unforum

[brando]

Live Events

[konamouse]

Just wondering if this is more like LARP (Live Action Role Playing) as opposed to ARG (Alternate Reality Games)?

Or a mesh of LARP with CF (Chaotic Fiction)?

For more on live events that don't coincide with online ARG, google Jane McGonigal.

Welcome to unFiction.

[brando]

Good question.

I feel like it fits in the ARG category only because a player would not role-play a given character. they would participate as themselves. Hopefully a player would be compelled to make choices, take risks, etc. knowing that they are participating in a piece of fiction. And at the same time, there would be this TINOG element, as well.

Thanks for the tip. I've checked out Jane McGonigal's work and like her theories about the potential of the ARG experiences, in particular the value of real-world consequences/effects of the ARG. Love the idea of WWO. As a matter of fact, the desired outcome of my game is, to me, very similar to what I think she and her collaborators were looking for with their project.

Thanks again.

[FLmutant]

You might also check out the work of Jeff Wirth and the UCF Interactive Performance Lab -- very different metaphor from ARGing (almost a kind of mirror inverse) but still not quite what you are describing (the interactor is still playing a fictional life in Wirth's model.)

You can dig back into even older models like Theater of the Oppressed (the TopLab group in NYC does some really interesting interactive theater for social change), but again, not quite what you're talking about.

Jane's work is also inspirational -- emergent narratives in the truest sense (in that the story organically emerges from the fairly simple ruleset of games like Werewolf and Cruel2BKind.) Sounds like you are talking about something with a bit more of a narrative spine, though.

LARPing likely has similar inspiration to be gleaned, but not necessarily in the same model you're talking about. I especially like the period LARPers, but that is probably because I share their fascination with getting locations on the cheap and delivering really nice prop design. Nearly half of a book like Cthulhu Live would actually be good reading for PMs -- not only do you have FIVE recipes for fake blood, you also have the advice to tell property owners you're running a "murder mystery party" to avoid all the messy questions of what you're really up to.

Welcome to uncharted waters! You'll likely have to cobble together an approach for your game with only distant landmarks like those to reflect on, but you're right in the middle of where new stuff is just begging to be made.

On edit

I forgot your core question. Yes, I imagine there is an interest from existing communities for the kind of experience you're describing, and I think the kinds of communities involved in all of the above might be among the pool of that potential audience.