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Aidan Heifner

Jera Toombs

AP Language and Composition

02 March 2023

Independent Summative
Examine a community that is organized around shared values but not geographic

proximity. What holds that community together? What do members gain from it? Why does it

continue?

Examining the LARP Community

Imagine a world where one can be anything. Anything. Not a run-of-the-mill normie with

an average job, not a blue-collared corporate clone, and especially not a chronically online

individual. A world where one can contribute greatly and enjoy themselves while doing it. A

world where every twist and turn yields surprise and mystery. A world where one can face their

fears. A world where one can bond with others and go on wonderful adventures. The described

community calls themselves LARPers, or “live-action role player[s]: [people] who take part in

games in which players dress as particular characters and act out their parts in the game”

(Cambridge). LARPers aren’t restricted to one geographic location; they’re everywhere. They

LARP at parks, homes, historical sites, forests, and everywhere else. Anyone can be a LARPer,

but the majority of LARPers tend to be caucasian and in their twenties-thirties. In popular media,

LARPers are portrayed as nerdy, physically unfit, and greasy individuals who flail about

aimlessly with foam-covered baseball bats (for lack of a better descriptor) and throw bean bags

around whilst screaming “LIGHTNING BOLT!”. Many LARP groups fit the stereotype, but
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there is also the same amount that is more refined and feels - more or less - more realistic, much

akin to a mid-budget film.

What Holds the LARPing Community Together

With any given community, there’s bound to be something holding it together. This

“something” ranges from an aim, a goal, a shared interest, or a combination of these three.

Although I am a LARPer, my experiences with the community are like the stars; my experience

may vary from person to person. With that being said, I can safely say that the main thing

holding the LARP community together is companionship. This companionship manifests itself in

joining in-game factions in a LARP, competing against one another, and then settling down at

the feasting hall for a hearty meal and engaging in conversation with others. However, I’m not

the only one who thinks this is what holds the LARP community together, I consulted fellow

LARPers in the Facebook group “LARP Adventures” just to make sure I was getting the full

story. So I made a post and by the next two days, I had 5 responses. According to my transcript

of the comments from the “LARP Adventures” Facebook post, the very thing that holds the

LARP community together is “...the sense of companionship that players have with one another

that keep it together” and the fact that by “...stick[ing] together…[they] know that the more

[people] there are, the more fun we can all have”(Heifner 2). The last part of their collective

response touches on the need for socialization as human beings; in fact, an article from the

National Library of Medicine posits that “Humans are inherently social”(Young).

What do Members of the LARP Community get from it?

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With any community, there’s always that “something” to gain from. If you join the

sewing community, for example, what you gain out of it is learning how to sew your fabric

together to make articles of clothing (practical or not). If you join the Historical European

Martial Arts (HEMA) community, you’re bound to gain various ways of dispatching your

opponents through a variety of weapons (or rough imitations of the original weapon; no one

wants to die). If you join the Theater community, you’re bound to gain acting experience. LARP

is a combination of these as well as much more. In the article,” Can two worlds bleed? How to

live action role-play affects your life”, “Associate Professor van Laer stresses that many of the

impacts of LARPing are positive – people develop new skills, improve their confidence and tap

into a well of agency and creativity that may benefit other areas of their lives” (van Laer and

Orazi). This can be corroborated with the responses from my aforementioned Facebook, as

fellow LARPers have also stated that “[They]’ve also taken up sewing because of LARP and

slowly dust off [their] swordsmanship. Also, exercise and sunlight…” are gained from it as well

(Heifner 3).

Why do People still LARP?

People don’t merely pick up an activity they enjoy and then drop it after a short period;

they run with it. An Olympic fencer doesn’t fence because they want to kill their opponent; they

do it because they enjoy it. Doing an activity that brings joy to an individual for the sake of it

isn’t a rare occurrence in our own monetized society, and LARPers are no exception to this

axiom. In the article, “Why They Larp” from the website Leaving Mundania, author Lizzie Stark

gathered a panel of LARPers (as I’ve done; communities contain many sub - perspectives and

some perspectives are outliers from the shared perspective of a community as a whole) to discuss

the question: ‘“...But why do people LARP? Are they compensating for otherwise dull lives?”’
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(Stark) . As aforementioned, Stark gathered a panel of LARPers to tackle the question and

although they had interesting perspectives, one stood out from the others. As Stark transcribes,

“Larping allows people to take the banal and mundane world that is their job, their paying off

bills, and their household chores and put these frustrations away for a night or a weekend. Going

to a larp is almost like being involved with an organized sports team or actively involved in a

musical subculture. When you go to a larp, like these other socially - oriented events, you get to

step away from the frustrations that come with the responsibilities of being a part of society and

step into another world that has been designed for your enjoyment. This environment, because

of its alternate world immersion, is a set place where you go to play and relax”(Stark). In other

words, LARPing serves as an escape from ordinary life to get the most out of life while one still

can.

CONCLUSION

To conclude, the LARP community is like any other community; it has a purpose, it has

one/multiple things holding it together, much is gained from being a part of the community, and

the community remains active in this. Despite the stereotypes, the LARP community strives to

keep going and introduce new generations to a magical world far removed from the video games

they’re accustomed to; a world where the senses are at play, a world where one can be anything.

Anything. Not a run-of-the-mill normie with an average job, not a blue-collared corporate clone,

and especially not a chronically online individual. A world where one can contribute greatly and

enjoy themselves while doing it. A world where every twist and turn yields surprise and mystery.

A world where one can face their fears. A world where one can bond with others and go on

wonderful adventures. As a fellow LARPer once told me, “.., as long as there are kids with

fantastical imaginations and creativity, there will always be LARP”(Heifner 2).

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Works Cited

Cambridge Dictionary. “LARPer | definition in the Cambridge English Dictionary.” Cambridge

Dictionary, 2023, https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/larper. Accessed

2 March 2023.

Heifner, Aidan X. Aidan Heifner's Post in "LARP Adventures" Facebook Group(Active March 3

2023 10:43 am- March 7 2023 9:50 am). A transcript of the responses to the

aforementioned Facebook post. 7 March 2023, p. 3. Google Docs,

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1iNYRSqUEZqMiHITKrUmuo6HZoBAaJlHIxyty1

qhdxlY/edit.

Stark, Lizzie. “Why They Larp.” Leaving Mundania, 26 March 2012,

https://leavingmundania.com/2012/03/26/why-they-larp/. Accessed 9 March 2023.

van Laer, Tom, and Davide Orazi. “Can two worlds bleed? How live-action role play affects

your life.” The University of Sydney, 22 June 2022, https://www.sydney.edu.au/news-

opinion/news/2022/06/22/can-two-worlds-bleed-how-live-action-role-play-affects-your-

life-larp.html. Accessed 8 March 2023.

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Young, Simon N. “The neurobiology of human social behavior: an important but neglected

topic.” NCBI, September 2008,

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2527715/. Accessed 7 March 2023.