It's kind of hilarious (I thought) and it was awesome that Dean got in to it and embraced his inner nerd. For those of you that haven't seen it, check out the clip below. It's when Sam and Dean first arrive in Moondor.
The ingame location of Moondor is pretty awesome. They have basically a real town, all set up in the local park (really?). The Queen's chamber comes complete with artwork and a lovely Queen-sized bed (pun intended). The props are pretty badass throughout most of the show, too. I also find it very amusing they had a tent set up with computers ("travel here to the future") where you could take a break and get your World of Warcraft or League of Legend game on. Even my husband, who is an AVID computer gamer thought it was a touch too much.
There have been a number of movies released in recent years (Roleplayers, Dungeons & Dragons, The Wild Hunt, Unicorn City, Monster Camp, etc.) that place Larps in a "better" - if often unrealistic - setting. Yet, there are still the typical nerd portrayal of players that suggests a level of social awkwardness and in cases like The Wild Hunt they go straight medieval on each other and people actually end up dying - if I remember correctly.
We've come a long way since Mazes & Monsters, the lovely 80s movie that made many believe that D&D/Larp could drive you to a severe psychotic break and schizophrenia.
It's out there more in the eyes of the general public and a lot more people know what it - kinda - is.
Which leads me to today's question - is Larp actually portrayed better today in t.v./movies? Is the old adage any publicity is good publicity true?
I've typically been untroubled by most of the recent instance of LARPs being portrayed in entertainment. In almost every case the LARPs are portrayed fairly unrealistically and leveraged for standard tropes about nerds and geeks and living in fantasy worlds. But I don't mind that so much because that is what TV shows and movies do. As an analogy, nearly every cop show used wildly unrealistic situations and portrayals of police work. Yet, we understand that “Cop Show” is a setting that is just being used as context for whatever over the top story is being told.
ReplyDeleteIn most of the current depictions the LARP that is playing in the background actually looks pretty cool. The costumes are excellent, the props are realistic, and above all the settings are fantastic. They make LARPing look tons better and more attractive than what I normally see at the events that I attend. Of course these shows usually involve actors playing absurd roles that play on the nerd stereotypes, but I think it is fairly easy to understand that this as just the show's story, and not take it for an accurate portrayal of the hobby.