Chazz said:
I cannot blame nor hate an Anti-LARPer if they have seen Monster Camp.
Myeah, alright, this was bound to come up sooner or later.
Originally, I was ok with Monster Camp. It was filmed in my chapter (half while I was banned, and entirely before I was staff), and I know nearly everyone in it. Hell,
I'm in it, for about 10 seconds. About a year ago, I really started looking at it again, and intentionally from the perspective of people who didn't know nearly everyone involved (which entailed actually watching it with new people). We look way worse then I originally thought. Originally, I assumed that they looked at the 'worst of the worst' people for parts of the movie because they were the only ones who would agree to it (which was partially true, we've got 'respectable folk,' (the doctor/lawyer types) who wouldn't agree to interview with them), but the more I look at it, the more I think it was done intentionally.
In hindsight, this is more obvious:
Fern, the redhead guy who brought the new girl, never played again after the movie was filmed, and had only played spottily (once or twice per year for a couple years) before that.
The new girl he brought with never played again.
The two "didn't graduate high school guys"/"I'm unemployed and play video games all day"-"Hurr, yeah I hate all the people at my crappy retail job" had played once or twice before that, and never played again.
Val, the woman in the wheelchair,
actually had issues separating the game from real life, and quit playing shortly after the movie was made because of them.
Dave (the 'new owner') came out looking like a jackass due to editing (though he actually didn't show up to a very important game, his bad) and Shane (the 'old owner') came out looking like the 'reluctant good guy,' which was pretty much the opposite of how it actually went down.
Most of the editing removed some of the best stuff I saw them film, which I'm certain was due to many factors, but could have dramatically altered the way the movie was presented.
I've gotten to the point (especially considering some of the critic's reviews) that it's likely that some of it was quite intentional, which I really don't appreciate.
There's one part of the movie that stands out very clearly to me that
is positive, however.
At nearly exactly the 45 minute mark, there's Max, (who plays Ashe), who says "I happen to think that one of the best gifts you can give yourself is simply permission to go and pretend." I think that sums up the game pretty nicely.