Recently on the yahoo gaming group that the Discourser, Ntt, the Supergoober, the Perfect Line and Myself all belong to there has been many a post and discussion about the term LARPing. The Discourser has found many a video on Youtube regarding these pathetic individuals which has angered the Perfect Line into saying, and I quote loosely "F*** some people need to step up and let the world know that not ALL role players are the f***ing anal crust of the earth. I mean these people are the little balls of toilet paper that get stuck in your a** hair, they are the farts that stain your titey whities, ". Wow RB, tell us how you REALLY feel....LOL. It's true though. It's very scary. Now, LARPing for those that are fortunate to not know, stands for Live Action Role Playing. Basically what we gamers do but for real. Yep, instead of the character being on a piece of paper and rolling dice, etc, these freaks dress up in bad costumes and wield padded sticks that are covered in duct tape and "look" like swords, axes etc. Trust me, do a search on Youtube for "LARP" and you will get some of the most funniest, but scariest because they are true, videos of these "people". These guys go out to playgrounds, private homes, campsites, wherever and run around and hit each other with swords. Some of them play Wizards and throw little foam bolts of lightning shouting "Lightning bolt. Lightning bolt." It's very sad. Now I know what you may be thinking; but Steve, you used to do Ren Faire and Dickens Fair. Yep I did. The difference, I was performing for an audience. I didn't live the life of the characters I portrayed. When Fair was over, I changed into street clothes and became "Steve" again....actually most of the day I was "Steve playing a part in a performance". I never for once believed I was "Talon" the Pirate at Ren Faired. I knew that the "Cardiff Rose" wasn't a real Pirate Ship but a ficticious background story and setting that all of us who worked for Greg Pursley's Fencing Booth at Ren Faire shared so we could portray our characters better. It's like when the Royal Shakes puts on MacBeth.......everyone on stage pretends they are in Scotland, even though they are actually in a building in London. LARPers often times don't make the distinction between reality and fantasy. The majority of the LARPers I ran into at gaming conventions were the Vampire types. Oh they thought they were cool and mysterious. They weren't a part of the convention per se (kind of like Mickey Mouse is part of Disneyland so he/she has to be "Mickey Mouse" while out in the park) they are just participants like me and everyone else. They walk around all day though, even when not part of a game, pretending to be Vampires. I used to piss them off by giving them grief about being a vampire. I'd suggest that if they really were Vampires, they wouldn't be walking around a hotel lobby with lots of windows during the day. I'd also suggest they go outside and stand in the sun to prove that they were real vampires (hey if they were, then I'd be a hero by killing off the evil night creatures that they are........). Performing in costume is fun, but when the performance is done it's time to get back to the real world. Celebrities hate it when people ask them about episodes and stuff. Claudia Christen (of Babylon 5 fame) came to our fencing booth at Faire one year. Her friend John (not a celebrity) is a fencer and knows Greg and she wanted a fencing lesson. She was relieved that we weren't asking her a billion questions about the show. We as a group actually had a better time just hanging out and talking fencing with her. Celebrities don't remember how they "felt" when the aliens were attacking them. Most actors "feel" what the director tells them to "feel" when filming, and most "aliens" aren't even there when the episode is filmed. Oh yeah, and they often film stuff way out of sequence and edit it together later. Anyway, back on rant.......
LARPers are the kind of Geeks that real Geeks want to beat up. Now I will close because I've given them way more time than they deserve.
7 comments:
you are officially the worlds biggest douche bag, no need to extrapolate.
Yep that's me.....the world's biggest douche bag......like I care what a LARPer thinks of me......
well since you care..... ill let you know....... that your..... a none factual..... cock smoker......
You just prove my point about LARPers being socially inept. Instead of trying to educate me or to prove me wrong, you resort to childish name calling. Way to debate there Seamonkey.....I disagree with your opinion so you suck....real mature reply. How about giving me examples of how wrong I am. Having been to numerous Gaming Conventions, I've seen my share of LARPers, and they are all the same from what I can tell. Nothing wrong with putting on a costume and expressing yourself in a performance, but when the lights go down and the curtain falls we are just us....not Vampires, not Knights, not some "wizard" in a kilt throwing foam lightning bolts.....
Let me start off by saying if you had said anything like that to anyone about anything in that way and using that thought process to be critical you would get a very similar response. first of all you dont know many larpers, we dont throw nerf lightning bolts. we throw small beanbags made from cloth and bird seed, and larpers dont do what we do because we autchly think we are knights. when you play a rpg or a mmorpg you play a wizard, or a knight. you dont autchly think your a knight, but you do it anyway. why? because its fun.
we do this to entertain our selves and those around us, and for most people its just a game, that extra step in to nerdyness instead of playing d&d at the table you go out and play that character. instead of getting hit by that slow moving ogre and yelling at the screen or the di "dodge or jump you jackass" you can exactly dodge or jump.
for some people it is a escape some people cant handle the stress of being joe plumber with 3 mortgages. So they feel good when they forget about all that stuff for a weekend and become kogath master of the town watch and laugh and have fun. am i going to judge that guy fuck no and if you think you can your a fool and a biger loser then i thought you were.
to sum it up larpers dont think we are actyouly rogues or mages. we just play a game similar to d&d and instead of sitting on our asses around the table we get up, strap on the armor, tape together a sword, and go kick some ass. WHY???
Because its fun!!
Hey, you met Claudia Christian? Cool! I would've totally asked questions about the making of the show.
Sad...
Alex, Yeah my friend Brian (not the Brian in the gaming group but another one) gave her a fencing lesson. She didn't want to wear the traditional white fencing outfit so I dressed her in my fencing leathers....when she was done I led her to the kegs in back and got her a beer. We did talk about the show, but it was more like technical stuff and what it was like doing a weekly TV show (insane schedule really.....)
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