We’ve all heard the warnings: addiction, isolation, a waste of time. But some 50 million people log on to online role-playing games like The Sims and Second Life—and many of them never log off. The makers of a new documentary called “Second Skin,” which hits theaters in September, followed seven hard-core gamers to find out why. Victor Piñeiro, the film’s producer, spoke with NEWSWEEK’s Jessica Bennett:
It all started with a teacher friend who got so into Star Wars Galaxy that he was leading a double life. He’d run home from work during lunch, 10 blocks, to check what was going on inside the game. He was staying up all night and would show up to class with bags under his eyes. From the outside it looked crazy. But from the inside it was kind of amazing. He’d become the mayor of his town and was leading hundreds of people.
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