I ask you “what is the difference between a war game and a live action role playing game?” For me the line isn’t so easy to see because I think that if you are going through the motions of pretending to be someone you are not or that you have a position, skills, or rank that you do not normally have then you have slipped into the realm of LARP.
I present to you a short video produced by RunAwayBox.com known as “The Great Office War.”
In my opinion these guys have travelled the path of a mere combat game and ran straight into the realm of live action role playing. Here are the subtle differences that tell me that they have crossed the line:
- There is a clear leader to each team. This shows that they are assigning a rank that does not exist to a person that does. That smacks of the make-believe.
- They are clearly role playing their wounds and deaths. I’m not sure that I need to get into details here. They are acting… it’s that easy.
- Little puffs of doom. I love how they use foam peanuts to represent guts and explosions. If there was any doubt in my mind that this had gone beyond a simple war game then the foam peanuts being used to augment the scenery certainly dispelled any questions in my mind.
- It’s clearly supposed to be a movie. Ok, so in this case it’s clear – these people are making a 5 minute action flick complete with ’special effects’ and a final showdown. But I have never seen a war game caught take it to that level. Why? I believe war games are just about the kill/victory and this scene was clearly about a much deeper creature within all of us – office boredom.
In short my point is this: LARP can be created out of anywhere at any time with any particular motivation – no matter how mundane it is. You certainly don’t have to pretend to be someone else to be involved in an imaginary scene where you do something you wouldn’t normally do. In this case RunAwayBox.com brilliantly combined a common theme with senseless violence for what can only be considered an epic day at the office. I’d choose that over a slow mind numbing death, er… day at the office any day.
With that in mind I have a proposition to make. NERF has made is very easy for office podlings to spice up their day with a little foam dart action. Why not make it a regular thing?
I remember playing basketball every lunch hour with my cubicle colleagues as away to stretch the legs, get some exercise and most of all give our minds a break from the dulled state that our work had caused. Why not throw a good game of capture the flag, or manhunt into the work week?!
Personally I don’t find it a lot of fun to run around until I get shot and then look at the guy and say “well, I guess you got me.” I would much rather put some action into it! Dying with style take effort and the dramatic aspects of this simple act can be rather fun. Why deny yourself that simple pleasure?
Of course once you put on your acting face then you might be stretching into role playing… and I’m not sure how the office would handle that. Frankly, I don’t care … but that’s your call to make.
All the best in your future larp endeavours,
Kevin Tjia
PS: to give credit where credit is due I found this video due to http://www.geekadelphia.com/.
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