I have played games since I was a child and struggled for many years with people who thought online games were dumb and action games made you chaotic. I considered this an opportunity to present some insights into what gaming can really entail: passion, camaraderie, and experiences that cannot be obtained in real life. ~ Ben Dressler

Let’s face it, a gamer’s lifestyle is something not many people understand / AFK The film looks at the life of a video gamer who was asked to give up the one thing he has ever enjoyed: World of Warcraft.

For people who don’t play video games, that’s called quitting smoking. For hardcore gamers and MMORPG players around the world, this is known as “Euthanasia.”

The film examines what life is like to get away from the computer keyboard, to cut out the one thing you love to do, simply because you realize that it controls everything you do. But what is the little difference between loving video games and being addicted to them? Does it make a difference and should we even care?

The / AFK The Movie topic covers World of Warcraft and also online games. But you don’t have to know the difference between Horde and Alliance to connect with the movie. We are all addicted to something, be it cell phones, websites, video games, or candy (or even a dangerous combination of the 4). Get away from your cell phone for 1 day and find out how it responds. Is a cell phone so different from a video game? Exactly why is one an addiction and the other just a habit?

I spoke to Ben Dressler, the filmmaker who brought / AFK to life.

How was the process of creating the film and, from his point of view, what message he wanted to convey to the players and those who told the so-called “addicts” that they should stop:

JHS: What inspired you to do the script? Did you feel like you liked writing something that could speak “for all WOW players”?

2 things. First of all, the feeling that no one had done this in the past. I think it’s really unusual that you have a concept that is unique and is not really available. When I saw Memento for the first time, I was so impressed that after a long time making movies, someone came up with something so inventive. And while we weren’t the first to combine live action video and video games, I don’t know of any movies that have done it as well as we have.

Second, I wanted to have a video game stand. I have played games since I was a child and fought for many years with people who thought online games were dumb and action games made you violent. I considered this an opportunity to show an idea of ​​what games can really encompass: passion, companionship and experiences that cannot be obtained in real life.

JHS: In your own point of view, why do people want to leave the “gamer” lifestyle?

In fact, I think they just don’t taste much better. The main character of / AFK says at some point: It’s not just me sitting in front of a colored window. “But that’s precisely what people see every time they see someone” play. “They don’t see what you think, feel. or even experiment while playing. I’ve had many people who watched me play WoW and thought it was really boring. But when I let them play for an hour or more, they would buy the game themselves. Fortunately, people who have gaming experience will grow into important positions such as journalism or politics.

JHS: You mentioned that you basically had no budget because you couldn’t make money off the movie. What kind of restrictions did that impose on you as a filmmaker?

Since I knew there would be no budget from the start, I could focus on writing a script that didn’t deal with many characters and locations. We had five days of shooting a 25-minute movie with a very small crew. And since I didn’t want to rush the actors too much, there was little time left for the camera and the lighting unit. We also couldn’t afford to buy a lot of accessories, so we needed to work with everything we had in our homes. The main character’s room is made of geeky material of ten people combined.

Basically, it came down to getting a lot of favors and using the best that already existed. I think if you choose to work with that restriction, it will easily lead you to new and creative ways of telling your story. Although I recently read that German filmmakers particularly enter Hollywood mainly because they can make low-cost movies that look like expensive movies. Well that’s flattering isn’t it?

JHS: What would you say to people dealing with people who ask them to “quit video games”?

It’s really difficult to give a general answer to that because it depends on the situations. Normally, I would recommend trying to let those people know very well what games mean to you. Determine why they think the games are stupid and show that you understand them too and that you take their concerns seriously. Don’t just dive into retaliation mode. When I was in college, I used to talk to my parents about the games I hoped to play and what I liked about them. Usually I can get them to relate to that in some way.

JHS: Based on the insufficient success of some major movies, it seems very challenging to take the concept of a video game and turn it into a movie, with few movies striving to “get into” the life of BEING a gamer. . What was your experience in this regard?

I think there are two types of game movies … Adaptations and science fiction movies. The adaptations are almost always horrible OR just solid action movies with the name of the game in the title … And yes, there are hardly any movies about real gamers; To be honest, I can’t name just one. And I’m kind of in awe of that!

But it’s difficult, and I think the people who make it need to know video games as fully as movies … My point is that to really learn from video games as a medium, filmmakers need to understand how a game tells its story, what is can translate and what not.

JHS: What does WOW offer that hardly any other game on the face of the earth offers?

Honestly, there are a couple of games on earth that I haven’t played yet! However, I think WoW did and does an incredible job of making hardcore games available to many people. In the days of EverQuest, MMORPGs were a very unique genre that even most players didn’t know about or didn’t care about. These days, you will attack with people who would not even see themselves as a true gamer. And yes, it might be groundbreaking work that no other game can repeat.