"A winner is one who accepts his failures and mistakes, picks up the pieces, and continues striving to reach his goals. "
~ Dexter Yager
Taking into consideration the wise words of Yager one must first apply a series of considerations in order to determine what failure or mistake is comprised of. Without taking this into an infinate debate of perception let me just say that “failure and mistake, when it comes to live action role playing, is entirely based on your own expectations, perceptions and beliefs.”
However this does not take away from the fundamanetal wisdom of the words of Yager; it merely provides us the chance to place them into context.
There are things about live action role playing that we, as those who LARP, are not happy with. Sure we are loyal to the game, our friends, and even at times the flaws that make up our LARP experience but I think that it is safe to say “there are flaws.”
Let’s take a moment to discuss exactly what is wrong with live action role playing. What is it that you don’t like about it? What are it’s weaknesses? What are it’s limitations? How would you argue AGAINST LARPing?
I propose to you a game (although one may call it an exercise) in which we explore the depths of the flaws of live action role playing, no matter the genre, game system, or style.
Like all games there are rules but the rules to this game are simple.
1. The game will be played through expression in the comments of this post.
2. You must not say anything positive about live action role playing.
3. You may create your own blog post that follows these rules and post a link in the comments to your blog so that we may find it.
4. Please, no blatent and unrequired profanity.
5. Do not attack a single game or rules set. (Although attacking a genre, or rule mechanic is certainly allowed.)
I urge you to express yourself in this conversation EXPECIALLY if you love to LARP. There is no better way to improve yourself or an activity that you love then attacking it’s weaknesses and then building it up to make it stronger than ever.
Go on now… lay into LARPing – give it all you’ve got! There’s nothing more healthy than a bitch-fest every now and again. I promise it won’t get offended.
Sincerely,
Kevin Tjia
Popularity: 23% [?]
Here’s a few problems:
Favoritism – staffers who give perks to their friends in the form of power, information, or items
Drama – people who treat the game as their life and drag LARP conflict into RL, even going to the extremes of trying to ruin people’s reputations and put their employment or relationship in jeopardy
Staff Apathy – things like refusing to enforce the game rules consistently, not putting effort into entertaining the players, etc. Can go hand in hand with Favortism
I would say that the lack of humor in much of the LARP community is very wrong with LARP. We’re generally a very defensive group, and get all up in arms about outsiders.
The infighting is wrong with LARP. The lack of community it causes is disturbing and creates a lot of the turnover of games, staff and players.
The fact that we don’t look nearly as cool doing our hobby during the day as we do at night is wrong with LARP. I want my friends to look like badasses ALL the time, not like Salvation Army refugees.