Parton" with a huge test and the rest of the body is very petite. Laura Croft from Tombraider is a great example of what women characters normally end up looking like. These characters all enforce the ideal that society has created even more which is degrading to women in real life.