IRL - A Blood Elf Paladin's Lament
IRL is a short, extremely well made documentary about the effects of WoW addiction produced by film student Anthony Rosner. It looks at time, money, and opportunities spent on the MMO over the course of six years - but while the approach may be lighthearted, the message remains just as pertinent.
If you have played World of Warcraft, or indeed, any other game that can easily consume so much time and money for a significant period of your life, you'll understand IRL from the beginning. For many, though, the addictive nature of such games is still a pretty alien concept - and Anthony does an excellent job of examining and explaining it.
As a teenager, WoW can easily become a substitute for socializing. If you're not all that sure of yourself and you don't have the confidence to put yourself out there, the chance to step into the shoes of a dragon slaying hero is hard to resist. Sure, you'll make friends, they'll be hunters, rogues, warriors and shamans, and you'll fight side by side for riches, legendary weapons, and acclaim across the land. It can easily fill a void for a time, and it's easy to become comfortable within it. It's fun, challenging, and can be extremely rewarding, but sometimes you do have to sit back and ask "Am I playing this because it's fun? Or am I playing it because I'm unhappy?"
IRL essentially asks this question, and does so in a very respectable fashion. It doesn't vilify WoW or gaming in any way, and even nods to the MMO's ability to bring people who normally would never have met together, it is simply a story of one man, and six years of his young life. Not for one moment does IRL suggest that WoW is evil, that the game itself was actively ruining his life, but that he was simply using it as a way of avoiding his own potential. The documentary is humble and never preachy, which makes the message hit home all the more.
Not only is IRL brilliant on an emotional level - what Anthony's trying to say is never lost in translation, the video's accessible to gamers and non gamers alike - but technically it shines, and it's a definitive example of just how great video game art can be. It's a raw diamond amongst a growing coal pile of shoddy and desperate machinima craving their YouTube partnerships.
There are more than a few reasons people get addicted to gaming - love lives, or lack thereof, unemployment, depression, or just a general lack of enthusiasm for everyday parts of life such as work, college, and friends and family. It can be a welcome respite from some of the unpleasant aspects of the modern world, but it should never replace it entirely. All the achievements, all of the epic gear drops, all of the mounts and the titles - none of it will ever compare to what you could achieve IRL if you put your mind to it.
You can find IRL on facebook here: http://www.facebook.com/irlmovie
-SZ
