I wanted Second Skin* with friends tonight and I wrote up a Netflix review, under the cut. What are your thoughts?

My thoughts on Second Skin

So I watched this with a couple of friends who are gamers, and we came to the conclusion that this film only advanced negative stereotypes about gamers. There was nothing positive about being a player of MMORPG’s at all, and there was no attempt at balance in how gamers are portrayed.

There was one female gamer shown, and she seemed to be into gaming to meet someone rather than actually being a gamer. At least that’s how she was portrayed in my opinion. The film portrayed gamers as either lazy man-children that eschewed growing up in favor of living together with other gamers and staying in an eternal state of buddy film glee, or moving on from the game, and being portrayed as a real adult and a success when you give the game up for good.

I feel badly for the woman who lost her son to suicide, but they did her no favors in how she was portrayed or the way in which she blames gaming for her son’s death, after she admits that he was diagnosed with severe depression and schizophrenia.

I wish they’d shown people who play games and have a balanced life outside the virtual world. It seems they only went for people who espoused the stereotype of the basement dwelling/living in a frat-house environ, type gamer instead of folks who know what the out of doors is and what real life interaction is still like.

I hope someone makes a more balanced film in response to this movie. It’s a disservice to gamers who can keep time spent in the virtual world separate from time spent in the MMO of their choosing.”

*Link goes to the Netflix page, it’s available on Streaming until 1/5/2011