This is a new documentary that has just dropped on Netflix. Mats Steen, a Norwegian gamer, died of a degenerative muscular disease at the age of 25. His parents mourned what they thought had been a lonely and isolated life when they started receiving messages from online friends around the world after posting a message about his death on his blog.
The secret life of the young World of Warcraft gamer is vividly reimagined using the actual conversations he had from the game where he role-played a character called Ibelin. The game was his sanctuary where he was free from his disability and felt that he could relate to people on an equal footing.
At his funeral, his father relates how his parent’s greatest sorrow was that he would never know love, never have friendships, or make a difference in another person’s life. But they were wrong, he had found a way through his own resourcefulness.
What follows is the story of his alternate life in this virtual told in his own words and by those who knew him. It is a life of ups and downs, with the black cloud of him physically getting weaker in the background.
I’m giving this documentary, a tale of success against adversity five stars and strongly recommend you watch it.
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