It is so easy to get wrapped up in the day-to-day of World of Warcraft and focus on how systems function - if some piece of content is too hard, too much of a grind, or too easy - and lose focus on what matters the most, the people we play with. I have often said the one thing that has kept me playing for 20 years is the people I play with, some of whom I have known since my earliest forays into WoW. The Remarkable Life of Ibelin offers a stark reminder of what makes MMOs - not just WoW - such a unique genre.
The documentary focuses on the life of Mats Steen, a Norwegian gamer who died from Duchenne muscular dystrophy (a degenerative muscular disease) when he was 25 years old. The journey through the documentary echos the journey Mats’ parents went on, which starts with his life in the “real world” and how they thought he had a very isolated life and didn’t understand the role World of Warcraft played for him - something many of us have likely experienced with our family and friends. However, when the narrative shifts to Mats’ life as Ibelin, we see the truth of how vibrant and connected his life truly was.
In addition to the treasure trove of home videos Mats’ dad had compiled over the years, there was also an extensive gold mine of information from the roleplaying guild Mats belonged to. The guild used a program to transcribe dialogue and descriptions of events, including participants' emotions during these events and stored them all in their forums. The documentary director, Benjamin Ree, took these transcripts, which read similarly to movie scripts, and created animations to bring these moments to life. To accomplish this, Ree partnered with a few WoW creators and Ibelin’s friends. The results are animations that don’t play as they did in WoW between 2010 - 2014 but accurately represent events the way the players experienced them.
A significant amount of time is spent detailing how different people met Ibelin and how he impacted their lives, sometimes in extraordinarily concrete and important ways. Just by being there for them and being open to really listening, Mats was able to forge genuine connections. As with all relationships, everything isn’t always perfect, and sometimes people make bad choices. Ree felt it was important to include some of these moments as well, and it went a long way toward the authenticity of the story.
What stood out to me the most is there were multiple times when things got complicated, and Mats could have chosen just to walk away from his friends and not return. I understand why he wouldn’t want to open up regarding what was going on in his real life; WoW was the one place where he could be free from his disease, and people could see him without that being a factor. He chose to return and open up about what was going on with him, which speaks volumes about how much he cared about his friends.
In addition to previewing the documentary, I also had the opportunity to speak with Brandon Ree about this project. During this discussion, he told me about how he made a character in World of Warcraft so he could meet Mats’ friends and they could show him the areas where various events took place. He explained the experience as follows:
“I understood how much time they spent together and the value of that. You know, everyone knows the feeling of being a child and running up to the neighbor and just hangout together for hours, and Mats and his friends would do that for five hours a day. They would spend a lot of time together. In my life today, I am lucky if I meet my best friend every second week, and then it’s a very tight schedule. We can meet at the cafe for 37 minutes and then we have to leave again.
So, the value of spending time together is something I really learned from making this film. In a way, this film is a celebration of online friendships and online communities… In the time they spent together Mats always asked the question ‘how are you doing?’ and he always meant it. He truly meant it, ‘how are you really doing?’ There’s so many ways to ask that question. He really wanted a real answer to that, and he prioritized. Those two factors together with spending much time together, are contributing factors to why around 50 people contacted the family after his passing, telling stories of how he fundamentally changed their lives.”
I’ve never been able to coherently communicate this to people who don’t understand why I enjoy MMOs so much. I’m not an extrovert and don’t quickly form new friendships. However, I have met so many people through MMOs, and WoW in particular, and one of the reasons these friendships have been forged so strongly over the years is because we have spent so much time together. The value of having unstructured time just to exist together can’t be overstated. I wish everyone had more access to it in their everyday adult life.
The Remarkable Life of Ibelin is a touching tribute to Mats Steen and a reminder to all of us to truly appreciate the people in our lives. Even if you don’t play online games, if someone you care about does, please give it a watch. It may help both of you understand each other a little bit better. The Remarkable Life of Ibelin is available on Netflix as of today, October 25th.
