Always true, at least for any game that is about deep topics. In this particular case, though, I have to point out that what's unusual here is that I am *not* trivializing the topic.
I mean, like (sadly) most media, violence tends to be underplayed in LARP, treated much too casually. Oh, look, that guy has a gun. Oh, dear, he's killed that character. Oh, well -- pick up an alternate character for the rest of the game; pity that that one didn't make it. I'm overstating the usual case, but there's a bad habit of treating violence as relatively inconsequential, and I'm intentionally shining a light on that. You're correct that it's dangerous to poke at that, but I think it's a healthy and important risk.
And it's important to note: this is a game *about* violence, not *of* violence. If I actually expected a gunfight in game, I think the risk you're talking about would be considerably more substantial. As it is, I will agree with you that it's non-zero, but I don't think it's nearly as likely, especially since folks are usually good about avoiding games that will be personally traumatic.
In that sense, your particular story smacks to me of a sort of nerd-voyeurism, a desire to create and share a lightweight window into other people's real trauma. An arm-chair disaster tourism of the tragedy of others.
True as far as it goes, but again, not very different from other artforms. The amateur artist is usually in over his head when he steps outside his own experience, sometimes succeeding in representing the subject well, sometimes not. Trying to understand tragedy, and help others do so, is the basis of much of literature.
Again, I think part of the problem here is that you have a very different understanding of the medium than I do. It really sounds like you're having trouble disengaging the notion that there is something fundamentally trivial about LARP, relative to other artforms. From the inside, I see it quite differently. Yes, there's a measure of voyeurism to it -- but that is equally true of every medium worth talking about, and moreso of most of them than LARP...
no subject
Always true, at least for any game that is about deep topics. In this particular case, though, I have to point out that what's unusual here is that I am *not* trivializing the topic.
I mean, like (sadly) most media, violence tends to be underplayed in LARP, treated much too casually. Oh, look, that guy has a gun. Oh, dear, he's killed that character. Oh, well -- pick up an alternate character for the rest of the game; pity that that one didn't make it. I'm overstating the usual case, but there's a bad habit of treating violence as relatively inconsequential, and I'm intentionally shining a light on that. You're correct that it's dangerous to poke at that, but I think it's a healthy and important risk.
And it's important to note: this is a game *about* violence, not *of* violence. If I actually expected a gunfight in game, I think the risk you're talking about would be considerably more substantial. As it is, I will agree with you that it's non-zero, but I don't think it's nearly as likely, especially since folks are usually good about avoiding games that will be personally traumatic.
In that sense, your particular story smacks to me of a sort of nerd-voyeurism, a desire to create and share a lightweight window into other people's real trauma. An arm-chair disaster tourism of the tragedy of others.
True as far as it goes, but again, not very different from other artforms. The amateur artist is usually in over his head when he steps outside his own experience, sometimes succeeding in representing the subject well, sometimes not. Trying to understand tragedy, and help others do so, is the basis of much of literature.
Again, I think part of the problem here is that you have a very different understanding of the medium than I do. It really sounds like you're having trouble disengaging the notion that there is something fundamentally trivial about LARP, relative to other artforms. From the inside, I see it quite differently. Yes, there's a measure of voyeurism to it -- but that is equally true of every medium worth talking about, and moreso of most of them than LARP...