While you were busy sucking back milkshakes and dancing the two-step, Montreal-based artist Jon Rafman was descending deeper and deeper into the world of competitive gaming. And we don't mean FarmVille. In 2009, right around the time of the mega-release of Street Fighter IV, Rafman spent months on end hanging out at the now-shuttered Chinatown Fair, Manhattan's premiere arcade. He befriended its patrons, learned their ways, and became immersed in their culture. Now, he's emerged with Codes of Honor, a hypnotic 14 minute film about the ideas, motivations, rivalries and memories that lie beneath the joystick.

Rafman prefaced his film with a short essay, which you can and should check out here. A small sampling, in the artist's own words:

When I found the legend of Eddie Lee, I found the center to my film. In order to portray the tension between regret for the time spent playing without a visible legacy and nostalgia for the thrill of the game, I integrate three perspectives: i) a narrator in a virtual world who reminisces about his days as a pro-gamer, ii) a Chinatown Fair regular who recounts his greatest memory, and iii) classic cut-scenes from the games themselves. In this way, Codes of Honor moves through actual, virtual, and imaginary space and time.

And without further ado, Codes of Honor.