Anti-LARP?

dsweet06

Newbie
Hi everyone!

Does anyone know if there are official groups who are Anti-Larp? People who have problems with our community?

OR

Who would you say is a community that is contradictory to ours?

Thanks!
 
I've been made fun of by other "Geek" groups. I thought it was funny. They were table topping (which is cool in its own right) and the only girl there was a larper. Something like 10 guys for every girl.
The larp that we play is 40 to 45 % female. We rock.


Tab
 
Most people in the gaming industry (be it computer games, table top, miniatures, etc.) see LARPing as 'going over the deep end' since you're taken it off the table and have personalized it with your own life. Even the SCA sees LARPing as weird (If yer going to dress up, do it 'for real' and use real armor and heavy weapons). So, I hate to say it but out biggest enemy is the gaming industry.
 
markusdark said:
Most people in the gaming industry (be it computer games, table top, miniatures, etc.) see LARPing as 'going over the deep end' since you're taken it off the table and have personalized it with your own life. Even the SCA sees LARPing as weird (If yer going to dress up, do it 'for real' and use real armor and heavy weapons). So, I hate to say it but out biggest enemy is the gaming industry.

To be fair, that SCA mindset is primarily owned by the heavy fighters. Rapier fighters and non-fighters are more open-minded in my experience.
 
It always makes me laugh when geeks who do nothing but sit around a table rolling dice look at us as if we're beneath them. Hey, we're dealing with real people, getting exercise, and we even have girls playing, too! :D
 
I'm not raining on your parade; please do not misunderstand my next comment ...

When it comes to anti-LARPers -- I COULD CARE LESS.

This is why I have no idea what kind of group could possibly be against a bunch of people going off to rent a camp and run around in costume playing pretend with a bunch of great folks who have such love and respect for each other.

Anti_LARPers are beneath contempt ... I mean, I COULD CARE LESS -- I'm having too much fun.

(Maybe, though, people who also think that reading Harry Potter books, or dressing up for Halloween, makes one a devil worshiper might have some problems with the idea of people playing magic pretend).
 
Ondreij said:
I'm not raining on your parade; please do not misunderstand my next comment ...

When it comes to anti-LARPers -- I COULD CARE LESS.

I understand that sentiment. But if we are perceived as a bunch of nut jobs who have underaged sex and bathe once a lunar cycle, then it could be hard to get more people to join up. (all of which I have heard applied to NERO/Alliance and are, of course, completely untrue).
 
People who actually know what LARP is (and don't play) aren't active enough to create a group. I used to be one of those guys eating chips and drinking dew around a table. I used to talk down about LARP. Then I grew up, stopped caring about what people thought and actually tried it. Allow me to publicly apologize for any bad thing I have ever said about LARPing. I love it!
 
Hmmm.... a quick Google search found me this: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2 ... 2204433480

My thoughts:
-At the end of the day, people mock something either because they are afraid of it, or because they need to feel better about themselves.
-LARPers already feel good enough about themselves to stop caring if we look silly, and enjoy a great hobby with incredibly creative and talented people.
-Who am I to begrudge the haters their defense mechanisms? They'll figure it out someday.
 
I am president of a LARPing/D&D/ card game club in my high school and most people are open minded about it, but then again, a lot of people just give it a bad rep because they think we're the stereotypes who are show so widely. I actually did a presentation on LARP in one of my classes and a bunch of people thought it was really interesting and a few want to try. I think it's just people being biased that causes dislike.
 
Morganne said:
Hmmm.... a quick Google search found me this: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2 ... 2204433480
That's just repulsive. We're doing something that we get exercise from, allows us to exhibit our creativity, and lets us hang out with our friends, and why should anyone have anything against that. I'm not a big fan of what non-LARPers call their "sports" (numerous people I have talked to say that LARP is nothing like a sport, which they are wrong about on many counts), but I don't go around saying that people in football gear, etc, look stupid (though a lot of what they wear is equally as funny looking, if not more so, than a lot of LARP clothes). As I say, if throwing an oddly shaped ball and tackling each other captivates a vast majority of the nation, why is LARPing so frowned upon? (Sorry to any of you who like football. I don't, and it's just my example sport I use for such things as this.)

Anti-LARPers are just people who don't have enough open-mindedness and imagination to fill a shot glass. If doing something fun and exercising with my friends is something stupid, then I might as well tell them that the only way to not have something stupid is to abolish all sports, activities, and games whatsoever.
 
The anti-larp group on Facebook is actually somewhat funny if you read the comments.
 
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.
 
Morganne said:
-Who am I to begrudge the haters their defense mechanisms? They'll figure it out someday.

I think what people are failing to realize is the impact that the 'haters' can have on the hobby. What does it matter if someone is bad mouthing LARPs? Well other people hear it, they spread what they've heard (because there's no one touting the positives of LARPs because they're just ignoring the haters) and soon you have a newspaper article how a couple people arrested for attempted **** and murder play in a LARP and that probably helped drive them towards such acts (again a real news article).

Yes, I agree such a conjecture is stupid, but just 'ignoring' those that badmouth LARPs means that that is the only side society hears. And we can call them 'small minded' as much as we want but without an opposing viewpoint there for them to take in, it is the only fact.
 
Respectfully, Mark, I didn't say to ignore it. I said I'm not going to begrudge it, i.e. wish them ill and waste emotional energy on it.

Does this matter to our community? In a sense. It matters enough to know that we need to work on positive PR (which we are), be positive activists for our hobby (and most of our players/staffers do just that) and be aware of the negative perceptions - both to know where they're accurate, where they're not, and how we are perceived.

Does it matter to the sense we need to get all upset or up in arms? Not in my opinion. No one is going to like everything anyone does. It's one of the beauties of our country that as much as we have the right to let our geek flags fly, they have the right to point and laugh at us for it.
 
markusdark said:
What does it matter if someone is bad mouthing LARPs? Well other people hear it, they spread what they've heard (because there's no one touting the positives of LARPs because they're just ignoring the haters)
Actually, this exact phenomenon is preventing me from pulling about a dozen players right now. There is a 'Boffer-Fighting' group that meets in a nearby park every few Saturdays. They gather more people then we do at events some times. I've tried numerous times to go down there, feel them out, seed some info (in an attempt not to be too overt, since that usually goes over poorly), and gauge some of their people's interest. Thing is, interest exists, but it can't be taken advantage of. There are a few people at the 'top' of their group (either by popularity or by 'organizer/"I bring a lot of weapons"/whatever' status) that have had some kind of bad experience with some larp at some point, and they've convinced the entire rest of the group that it's lame. Any interest I get is quickly suppressed by other people there, and no one wants to go out on a limb and get branded a 'larper' by the rest of the group, because that makes them lame.
 
WE ARE NERDS.

It's as simple as that.

I am a licensed amateur radio operator. Hams are nerds.

I am a linux user. Linux people are nerds.

I love science shows, reading Scientific American and Astronomy magazine. Nerds, all.

I am a LARPer. Nerds, again.

We are not mainstream. I doubt we will ever be mainstream.

If you can't accept that, then you can't be a nerd, and still love yourself.

I love myself. I accept my nerdiness-- in fact, I wear it with pride; my wife (who is not a nerd) loves me, partly because I am such a nerd. I am that guy in "The Revenge of the Nerds" who's girlfriend says "I'm in love with a nerd."

NERDS RULE.

If we are to grow in membership, our best hope is to look for the nerds of the world and invite them to join us.

But, unlike a lot of nerds, we like being in the outdoors, running around, being active, relating to other nerds who are our friends. We're not just a bunch of couch potatoes, sitting in front of our computer screens or over a table.

Now ... those weird table-toppers and WOWers ... I just can't understand them; they're too weird for me. :lol:
 
Ondreij said:
WE ARE NERDS.

Nerds are fine. Heck, there have even been some good movies about Nerds. However, Nerds that fantasize about having 'relations' with bugs bunny is another matter.

I don't believe we should be 'up in arms' but I also don't believe we should take a stoic stance either. Most of main involvement in LARPs for the last 10 years has been promoting LARPs in a positive light outside of the community. Granted, it has been slow and met with quite a bit of resistance from some of the strangest sources. However, some of my efforts helped to get a real LARPer as the technical adviser for the movie Role Models.
 
The way I see it is this. For recruiting purposes it quite honestly does not matter how little public goodwill there is, if we can't provide a game that will hook new players and make them want to come back despite it.
 
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