The Remarkable Life of Ibelin - A beautiful story about the importance of online gaming communities.
- Danny Humby
- Oct 29, 2024
- 3 min read
I've been really fortunate for large periods of my life to have social groups that have regularly come together online to chat and play video games. Throughout difficult times at school, I remember regularly finding joy from being able to jump on Xbox Live and play with my friends. It was a similar feeling I felt later in life when the same happened throughout the lonelier times in lockdowns. It's always been a good escape for me, and from what I understand, lots of my male friends too. Truthfully in all those times, I'd never once thought about how much it could benefit those who are less able in other aspects of life until I watched The Remarkable Life of Ibelin.
The documentary, now on Netflix, tells the story of Mats Steen, his love of World of Warcraft and the impact he had on his online community. Unfortunately, he was diagnosed with a degenerative muscular disease quite young and therefore, at least from the perspective of his parents, had quite limited life opportunities until his passing aged 25. However, that didn't turn out to be the case because thanks to World of Warcraft, he actually managed to live a meaningful life where he fell in love, made friends and experienced the world all through an online video game.
With a really touching story at his disposal, Benjamin Ree, the Director, uses really interesting storytelling techniques to help bring this story to life. Whilst at the beginning it focuses on using the more traditional methods of talking heads and home videos, the documentary later transitions to recreations of the conversations that Mats Steen (or Ibelin in game) had with others using the World of Warcraft engine. This was made possible becuase his parents were given copies of all his gamelogs and transcripts from years of playing the game upon discovery of their childs involvement in a World of Warcraft guild (which is like a club/society for those who don't know). It is these gamelogs that Ree uses to help paint the picture of the impact Steen had on others using the in game recreations and the more traditional talking heads to convey to the audience the type of person Mats Steen was.
The documentary made me think a lot about the friendships I had built, and the friendships I continue to grow, through online gaming. It made me reminsice about happy memories growing up, as well as feel incredible gratitude that I still had friends to game with to this day. It is both a incredibly happy story and a sad story at the same time. There are moments where I cried with joy whilst watching, followed swiftly by feeling overwhelmed with sadness.
I think if you are someone who has experienced the benefits of online gaming with friends in your lifetime, then this is a documentary for you. Although it is fairly slow paced towards the beginning, overall it tells the story of Mats Steen really well. I actually felt quite inspired watching it as he was clearly a really nice and caring person who continued to be that no matter what life threw at him. It's easy to forget sometimes I think how much the smallest of interactions can have on someone else and I feel like this documentary did a really good job of how much impact you can have without realising it. I think that it's also worth watching if you are someone that hasn't quite understood how online gaming can help people as the story highlights how your outlook on everything can change postively just by interacting with people you've never met.
Rest In Peace Mats Steen.
5 out of 5.
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