Culture, Diversity and the my experience of Chimera

Just posted my third post in this series, about Curse of the Pharoah.

And while I’ve been doing that, some awesome contributions to discussion here. A couple one-liner quotes while I’m online:

Hell yes. I couldn’t agree any more without doing myself an injury.

My perception of the game was that you were a hugely important leader for all the other players as players. Your relative confidence in some aspects of Maori culture gave other people confidence and permission to step up to the plate. I really appreciated having you there and contributing what you did.

(zannii’s racism comment, and Steve’s reply - heeeeaps more I could say about that. See the new post linked above for some more.)

Derek - there’s loads of stuff packed in there. I agree a lot, but there’s other stuff I’d say too. I might get to this in my next couple posts.

Yes! Also, my impression of LARP crowds is that they are more keen to get into this kind of identity/belief play than tabletop crowds; there’s lots of structural reasons why that might be so. Anyway, it’s important and valuable.

Ryan’s letter idea just completely blew my mind. Genius.

What a fantastic account of your experience. I really appreciate you sharing that, and it makes lots of sense to me. And I want to call out the little bit at the end that I quoted, because I wholeheartedly agree, and I don’t think I made enough of that in the Gametime posts.

Argh would love to stay and post more but gotta do some other things. Hopefully more soon.

Ooo, whats your Username? I’ll add you as a friend and you can get all my completely insane creations in your game :smiley:

I’m not on the full game, just the $1.29 version for the iPhone, so I don’t think I can do the MMORPG thing…

That was a really interesting series of posts (just read the third one) and this is a continually interesting discussion. It’s certainly sparked some thoughts of my own.
I have to say, I would probably not play in any game that I suspected might leave me damaged mentally, to any extent. I mean something that would really screw you up - something like the Stanford or Milgram experiments. Anna mentioned the Milgram experiment, but I actually think the Stanford prison experiment was worse. In brief, it was a psychological experiment were they took several volunteers and assigned them to ‘prisoner’ or ‘guard’ groups, with appropriate uniforms and, in the case of the prisoners, accomodation. Certain basic rules were implemented to simulate the prison environment. The participants knew that they could ask to leave the experiment at any time if they chose.
Basically, it degenerated into a horrific Abu Ghraib-esque situation within 2 weeks. Sadistic punishment, sexual humiliation… the works. Needless to say, everyone who participated came out of it with varying degrees of psychological stress.

I would not play in a game like this. Similarly, I would be hesitant about playing in a Holocaust concentration camp game. Which is not to say that by definition a game that dealt with that sort of subject matter must be psychologically damaging, but just that (for me at least), if done well (ie immersion, good roleplaying etc) - the potential is there. I had no problem with Nazi’s in Hindenburg, because they were pulp Nazi’s, the kind that fight Harrison Ford :slight_smile: They are easily mocked caricatures, and therefore much ‘safer’. But real Nazi’s? My family history probably brushes a lot closer than most people here, and frankly the idea stops just short of terrifying me.

Uh… really? I think we should explore things like racism and other forms of bigotry. Of course we should tread carefully, and possibly invite members of said offended communities… this should be viewed now as Educational Theatre and NOT a game (very important that) - knowledge leads to understanding, and only in this way can we stamp out ‘racism’.

Actually we should call it Culturism - and people shouldn’t take it personally! You can never give offence, only take it. It’s not like White middle class employed heterosexual atheist men complain when jokes get told about them… don’t even get me started on why ‘White Pride Day’ is racist and ‘Black Pride Day’ isn’t!!!

Oooooooh… I get so angry sometimes it gives me a rash on the back of my neck!

can i say=

coughGodwin’s Lawcough

yet?

Don’t think you can Zannii - the mention of Nazi’s in this thread is not actually a reductio ad Hitlerum situation. It’s actually kind of appropriate :smiley:

For those of you not in the know, Godwin’s law is a humorous rule, stating that ‘as an internet discussion grows longer, the liklihood of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler increases.’ Exceptions include discussions where the reference is appropriate. It’s more about flame situations which inevitably degenerate into people comparing their opponent to Hitler/Nazis eg “You’re such a Nazi”.

[quote=“Zannii”]can i say=

coughGodwin’s Lawcough

yet?[/quote]

Apparently not without coughing.

Aaand, post #4 is up, this time about Evicting the Dragon.

It includes a fairly detailed description of a moment that I will remember for the rest of my life.

Thanks Morgue, really enjoyed that game and everything it brought up. Of course, it’s pretty sensitive material but I thought that made it worth exploring. Maybe what’s behind some of the racism towards Asian people is a deep-seated fear that the country would be hopelessly overwhelmed if they invaded. I certainly felt by the end that the contrast to my normal opinion of immigration (and that of the company I keep) made me feel even more welcoming of foreigner-types. Just wanted to find a n00b.nz and hug them.

Fun, also, playing near-future characters. An unfamiliar but historically viable situation in an up-to-the-minute (and further) context? Fun thought activity! Imagining the damage going down in ultra-familiar central-city locations was awesome in the way it must be for New Yorkers to watch their city get destroyed over and over again on the silver screen.

I think New Yorkers might not find it so awesome anymore. Though I’ve been pleased to notice that Americans as a whole seem to finally be kind of coming out of the post-9/11 melancholy. Has it been eight years already? Dang.

I think the first movie since 9/11 to show New York being destroyed was Cloverfield. Actually, now I can’t remember - I remember commenting at the time that whatever it was had opened the way to cinematic destruction of American cities again.
Wait, I think it was The Day After Tomorrow (2004)

Aaaand finished.

Hope this final bit makes sense, it took ages for me to get my thoughts in a line for it.

Now, what else to say about Chimera… hmmm. ponders

Looking at LARP as a medium for storytelling, your ideas aren’t very good. Depictions of bigotry, especially racism, in literature and film has been going on for quite a long time. However, unlike books and films LARP is interactive and provides a very unique avenue to uncover these insecure little bigotries we all hold onto at some level yet strive to hide from modern society.

Anyone who claims they are not racist/homophobic/xenophobic/etc at all is either a liar or an idiot. People are just shit that way: small minded and afraid. You’re never going to elimate bigotry but you can deal with it by acknowledging that it’s horrible that you naturally tend to keep on the oposite side of the footpath to the 6’5’’ guy with a Moko, mutter about the Asian drivers or whatever terrible things those people may think about me.

Playing these characters and being a part of these stories allow people a look into the part of them that usually they ignore. Bringing that out of us to examine is a good thing. I’ve played a character who will murder people simply for being Muslims. That character is a horrible person and I don’t think anyone here thinks like he does, but every time there’s a terrorist attack the part of us we all hate flares up a little bit.

It’s best to deal with this directly. You can watched a thousand films about how noble the Native Americans were and how rich the culture is and how badly they were fucked over, but it’s better to watch The Searchers and see the ugly face of racism for what it is and be disgusted by it. The same thing can happen in LARP if we keep this up. So I say embrace all of these games and take an opportunity to learn about overselves. It obviously doesn’t all have to be like this but it can be one more thing to justify our hobby as being a little bit more than dressing up as knights and pretending to sword fight.

Hi Andrew - I’m not sure where the disconnect is, because I agree with everything you say, and then some. I have a huge interest in, and belief in, the power of LARP and other interactive games to explore these ideas in a powerful way.

My point with these posts has been that there are risks and difficulties attached to this kind of exploration, and that it’s a good idea to think them through. Maybe you don’t agree with my analysis of what was problematic, or what I suggest would be an improvement; that’s fine, I’m just as likely to be wrong as the next guy on the internet. But I hope you’ll agree that there can be risks, and that games dealing with relationships between Pakeha and Maori, and NZ and China, have a real-world dimension that can cause problems if it isn’t given some space.

[quote=“morgue”]My point with these posts has been that there are risks and difficulties attached to this kind of exploration, and that it’s a good idea to think them through. Maybe you don’t agree with my analysis of what was problematic, or what I suggest would be an improvement; that’s fine, I’m just as likely to be wrong as the next guy on the internet. But I hope you’ll agree that there can be risks, and that games dealing with relationships between Pakeha and Maori, and NZ and China, have a real-world dimension that can cause problems if it isn’t given some space.[/quote]So are you going to run a game focusing on ethnicity and culture at the next Chimera? It looks like you’d be the ideal person to do it…

I’d play that game!

[size=60]Unless there is something better on, of course[/size]