LOGIN 2 LIFE

Filmmaker Daniel Moshel's LOGIN 2 LIFE joins the small genre of documentaries—including Second Skin (VL-9/09) and Life 2.0 (VL-11/11)—that focus on individuals who choose to spend much of their time inside multiplayer online-fantasy games and digital simulations, and it finds a few new cyber-wrinkles and ironies along the way. Debilitated by muscular dystrophy, Alice turned to the online world of Second Life, where her avatar may easily walk around, and where she also founded the Virtual Ability Island community, catering to the handicapped. Kevin is a Florida-based family man and practicing Christian who markets Second Life sex-oriented apps and inventions; indeed, within the game he enjoys an entirely different marriage (and body) with a highly eroticized other woman (supposedly his Florida wife doesn't mind...supposedly). A quadriplegic following a car wreck, Corey requires constant care (mostly from his mother), but via computer he plays World of Warcraft, a game with an economic system that gave him the idea to set up the household as a California medical-marijuana farm. Eventually, all of their lives, virtual and actual, will intersect here. LOGIN 2 LIFE also features World of Warcraft players in Europe and China (most Chinese players don't escape to high adventure, but reflect their real-life station by mining gold in the game for Western players in return for actual peasant-level earnings). Another fine exploration of the sociocultural intersection of real and virtual lives, this is recommended. Aud: C, P. (C. Cassady)