09 – “LARPing”, Gatekeeping, and Joy Robbers

But today, I want to talk about something.

I'm grinding my gears and I try to keep positive.

I try to help people find joy.

Try to be joyful as much as I can.

But lately, I've been seeing in a lot of spaces, especially regarding the 3DS, this thing called LARPing.

If you don't know what LARP is, it stands for live action role-playing.

Now, in this case, people are saying LARPing or calling others LARPers, live action role-players.

It's another way of calling people fake fans.

Another way of gatekeeping.

It's another way of trying to bring other people down.

And I think it's so stupid.

So I want to talk about a few things.

I have a rough outline here.

I want to first talk about the hilarity of these people using LARPing to describe people who they think are making stuff up or being fake, because if you've ever played a live action role-playing game, I've actually role players go hard.

Y'all they have costumes.

They know moves and things.

I did it once back in the nineties and I didn't need to do it again.

After that little too intense for me.

I know people who are regular live action role players.

They love it.

And they are so into it.

You know, lore.

They have props and costumes.

So the fact that these people are using LARP, put people down and call them fake and call them people who don't really engage with something, I just find hysterical because actual LARPers are just hardcore.

They are super serious about what they love.