Let's change our name to Tuakoi

nzLARPS
#21

For my opinion… I would say it is a good idea to put a Maori translation under the existing name (as many institutions currently do) but not to change the full name of the society.

By adding the Maori name we acknowledge and honor the other language of New Zealand (well, the other written one, anyway…) but we don’t run the risk of any (more) confusion over what the society is.

The Uni of Auckland, for example, puts ‘Te Whare Wananga o Tamaki Makaurau’ under their standard logo and it looks good. ‘Te Roopu Tuakoi’ (or whatever is appropriate) would fit snugly under the existing nzLARPS logo, although admittedly would become a bit illegible at small size.

#22

I agree that putting a Maori translation underneath the English name is a fine idea. However, I do not think that changing the name of the society to a single Maori word is very sensible, for the reasons I’ve already outlined.

#23

The dual name thing makes more sense.
Also although it’s nice in a cultural way, we do risk making ourselves look like a government unit by doing this.
AND Larp in NZ is fragile enough without needing to be even more confusing, which may be unintentionally achieved by following this through.

#24

I’m just repeating arguments due to late replying, but using a language that only a small percentage of the population understand is more likely to exclude people rather than attract them. The dual name really is the best way to go. It doesn’t take a lot of time and everyone has some idea what we’re on about.

In the end, we can talk about name changes whether to write LARP in all caps or not all we like but it isn’t likely to change the fact that the whole concept of Live Action Role Play (proper noun?) is very hard for a lot of people to understand. But I’m not a member so what do I care?

#25

I don’t think changing the name is a good idea.
Not only is using Tuakoi adding another layer of confustion to people who don’t know what larping is, it is also does so for larpers. For example it looks like NZLARPS is going to have an affilation with Kapcon 08, which is great - any larpers to this event will understand NZLARPS more or less at first glance, but not so if we Tuakoi.
Having a second name is an interesting idea, which in my opinion is something that should be looked at when larping has a nation wide understanding, at this stage it would simply add more explaning to do when introducing the society. .

#26

More people spead fluent Maori in New Zealand than people know what LARP stands for.

#27

I agree. using language like “armour points”, “hit points” and “mail hauberk” creates confusion with normal people who don’t encounter these terms in day to day life :unamused:

#28

That’s just jargon related to the overall subject of LARP. People expect to encounter it when when approaching something new.

#29

In some respects Derek is right.
But he chose a good example to make his point.
The debate is this however, if you included those same jargon words in their Maori equivalent, you’d confuse joe public even more.
And the real issue is, we can’t attract the numbers we’d really like as it is without making LARP even more intimidating or confusing (or geeky) than it already is.
As a side debate, I like being geeky, am proud to apply said label to myself, Joe Public however, does not, from personal experience.
Hell my girlfriend even had a t-shirt with “GEEK BOY” written in large green print on it, made for me.

#30

The way you’re using anacronym doesn’t seem to add up with how wikipedia defines it, as a redefinition of an acronym (e.g. the “V” in DVD changed from meaning Video to Versatile). There doesn’t seem to be a word for acronyms losing their capitals, unfortunately. It mostly seems to happen to acronyms with unrememberable combinations of words in them. Personally I always lowercase it, as it’s much easier on the eye and less technical-looking.

On the society naming front, I’m in the camp that “larp” is the most common term for what we do, so having it in our name is a useful bit of instant communication to the people who know what it is. In the Nordic countries there was an effort to rename the activity to Indrama (Interactive Drama) but it failed, and “larp” (or the translation, “laiv”) has been promoted as the name. I agree with Scott’s logic on the difficulty of explaining it.

I think the best approach is to rehabilitate the term “larp”, to the small extent that it needs it because of bad press mostly arising from things like the legendarily-bad “lightening bolt” video for which it’s become synonymous for a lot of shallow-thinking internet users.

#31

I support changing the name to ‘Tuakoi Larps’.

#32

i agree that the added complecation around the word “tuakoi” is unhelpful, especially as it means nothing to the average non maori new zealander. however, i suggest that if we are going to change/improve the name, we change it to something like “KiwiLarps” because the “nz” part of the name is relatively small and unnoticable next to the “larps” part, and we can cash in on the stigma around the title Kiwi.

on second thoughts i think the name Larp Aotearoa works better. they both have the advantage of rolling off the tongue better then the “en zedlarps” and have more of the title attributed to the fact that we are from new zealand by using common maori names. KiwisLarps, or KiwisLarp also crossed my mind. or Aotearoa Larp/Aotearoa Larps.

#33

When I think of the time and effort involved in the current state of things, and the amount of work (and cost) involved in changing the name, I really dont want to go through it - especially since Im quite happy with the name as it stands since it specifies exactly what we are. A byline in Maori works fine and doesnt require all the legal changes (we’d have to re-register for a start). I think making aname change would be a huge amount of work resulting in confusion and alienation of most people who just dont see the connection of the name to anything… 90% of people would probably think ‘Ah, another Maori society’ and stop there.

#34

Yeah, I’ve sometimes thought that something like “KiwiLARP” would be a better name. Less technical looking.

[quote=“Exquire”]Actually, breaking news.

Our name is not the New Zealand Live Action Role Playing Society Incorporated.

As per our constitution, it’s the New Zealand Live Action Role Play Society Incorporated.[/quote]

I pointed out that at the time but was told it could easily be changed later. However, I thought that was changed on the front of the constitution we actually signed. I’d be curious to know what name we are registered under. Is there a government list somewhere?

#35

I like the LARP Aotearoa idea that Walter Raised…

Not so keen on the KiwiLARP idea. Putting Kiwi at the beginning of our name is SO 1990’s.

#36

[quote=“Ian”]I like the LARP Aotearoa idea that Walter Raised…

Not so keen on the KiwiLARP idea. Putting Kiwi at the beginning of our name is SO 1990’s.[/quote]

thanks, and i agree about the kiwi thing. (unless we also change our logo to a light green colour and advertise on the basis that we arent like those other big australian larps… and use megaphones). the problem i have with larp aotearoa is that it is a little bit of a mouthfull.

#37

So instead of calling it LARPS New Zealand in English, we are calling it LARPS New Zealand in another language, hell if we are going down that road why not LARPS Neuvo Zelandia, or LARPS la Nouvelle Zélande.

#38

…because Maori has more to do with New Zealand than French or Spanish?

#39

Lets not forget New Zealand’s 3rd official language:

If people want to subtitle nzlarps with something, I really don’t care either way.

Will it get more people playing? Probably not.
Will it put people off? Probably not.
Will it cause more games to happen? Probably not.

Do I care? No.

#40

“Sure some swedish larp will offer you thousands of people interacting and having giant wars…can kiwilarps offer that…um…well…no…sorry”