If you know absolutely nothing about Massively Multi-player Online Role Playing Games (MMORPG), Second Skin will get you up to speed in a hurry. Juan Carlos Pineiro Escoriaza's documentary specifically revolves around a group of players who are obsessed with the World of Warcraft game, spending every waking moment in front of their computers, lost in an animated, medieval world of honor, loyalty, battles, romance, ceremony, and gold, always the gold. But it's not just World of Warcroft that attracts players -- it could just as easily be Second Life, Everquest, or dozens of others.

The film wants us to know that MMORPG are not just for kids. Of the 50 million players, two-thirds are in the much coveted 18-35 age range. (Here is your lost audience, Hollywood.) The folks that appear on camera are, by and large, wonderfully pleasant people, well aware of the outsider status that gaming places upon them in the eyes of the general public and (mostly) not caring. As one of the interview subjects says, maybe there are better ways gamers could spend their time, but the same could be said for people who watch sports all day long, guys who tinker with their cars all night long, or, really, any other hobby on the face of the earth.

Second Skin pumps out a lot of on-screen facts, offers plenty of sincere testimony from gamers, talks to various experts, gives lip service to the idea that gamers come from all walks of life -- and then proceeds to reinforce many of the worst stereotypes about gamers.

With the enormous built in audience I suppose it was only a matter of time ... but do we REALLY need a movie based on the MMORPG World of Warcraft? Warner Brothers, through their Legendary Pictures arm will team up with Blizzard to produce this monstrosity based on the online fantasy world populated by six or so million users. No plot has been announced yet, as far as I can discover. WoW will become the latest in a rush of films trying to break through the negative stigma attached to film projects based on video games -- and it's nearly unrivaled video game audience may go a long way towards helping that goal.

The movie will undoubtedly focus around a grand fantasy adventure (I'm sorry, "quest") of some sort. Heaven only knows the universe is deep enough and rich enough to support any number of interesting/exciting fantasy stories; if a first film is successful the universe could certainly support plenty of sequels. However, I can't help but envision a movie full of cliched fantasy archetypal characters with names like Zathanditir and F'kkh'lyln repeatedly shouting poorly phrased insults at each other or getting "married" to people they've never actually met. Sometimes both simultaneously. If our lead characters ever manage to stop fighting with each other (the official movie announcement refers to this as "forming deep social relationships") they will then go out and kill a bunch of monsters so they can brag about how awesome they are now and tell their friends about the sweet new ring/hat/sword they just obtained.

It's probably a good thing I'm not in charge of making this movie, isn't it?

Disclaimer: Many of my good friends play MMORPGs, and I know they're quite enjoyable games. I do the occasional RPG myself, although I don't get into MMORPGs. I make fun of you because I love you. Really.