I have always thought that you can LARP participants can use their experiences at their events to help them grow in their lives. For instance, I can think of a few LARP players who were too shy or nervous to approach certain topics within themselves but at their character they could muster the resolve to give it the ol’ college try.
And it worked. Before long they were integrating these lessons into their lives without having to feel like there was going to be a tremendous fallout for failure.
I believe that there is a chance for social mentoring in an environment where approaching the question doesn’t have a lot of fall-out based on their in game actions. However I do recognize that if a person is willing and able to do so as their character then there is probably a part of them that wanted to experiment with the topic regardless.
It would seem that this idea has caught on to more than just learning in a LARP environment to change your life. The makers of Quest for Glory have expanded their game world into an online virtual school; the School for Heroes.
In a recent interview with Alex Raymond of the Iris Gaming Network Lori Cole, the creator of Quest for Glory and the School for Heroes, explains that it is the school’s function to help provide those that enroll with real life skills based on the teachings of their virtual medieval fantasy mentors.
It is a real school in many senses. Just because the teachers live in a fantasy world does not mean they can’t teach real world lessons and ideals.
Some of the classes focus more on real life Heroism. Wizards actually concentrate more on fantasy and creative writing exercises. Paladins work on doing things in the real world to make a difference in the lives of other people. Warriors work on leadership skills. Bards learn to use their creative talents to inspire and educate.
- Lori Cole
At this point I’m hearing Nathan Fillion’s “Everyon’e a Hero” as performed in Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog, and in essence that is exactly what the School for Heroes is trying to convey.
The full interview can be found within the article section at the Iris Gaming Network and if you are looking for a link to the school itself within the article then you are out of luck – for some reason they didn’t make it a part of the article.
Which is exactly why I’m posting it here: The School for Heroes.
Cheers,
Kevin Tjia
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