I was contacted the other day by Mr. Vincent Salzillo, President of Double Exposure and Mr. Gordon Olmstead-Dean, CEO of LARPA, regarding their support and Mr. Salzillo’s assistance and an invitation to hold the announcment and award ceremony at either IMA or INE.
We do have a decision to make here: Do we want to have the awards presentation held at a convention (in this case one of the Intercons as they have offered) or have it stricly Internet based?
Having the presentation at a convention would raise interest, so it’s desirable on that count. However, it might also tend to bias things towards applicants who can be present for the awards. So long as that’s avoided, I think it’s a good idea.
I suppose with a bit of tech you could either get unavailable recipients to record a video message of thanks to show at the awards, or even get video streaming.
If you have international collaboraters, perhaps the awards could roam around conventions around the world. There’s a big Nordic larp convention called Knutepunkt / Knutpunkt / Knudpunkt / Solmukohta (the name changes depending on where it’s held - Sweden, Norway, Finland, etc) that would probably love to do it, for one. Larp is huge over there, and in some respects it’s the bleeding edge of new approaches to larp.
I think that someone from GAMA (or whatever it is) also expressed an interest in hosting a larp awards (on the larpa-gen board), although it was kinda lost in all the vitriol about the larpies.
My thought is that if it is held at a convention that those who aren’t present would have their award mailed to them. Just because you can’t attend dosen’t mean that you can’t be nominated and in the running.
Good idea! And if they can’t then they can write a short statment that could be read, though video would be prefered. 
I’m familiar with Knutepunkt / Knutpunkt / Knudpunkt / Solmukohta. I love reading the papers they come out with for each gathering. I’m sending out more feelers every day to invite people outside of North America/USA to participate and provide input. If the desire is there I don’t see why a non-North America/USA convention couldn’t host it. Perhaps look at some kind of bid procedure. Of course, the whole thing needs to be initially organized first.
Hmmm… I vaguely remeber this. I know I’ve been in contact with Mr. Trey Reilly, Programs Manager for GAMA, and he didn’t make mention of another LARP award being held elsewhere.
Yes, it was Trey:
games.groups.yahoo.com/group/lar … ssage/8727
While he’s not inviting you specifically, it’s an inclusive invitation.
Yes, it was Trey:
games.groups.yahoo.com/group/lar … ssage/8727
While he’s not inviting you specifically, it’s an inclusive invitation.[/quote]
Ah… thanks for the clarification.
You asked about names somewhere, but I can’t find it now.
I think your current name of “The LARP Awards” is a good name. I think that the Shadies and Larpies have made the whole nickname thing tired. Let it develop a nickname on it’s own.
What’s the story with the larpies anyway?
larpies.com/index-1.htm
larpies.com/LARPY_Finalists_2006.htm
They’ve apparantly just passed… but no “it’s finished” update on the site… which hasn’t been updated this month.
And apparantly Adrien Brody and a whole sh’bang of Hollywood stars were there… 0_o
Smells like bullshit to me, but the 2006 finalists are a mix of pretty good and downright horrible.
Another American here…
I like what Amber is trying, and I’m going to support her.
I play in games in the UK as well as in the US. I would tend to agree with Ryan that there is a rich variety in LARP styles in both. “Boffer”, in my experience, is a term used to differentiate between latex weapons and those covered in duct tape. It is some times used derogatorily, or pejoratively, but not always.
Not everyone in the US or UK refer to games that use “boffer” weapons as boffer LARPs. In many places, we do use the term Live Combat. In the early 90s, when I started mixing in with the freeform/Theatre-style folks, we needed a nice, friendly term. I coined it (Live Combat), and it’s nice to see it’s being used elsewhere as well.
As to the main point, which is why have a different award? I don’t have a good relationship with Joe Valenti, and I do not believe he represents LARP. I believe he represents lining his own pockets. He doesn’t want to bring LARP to the world, he wants to bring the world to his LARP. I’d rather see there be an award that is made pretty openly, and know it doesn’t have some corporate interest behind it.
Joe Valenti already made it divisive. I think Amber represents one attempt (so far any way) at trying to bridge that divisiveness.
I disagree. There is just as much variety in larp in the USA as this is around the world. Some styles do dominate, but alternatives exist. So exactly the same difficulties will be encountered. Vampire larps, Rules to Live By, and boffer larps are all extremely different and all found in the USA, as are larps with no rules.
This question is the only thing that puts me off this attempt at a new award. I can’t understand the reasoning behind it, and it bothers me. If the purpose of the awards is to bring the larp community together, why start out by dividing it into us and them?
I have no problem with Mordavia being described as a boffer larp. It is a boffer larp. The word sounds stupid to me, and is only used in the USA, but all it means is “larp weapon”. I prefer the term “live combat” as less USA-specific terminology, but in the end it’s just a word.[/quote]
I’ve heard it used that way, but also used to mean larp weapons in general.
In any case, only about half the weapons at Mordavia are latex. The other half are kinda like boffers, only thinner than most and made with fibreglass cores and often covered in fabric rather than tape. But that’s a different topic.
Nice one.
Complete SNAFU.
Read this amusing review from a nominee.. I can also dig up a link to a hilarious audio report from the point of view of an ex-Playboy model who attended the awards, if you like.
OH GOD PLEASE DO
So, you want to hear about the Larpies from the point of view of a porn star? Here you go:
katielohmann.blogs.dailyceleb.co … st-call-4/
I laughed. Crying wasn’t an option, I was at work.
I got it from this post on the larp-gen forum. I haven’t looked at the other links from that post yet.
I cried.
I couldn’t stop laughing when I heard that audio clip.
i couldn’t even listen to the whole thing
who the hell is this woman anyway and why should i be caring what she thinks
I’d like to announce the backing and support from these organizations and groups for this project. Their assistance is greatly appreciated.
Read the annoucment of support from Double Exposure and LARPA or the message of support from LARPLand.
A new way to get updates on the LARP Awards project
There is now an RSS feed for the LARP Awards project: free2w.com/larpawards/rss.xml. This feed can also be found on the LARP Awards site itself (http://www.free2w.com/larpawards/default2.htm). Important announcements and updates will be announced over this feed as well as through various LARP forums and the project forums.
There is also an RSS feed of the Yahoo! Group messages for those that wish to follow along with this conversation via their RSS reader: rss.groups.yahoo.com/group/LARPawards/rss.
The site has been updated again. Old content has been removed and new content has been added. There is a page called Project information that provides an outline of the phases this project will move through as work continues on it and other parts of the site have been updated.
After receiving emails from some members of the LARP community that trying to keep up with the discussions across several forums is a tiring challenge the LARP Awards have a new, central forum to hold its discussions in.
The layout in this new forum will also make it easier to follow conversations as they grow, provide a cleaner and more interactive user interface, and added functionality on the administration end to create private forums, provide different levels of permissions to users, and easier prevention of troll abuse should that happen. The Yahoo! Group and LiveJournal community will remain as an archive.
A link to this new forum has also been added to the project site’s navigation and old links to the past discussion forums updated.
Before a significant amount of work continues on this project and because of recent discussions on a couple of forums regarding alternate ideas I’d like to get an idea of the interest in this project before I continue on. I would like to know if there is still an interest within the international LARP community to continue this project or similar projects. A poll has been created at the project forum. Forum registration is not needed to participate in this poll or write a response to it.
I would like as much feedback as possible. If there is still an interest work will continue. If interest has died off then, depending on the amount of interest left, the scope of the project may change or it may be retired.
The poll is located at: http://www.mortalisrpg.com/Awardsforum/forum_posts.asp?TID=11
Thank you for your input,
Yes, work on the LARP Awards is continuing. There’s still interest and there’s been conversation on the project forums.
What are the LARP Awards? An independent Award (not tied to any previous LARP awards that have been run) that is being created by the world wide LARP community to recognize and congratulate each other for our achievements.
Right now the project is in the discussion phase. The LARP community is discussing what we would like in a LARP award and through discussion decide the categories, judging criteria, how judging will take place, and other key aspects of such an award. This discussion will culminate in the creation and execution of a community minded LARP Award.
As this is a community awards your questions, concerns, thoughts, and ideas would be greatly appreciated. Feel free to share them in the project forums or via an e-mail to me (e_beaver6@hotmail.com). If you wish to post a question, idea, or concern in the forums, but not quite ready to sign up for an account, there is a guest forum you can post in.
Thank you,