Thursday, November 11, 2010

LARPing Documentary on Hulu

"Darkon", a 2006 documentary about LARPers in Baltimore, is now available on Hulu.




I'll be the first to admit that LARPers make me giggle and I love to poke fun at them.

But this was a great documentary on the subject. Honestly, I preferred seeing the out-of-character parts of each player's "real life" rather than the LARPing itself. I thought the directors (Luke Meyer, Andrew Neel) really did a great job of not only humanizing the players, but showing the true reasons about why they play. Most players seem to work menial and/or dead-end jobs that they're bored with and LARPing is their escape from that. And, honestly, don't ALL humans fantasize about being someone else or somewhere else?

My favorite highlights:

0:22 - CHEESE MONSTER!? (+10 Terror factor to lactose-intolerant PCs?)
0:33-0:38 - The politicking and "Manifest Destiny" of the in-game country, Mordom
0:47 - A player relates his personal problems with the "fantasy" of Darkon's fantasy world
0:58-1:02 - Battle For The Citadel Of Peace
1:10 - Strategic planning with D&D miniatures!


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