Tag: LARP Debate

I was in email correspondence with a fellow LARPer and acquaintance not long back when a couple of lines they wrote wrote struck a chord with me, “I have made progress (regarding LARP outreach and united hobby growth) in this area, but I have but one voice. A group of us, united by our common interest to unify the hobby will have that much more clout. “I feel it falls to … this group of people that look beyond the singular interests of a specific LARP group, to make this happen.” My reply back included a challenge, which I…

Read More

I was participating in a discussion a while back and a Pat Riley quote was tossed out in a reply by an individual who goes by the username of Elena. The quote read, “When a milestone is conquered, the subtle erosion called entitlement begins its consuming grind. The team regards its greatness as a trait and a right. Half hearted effort becomes habit and saps a champion.” As the person providing the quote didn’t note who said it I did a Google search to track down the original author. In the process of doing that search I stumbled upon…

Read More

Three years ago I wrote a paper (pdf) (yes, I’m pulling out that paper one more time) for some British LARP friends because they were curious about the US LARP Hobby and the state of the hobby here in the US. A recent article by Kevin Tjia entitled “Has LARP Evolved?” got me thinking and I figured it was time to take a critical look at the hobby as it stands today. Before I get into the meat of this article I feel a need to note a couple caveats: Just as there are those who are wanting to…

Read More

This week’s column has been inspired by a friend and fellow LARPer, Maria. She referenced a series of other articles written on this topic called Gender and Live-Action Role Play and then posed the following, “I am curious if the split between theatre style and combat larp is also relevant in terms of gendered attendance.” I read through the articles referenced to see what the author of them had to share on the subject I was rather shocked and aghast at what I’d read. Beyond the massive amount of page real estate taken up by the author just talking…

Read More

A short while back I was chatting with a fellow LARPer and they referred to the LARP hobby as a sport and it got me thinking, is LARPing a form of art or a type of sport? I briefly touched on the sport-like aspects of the hobby within a short paper(PDF) I wrote in 2006 for some British LARPing friends who wanted to know more about the state of the hobby over here in the States. I feel that this question could use some clarification and exploration beyond what was covered in that paper. I think it’s best to…

Read More