Watch Login 2 Life, Acclaimed Film About the Real Lives Behind the Avatars of SL & WoW Online Free This Week

Click here to watch Login 2 Life, an acclaimed feature documentary about the real lives behind several people in Second Life and World of Warcraft, for free online until this coming Sunday. (At which point it'll go offline to tour the film festival circuit in Europe.) It's about 90 minutes, mainly in English with German subtitles, and there's a few NSFW scenes. (The movie also features legendary SL sex impresario Stroker Serpentine.) Created by filmmaker Daniel Moshel, with SL machinima by Bernhard Drax (Draxtor Despres in SL), it features Alice Krueger, a woman with Multiple Sclerosis who founded Virtual Ability, a non-profit organization registered in Colorado, which connects a global community of disabled people in SL. In-world, Alice is better known as Gentle Heron. In it, she explains "how using Second Life has allowed [me] to continue to be part of an intellectual and service community through a peer group of people with disabilities who meet in a 3-D immersive virtual setting."

As you might imagine, shooting the real life portions where she appears were pretty challenging. As Alice puts it to me:

"This was not a 'one shot' deal," explains Gentle Heron. "Daniel was in the US several times, over several years, as you can tell by the progression of my disability... It was a little scary because it really exposes your whole life to the entire world. Sometimes Daniel asked me to do things I was not physically capable of doing, and once he asked me to do something I wasn't psychologically able to handle. But he respected when I said 'No', so it worked out."

Here's the movie's official online site. NWN alum Rik Riel has a review of the movie here and a good long interview with the director on Betterverse. You can also watch it in-world until Sunday at Nonprofit Commons. I haven't seen it yet, but hope to by Sunday. If you've seen it, please share your thoughts in Comments!

Comments

[Wizard Gynoid]

interesting point of view. it sensationalizes the cyber-sex angle again, which is not representative of the SL I know. it's sometimes difficult to follow since it's evidently intended for a German audience, so no English sub-titles when there are German speakers.

[draxtor]

Thank you for posting this Hamlet! Film is btw to 90% in English except for the German and Chinese segments. Quick correction: while I officially had the "machinima supervisor" [and composer] title Gianna Borgnine was our main Machinima-Maker! Quick word about scope: Daniel is quoted as saying he shot about 200 hours of RL footage from China over Sweden, Germany, France and the US - indeed a crazy crazy workload! In re Wizard's comment: no intent to sensationalize sex angle AT ALL - matter of fact the opposite: showing it without any editorial commentary - just as a business activity, coupled with Stroker's family life IMO succeeds! The film is a glimpse into lives is avoiding taking sides - by means of editing, music and machinima sequences...We are on for all international festivals now and US distribution via DVD and download in early 2012.

[Douglas Story]

I had the same reaction to the Stroker Serpentine segments that Wizzy did. I was rolling my eyes and thinking, "Here we go again. Another depiction of the typical SL resident as a middle-aged sex fiend." I wish that the sex angle had been left out of this documentary completely because ==that== is what people are going to take away from this and giggle with their friends about. I found it amazing that the guy's RL wife completely accepts his having a SL wife - there's one scene where she comes home from shopping and he has the laptop set up on the kitchen table, and is evidently bangin' his SL sweetie. "Hi honey, how was your day?" Whoa! That being said, the segments with Stroker were as fascinating as the rest, and seeing the decidely un-sexy process of recording SL sex animations with motion capture gear while fully clothed was quite amusing.

I was disappointed that I couldn't understand the segment on the Chinese gold-farming family, as I've always been interested in how that works. (I'll leave it to someone else to explain the term "gold-farming.")

Despite these few quibbles, I found the entire thing fascinating and at times moving. I loved how the director established a sense of place with the multiple location shots used, and Draxtor's score was effective and touching. Kudos to all concerned.

[SarahAndrea Royce]

The chinese farmer did not tell that much about how farming works.

Mainly his opener that regular WoW players don't hate farmers, but feel that they brought imbalance to the game, that he can survive in rural China from the earnings, but not in the metropoles. That his mother wished that he worked in a more profound profession but excepts that the chances are to few. That he likes to work at night, but that it screws up hes sleeping habbits, so he can only about 4 hours a night (or day). That he could earn more working in a farmingcompany (some sequences where shown of one) and that he likes the freedom he enjoys as a freelancer better. I think it was obvious that he does not only farm, but sometimes likes a bit playing too.

[Douglas Story]

Thank you for the translation! I liked the scene where he had his mother helping with the killing of monsters for profit. Family values in action.

"Gold farming," is the practice of repeatedly killing monsters for their gold an/or valuable objects, and then selling that gold to other players who pay for the privilege. Unlike Second Life, purchasing gold in this way is definitely against the rules, and I was hoping the documentary might shed some light on how the circumvent the games TOS.

[SarahAndrea Royce]

Ah, well, he told that he was banned because of his chinese IP once. But only once.

[foneco zuzu]

What amazes me in all i read is how a few seem to ignore that Sex is not Evil, not Bad, but as important as breathing, eating and as a fundamental part of our lives!
And that Sl at least gives many the oportunity to feel the gap that Rl hypocrite Morality tries to hide!

[DeeAnna Merz Nagel]

We LOVE this documentary and will be writing a review of the film in our next issue of TILT Magazine ~ Therapeutic Innovations in Light of Technology. Look for the magazine out early November.

[Pim_Peccable]

Loved this Documentary.
It shows Stroker as a family man as well as a business man. (How many would be surprised to know he leads his kids in a prayer of Grace at dinner?)

The piece on Gentle and VA was awesome!

Makes me want to get more active in that group.

This should help Late adopters understand a bit better

[draxtor]

Doug - when his wife walks in he is doing a promotional event - a weeding :) you dirty man you hihihi....the goldfarmer story is fascinating and very very important how it ties in with the global nature of these communities - if anyone wants transcript - ping me!

[draxtor]

and my spelling is getting worse with age - meant to say "wedding" not "weeding" whatever that would be :)