{"id":418,"date":"2012-01-28T03:28:19","date_gmt":"2012-01-28T03:28:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bit-of-alright.com\/?p=418"},"modified":"2012-01-28T04:26:50","modified_gmt":"2012-01-28T04:26:50","slug":"grant-howitt-and-mary-hamilton-zombie-larp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/feral-vector.com\/?p=418","title":{"rendered":"Grant Howitt and Mary Hamilton: Zombie LARP"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Grant<\/a><\/p>\n

Here’s Grant with a\u00a0few words on\u00a0it: “I\u00a0run a\u00a0game with a\u00a0lot of\u00a0death in; most of\u00a0the\u00a0player characters will die once if not more than once at\u00a0every event. And\u00a0that’s fantastic, it’s just what we want, because that moment of\u00a0death is everyone’s character arc climax, as\u00a0short and\u00a0uncomplicated as\u00a0our character arcs tend to\u00a0be. Most of\u00a0the\u00a0best stories are about people dying\u00a0\u2014 and\u00a0the\u00a0other ones are about people almost dying then surviving in\u00a0the\u00a0nick of\u00a0time\u00a0\u2014 so we’re keen to\u00a0explore that. Why do people like dying in\u00a0our game? Why do players keep trying to\u00a0have dramatic last stands, even when it’s tactically foolish?<\/p>\n

How can we take a\u00a0thing that’s normally a\u00a0punishment, and\u00a0make it a\u00a0reward? How can people look forward to\u00a0their own deaths? We’ll have a\u00a0chat about that, basically, and\u00a0see if we can’t shed any wisdom onto our audience by\u00a0accident.”<\/p>\n

I\u00a0think LARP is an\u00a0unfortunately\u00a0awkward subject for\u00a0some people, and\u00a0it shouldn’t be. It’s undeservedly maligned in\u00a0comparison to\u00a0the\u00a0craft and\u00a0effort people put into it. Zombie LARP<\/a> take it much further than most people imagine LARP to\u00a0go, with sometimes elaborate costumes and\u00a0settings including appropriately abandoned shopping centres.<\/p>\n

There are two quotes related to\u00a0this, and\u00a0play in\u00a0general, that I\u00a0think are important. The\u00a0first is a\u00a0line from an\u00a0Achewood strip<\/a> I\u00a0saw via Tom Armitage<\/a>:<\/p>\n

“If you can’t have fun playin’ with a\u00a0toy truck, then it’s time to\u00a0re-evaluate<\/nobr> your life. You’ve become jaded.”<\/p>\n

The\u00a0second is something Holly Gramazio said in\u00a0her recent write up of\u00a0the\u00a0New Year Games<\/a>: “The\u00a0difference between trained actors in\u00a0costumes, and\u00a0a\u00a0member of\u00a0Hide&Seek in\u00a0a\u00a0plastic mask, is obvious; the\u00a0difference between a\u00a0huge maze of\u00a0woodwork in\u00a0a\u00a0cathedral, and\u00a0a\u00a0mass of\u00a0tape and\u00a0plastic chairs in\u00a0a\u00a0rehearsal room, means the\u00a0two versions aren\u2019t \u201cbasically the\u00a0same game\u201d, even if they have the\u00a0same rules.”<\/p>\n

On\u00a0one level, you might be running around with a\u00a0NERF gun, but on\u00a0another, you’re engaging with some important and\u00a0deeply human things: Mimicry, symbolism, roles and\u00a0projection. It’s somewhere between the\u00a0two poles of\u00a0complete imagination and\u00a0trained actors, but what are the\u00a0differences between doing this in\u00a0BAC, or\u00a0doing it online with Left 4 Dead? I\u00a0think that’s exactly what you should ask yourself on\u00a0the\u00a0day.<\/p>\n

In\u00a0between the\u00a0screams and\u00a0melodramatic gurgling, that is.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here’s Grant with a\u00a0few words on\u00a0it: “I\u00a0run a\u00a0game with a\u00a0lot of\u00a0death in; most of\u00a0the\u00a0player characters will die once if not more than once at\u00a0every event. And\u00a0that’s fantastic, it’s just what we want, because that moment of\u00a0death is everyone’s character arc climax, as\u00a0short and\u00a0uncomplicated as\u00a0our character arcs tend to\u00a0be. Most of\u00a0the\u00a0best stories are about people dying\u00a0\u2014 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,5,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-games","category-news","category-speakers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/feral-vector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/feral-vector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/feral-vector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/feral-vector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/feral-vector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=418"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/feral-vector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":445,"href":"https:\/\/feral-vector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418\/revisions\/445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/feral-vector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/feral-vector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/feral-vector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}