re: Scotty - I was just about to bring up the N-word but wasn’t sure if it’s as much of hot button in New Zealand as it is here (obviously I can’t even bring myself to write the whole thing).
lol wut…
Are you trollin?
I think your trollin… how did I miss that! We are all mistreated like the black slaves… yea! Thats a great angle!
…
Perspective… 
Scotty, I can’t even begin to put into words how wrong you are. It would get me banned.
[quote=“Scotty”]I’m not comfortable with the suggestion of trying to redefine geek / nerd.
Its one thing to call yourself that in like company and bandy it about, but being called that by outsiders feels wrong.
Liken it to the terms Fag and Nigger. Though people might use those terms in like company about each other, do any of you believe that those would be appropriate to use if you’re not like company?[/quote]
Personaly geek is just a word to me, it was origanaly used for someone that was different. If being creative and openminded is different, then its a sad world. If you want to claim it as your own as a label - fine, if you dont - fine. But the hobby like it or not has “geeky” roots and the majority of the community is “geeky”. And in that article the use of the word was getting across the point that if its going to be labeled as such (and it is) that alot of the members of the community are fine with that. The article also pointed out that we on the whole are normal. Weither its true or not, how its labeled, We’re not going to stop doing this. If it’s got a stigma already - and were still doing it - it shows that the hobby and the community are more important than how its viewed by “outsiders”. If people are concerned about how they look so much that they don’t try new things, lets be honest we were going to be hard pressed to convince them to come along and dress up weither we used the word or not.
To quote a very geeky source:
“We’re grownups now and its our turn to define what that means”
Btw - anyone know what happened to the link? I sent it to some friends, but they said it didn’t work. When I tried it myself only on Saturday, it wouldn’t load. Today I got an error message.
Have they taken it down? Did we crash the site by sending so many people to see it?
It seems to be working fine for me. At least the ad at the front is: tvnz.co.nz/20-20-news/20-having- … 7776/video
Hey guys, they’re still reading 
Hugh says he’s happy with his B
[quote=“Orlandus”]I am going to look like an utter idiot at school for a few days, might want to hold off on the fliers for a short while. And by a short while I mean, eternity.[/quote]So how did it go on your first day back?
Well I have had a fair amount of feedback from friends, family and workmates so far:
Overall they think it looks like good fun. Most think I came across well and that it was obvious that I was passionate about my hobby.
Several have mentioned one line, its one that makes me laugh “Sometimes when people frustrate me, I just want to draw my sword”. It was a bit of a fruedian slip and one that I should have elaborated on but hey, if thats the worst of it, then who cares?
Some people had a bit of laugh (at the perceived geekiness), some people were impressed with the planning and costumes that go into this hobby. Some were like - “Wow I never knew you could do that” and were amazed that it is a world wide phenomena and that in comparison we’re just small fry LARPers in NZ.
Most people asked when and where we do this thing called LARP.
So the interest level in people who know me was good, I don’t think we have any converts but certainly their awareness has been raised. There is potential for good things for LARP in the future, our profile has been raised which may make some things easier to achieve (like explaining what the hell we do).
So, to Hugh and Cara et al., thats thumbs up from me.
I am getting mercilessly teased by the kids. Most of it is good natured though and some have gone so far as to even dream up some creative works of genius such as ‘20/20 ha ha.’ When put up against such wit it is a wonder I have not yet bowed my head in shame.
It’s the people that only saw the ad that have me bothered. Parents and the like that wonder “What the hell? This guy teaches my daughter.” Ah well can’t win em all but it would have been more pleasant to do without.
I have a surprising number of kids actually saying “Hey Mr that looks cool” to which there is no reply other than “It’s definitely not cool, but it’s a lot of fun.”
Whatever happened to redefining geek as cool? We do IS the new cool, stop telling our youth otherwise 
I had not thought of that.
Personally, I’m hoping we see Hugh at Chimera next year
[size=85]If not sooner…[/size]
Okay, on the geeky:
-
There are larpers who don’t want to be labelled geeky, and who don’t see the hobby that way. So to other larpers: please don’t do it, because every time you label the whole hobby that way you’re labeling in a bunch of fellow larpers who don’t like it. If you want to describe yourself as geeky, there is no problem with that. Just don’t label everyone or the hobby.
-
Saying it’s geeky may exclude people from trying it. They hear it’s a geeky hobby, they don’t see themselves that way, they avoid it. They might otherwise have enjoyed it, especially if there are genres available to play that aren’t typically seen as geeky.
I know that there’s an argument about how geekdom is the new counterculture (taking over from hippies and yuppies), and there may be merit in that idea. But right now, it’s a term that many people don’t want associated with them, including many larpers and potential larpers. So leave it off, please?
Ryan
Yeah, can we drop this “larp=geek” meme ?
Look, Skirmish has been running since 1995, and everyone who did it was cool. We were in the crowd that hung out in the upper common room smoking dope at university. We ran the NORML gigs (and regardless of what you think about cannabis, NORML gigs were extremely cool). We were into the rave scene when it was still underground, and being held in caves at Whatipu, or the tunnels in North Head. We used to rock down to the Entrain / The Gathering at Takaka for New Years - and we even took our Skirmish gear with us and larped at the Gathering. And yes, we did use various chemicals a lot, including when playing Skirmish.
We are not geeks, but we are larpers. So, please, show some respect to the history of larp in this country and ditch the “larp=geek” meme. You might be happy with being labelled as a geek - if so, fine, I have no problem with that - but please do not assume we all are happy with it. Especially when it is simply untrue.
Woah sensitive note touched… Ahh the “Geek” thing.
Some people are taking this a bit out too seriously (in a cerebral sense), which I would point out is one of the criteria for an activity being labelled “Geeky”.
I personally don’t see LARP as “Geeky”, thats a label applied by outsiders. I see larp as a fun activity which I enjoy and will continue to enjoy and promote regardless of how outsiders percieve it.
We don’t live in Denmark (though my great great great grandfather was Danish) and we’re not mainstream. I don’t think we should be afraid of the term but the boundaries that used to define a geek are breaking down.
Should we care if we’re called a Geek? No. Should we label ourselves that? Power to you if you want to. Should we get our pants in a knot? No!
Anyways just so its clear, we were labelled geeks in this article. The word is mentioned in the article, both by the presenters and notably by ourselves. But what we should concentrate is the fact that the article was positive and that our profile was raised by it.
A few people have used the G word. But for me personally MORE people have not used it. Most of them have said “That looks fun!”.
Mainstream here we come, labelled G for fun!
Hmm, how do you square that comment with this one below ?
It is quite clear that members of the larping community are labelling larp as “geeky”.
Ryan and myself are asking that we refrain from continuing to label larp as being “geeky”, not only because some members may not see themselves as geeks, or that (rightly or wrongly) it creates a barrier in some peoples’ minds about whether they want to give larping a go. But also because, as I have pointed out, it is inaccurate.
Hang on, niche is not the same as geek. The team sport Touch used to be an informal game called Touch Rugby. There were no rules but lots of people played it in their local parks with localised rules, and eventually some people formalised it and started their own competitions. It went from being a niche sport into being a mainstream sport. But never would you have called it a “geek” activity just because it was niche.
Likewise with larp - it’s niche, but that does not mean it is geek.
[quote=“Jared”]Woah sensitive note touched… Ahh the “Geek” thing.
Some people are taking this a bit out too seriously (in a cerebral sense), which I would point out is one of the criteria for an activity being labelled “Geeky”.[/quote]
Geeks do not have a monopoly on critical analysis. Also, having a strong opinion does not a geek make.
I’m not sure you guys see this conversation as offensive to those of us who do consider ourselves geeks as it is to those who do not.
You have as much right to ask us to not call our hobby geeky as we do to insist that you do.
It is personal preference and interpretation of the meaning of the word.
Please back off before you ostracise sections of this fantstic community geek and non geek alike.
I’m sorry if anyone is offended by the discussion, but I think this is an important issue for people on both sides of this fence and deserves an airing. I don’t have a problem with the geek pride thing at a personal level. I understand that many people see the word in a very positive way.
But when people paint a whole activity as geeky, one that has a very diverse community around it, there are a lot of people caught in that net who don’t wish to be.
As you say, the term can be interpreted in a lot of ways. While some of those interpretations are positive, many of the interpretations of people who don’t consider themselves geeks, including a wide swath of the general public, are negative. While for you the term may mean “having niche interests” for some people the term means “socially dysfunctional”.
No-one here has authority to give anyone orders. So when I say “please stop” I mean “I think it would be best, and I would personally really appreciate it, and here are the reasons…”
So, here is another reason:
While there are some people involved in larp who consider themselves geeks, there is nothing intrinsically geeky about the activity itself. While some larps have themes or approaches that might be considered geeky, so do some movies and books. That doesn’t make all movies and books geeky.
Some larps being geeky does not equal all larp being geeky. Larp is a medium, you can do what you want with it. You can have larps for the purpose of education or political discourse. You can have intense emotional rules-free larps that resemble acting excercises. You can use larp for vocational training. And you can have more run-of-the-mill larps with more typical rules and objectives, without them touching on particularly geeky subject matter.
I’ve run a larp for my in-laws, they’re everyday folks who had a crack and roleplayed well and enjoyed it. None of them consider themselves geeks, and labelling it geeky wouldn’t have sold it to them: saying it’s a fun dress-up murder-mystery game did.
What exactly is achieved by labelling larp in a way that some larpers object to, that is highly ambiguous, and that many people consider derogatory?
My comments, accurate or paradoxical or not (more often than not) are just there to say come on, don’t take it so seriously. I don’t. I just larp. Labelled or unlabelled.