It's a remarkable film. It's about a young Norwegian man, Mats Steen, who had a degenerative musculature disease and died aged 25. His parents were frustrated that his illness had meant he could never make friends, never find love and never have an impact on the world. They were therefore astonished when, upon his death, it transpired he'd done all these things in the 20,000 hours he'd spent in World of Warcraft. It's a very touching film, mixing archive footage, interviews and in-WoW footage (about equal parts each); lots of people in the audience were crying at the end — not through sadness, but through happiness for him. The film has been shown in cinemas in Norway, will soon be on Netflix and is probably going to be shortlisted for an oscar.
I was the only games person there, meaning I'd spent 6,000 hours in WoW more than anyone else. I got to speak to the Norwegian Deputy Ambassador, along with the wife of the actual Ambassador. I got to speak to film directors. I got to speak to the woman who decides whether people who apply for UK honours for overseas people get one or not; she later lost her phone and had to borrow mine to try to find it by calling it, then borrow it again to use as a torch to find it. (Hmm, that means I have her phone number. Luckily, I'm not corrupt, and neither is she).
I also spoke to the director of the film, Benjamin Ree. I told him that creating a world as a place where people could go to be who they are, and find out who they are if they didn't yet know, was exactly what Roy and I were doing with MUD. I asked him if he had wanted to interview players but they'd turned him down because they didn't want to appear on screen. He said yes, this had indeed happened. That's actually good, in my view; it means the magic still works.
The most perceptive person I heard speak was the father of Mats, Robert Steen. He was very eloquent and insightful. He said he and his wife, Trude (who was also there) had lived with their son under the same roof for 25 years and yet there was so much they didn't know about him, and they questioned how this could be. He then extrapolated this to everyone else: you can live with someone for decades, but people really live in their heads and you never know what's going on in there unless they tell you. I'd have liked to have had a chat with him, but so did everyone else and I had a train to catch.
There's a memorial to Mats Steen, or Ibelin, as his character is known, in World of Warcraft. Every year, on the anniversary of his death, his former guild mates meet up there. After the release of this film, they may not be alone there.
Strangely, none of the people I spoke to had heard of Who Killed Miss Norway, a similar story with a somewhat different denouement.