“Second Skin” is a documentary about people with lives that revolve around MMORPGs, a genre of computer games that include “World Of Warcraft”. The film is startling similar to an episode of “South Park”, only it is less funny and more pitiful because these are real people.

“Second Skin” allows us to see some very sad individuals that spend a great deal of their time playing MMORPGs such as “World Of Warcraft” and “EverQuest” (I’d honestly never even heard of this game before). Some of them have met a significant other through videogames, others have put their jobs and social lives on the line because of their obsession.

The people featured in “Second Skin” are rather unsettling. Most of them play “World Of Warcraft” but a few play “EverQuest”. There are other MMORPGs that are referenced such as “EVE Online”. I have never subscribed to the view that mainstream films or videogames can have debilitating effects on people but I do believe that some troubled individuals do fixate on them. The couple that have started dating in real-life after meeting on “EverQuest” seemed particularly creepy. One of the interviewees will not even get up to use the bathroom because it might interfere with their playtime. The dedication that these players have to their games is certainly unhealthy and none of them are interesting.

My biggest gripe with “Second Skin” is that it looks cheap. I get that this is a documentary and not a big Hollywood blockbuster but it honestly looks like it was filmed by a student on a cheap camera for a college project. The gamers presented here are sad and the film does a good job at presenting that but I honestly do not think we needed an entire documentary to show us how sad these people. At one point, “Second Skin” touches on a black-market trade, largely driven by the Chinese, known as ‘gold farming’. I think it would have been better to make a documentary about that.