Finding the Philosopher's Stone

Lately I keep getting into arguments in which I defend larpers.

To understand why one would get into such an argument, you have to understand what a larper is. LARP stands for Live Action Role Play. Larpers, then, are grown adults who get dressed up in elaborate costumes, arm themselves with boffers and Nerf guns and tennis balls, and go running around pretending to be someone else for a day, play-fighting and play-acting and generally making asses of themselves as far as “normal” people are concerned. In the Geek Hierarchy, larpers are pretty close to the bottom.

So I keep getting into these arguments. People make a joke about larpers (“I cast Magic Missile into the darkness!”) and I feel compelled to respond. My point is simple. Don’t you wish that, just for one moment, you could enjoy something as earnestly as larpers do? Don’t you remember what it was like, when you were a little child, to play cops & robbers, or to sit down to a tea party with your friends and stuffed animals, and to really completely give yourself over to that sense of play?

Isn’t that how you feel when you watch a really great movie? Aren’t you suddenly transported back in time, to when your mother or father told you stories, and you just wanted to live forever in that story world? When you stopped critiquing, stopped thinking like a grown-up, and just took it all in?

That’s alchemy. That’s the moment when lead turns into gold.

Next time: telling stories & making believe - childhood play as the prototypical transmedia experience.