August 28, 2007
How we LARPed
So. All this LARP business finally makes sense. After four events, two years (and I'm still a total newbie), $ spent on armour and foam latex weapons, and hours spent standing around in fields wondering "why the hell have I paid £80 to play an extra in a three-day amateur dramatics production of Lord of the Rings - with no audience?", I finally get it. Why? Well, mainly because the weekend was an unadulterated 24 carat fun-fest. And when you reach adulthood, it's not often you get the chance to spend four days of play-time, doing things that have no purpose in the wider world. Putting some distance between yourself and reality IMHO is a great cure for 21st-century angst (academic support: I read this book recently and the author basically says the same thing - stop being a consumerist twat by finding time to be playful.)
And that is basically what LARPing is all about. But I only gained that epiphany after stealing an enemy standard and legging it across a busy battlefield with two other lads, whilst being chased by a disgruntled gang from the enemy faction. You probably needed to be there, but it *was* a right laugh.
Something else worth mentioning is the sheer variety on offer: the hobby (for want of a better term) is a bizarre and addictive fusion of: fancy dress, extreme sports, re-enactment, drama, make-believe, camping, drinking, diplomacy, politics, shouting, and talent contest. If you want to sit in the beer tent getting drunk - that's cool; if you want to become embroiled in plot-based intrigue, inter-faction politicking, or random acts of in-game violence, that is cool also.
With so many disparate interests in one place, you can imagine the gargantuation challenge in keeping a rabble of 40+ LARPers occupied for 16 hours a day. So huge props must go to Charlie, Andy and others from our adoptive unit for conducting and maintaining the riotous assembly over four days. There were lots of other reasons for the increased enjoyment (rule enhancements, superb weather etc.), but on the whole, the people made it what it was. The only downside is work - which kicks in again tomorrow and will seem fairly sucky in comparison (note to self: find a way to make a living out of LARP.)
November 23, 2006
Cheat masterclass
Mosh, Jef and I attempted to nail down the finer points of the card game 'cheat' whilst mildly inebriated. It was destined for failure from the outset. Luckily, Emma was on hand to capture the debacle on camera:
Or view it here.
November 17, 2006
Dark Crusade
The new-ish Dark Crusade expansion pack for Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War. What can I say except: yes, I am old enough to know better. No, I don't care, especially when the Tau look so righteously cool.
And particularly when they're up against a Necron horde:
May 08, 2006
That old debate again
This is my response to a paper I read today, relating to kids and technology, and claiming that gaming is morally neutral. I'm surprised by my own bourgeois opinions...
I would challenge the claim that 'gaming is morally neutral'. It is as morally neutral as surfing the web. Both activites (indeed most activities) reflect our moral propenstities. It would be more accurate to state that video games are morally neutral, in the same way that the web or TV is morally neutral. Video games consitute nothing more than this: an intersection of the age-old pursuit of rules-based competition with modern technology (it would be difficult to argue that chess or ludo encourage violence in children.) But the content of video games (and the web) determines whether the medium has a greater or lesser capacity to morally degrade its users. It is difficult to argue that the accelerated sexualisation of, for instance, teenage girl's fashion, is not in some way attributable to the web as a distribution mechanism for porn - something unthinkable ten years ago when the availability of explicit imagery was restricted primarliy to sex shops (to which a degree of stigma was attached - this is also becoming eroded.)
Back to the argument - the content of video games requires players to make moral decisions; if the majority of video games constitute decisions such as 'shall I mug this old lady?' or 'shall I use my chainsaw on this single mum?' - and if the same games reward users for negative behaviour - then it could be argued that they are capable of inducing a kind of moral decrepitude. It should be noted that GTA: San Andreas is exactly such a game. Furthermore, the same game was withdrawn from a number of stores after it was discovered that the game contains a locked level where players can perform pornographic acts on polygonal women. Video games might not be solely responsible for society's apparent moral degradation, but they often pander to it and reinforce it.
Herein lies the problem with the industry, namely it's low-brow nature (I don't care what Stephen Poole says - most games appeal to humanity's baser instincts.) It has often been lamented that modern video games are an innovation waste-land, and that the industry desperately needs an avant garde (of course, many historical avant garde movements have pushed the norms of decency and taste, but they were also overtly intellectual and catholic in their sources of inspiration.) The games industry is on the receiving end of a degree of snobbery as a result. Games producers cannot be trusted because they are outside the canon of traditional arts, where a work might be considered morally questionable, but would also possess some intellectual and artistic merit. Games producers don't do themselves any favours by pandering to lowest-common-denominator principles. If there is evidence that kids crave a media-diet broader than killing stuff with large swords, then the industry should be more sensitive to those needs. Then we might see some products on the market with real depth that can present moral scenarios to players, without being didactic in their moral instruction or morally reprehensible. Games would then become morally neutral, and all the better for it - see Lionhead Studio's Black and White and Fable for example.
August 16, 2005
Not as good as it used to be
I still have a soft spot for Games Workshop; I remember when it was little more than an RPG shop in Hammersmith, and when White Dwarf covered non-GW games. Now it cynically churns out new product like a Ford car plant. But some of its dark re-imaginings of old fantasy races are cool; check the artwork for its new wood elves range.
