#but doing it while larping as canadians

[grimm-the-tiger]

Found the Republican. 

[despazito]

Yep. The same people will think a husky living in the texan suburbs left alone for 6 hours a day is living the dream life while denouncing working sled dogs as abused and neglected.

Ffs these people are so alienated from working DOGS that they see a lean one and immediately yell neglect just because it isn't obese. That's how disconnected they are from working animals.

There will always be bad people who work their animals to the point of abuse, or exploit them purely for profit in inhumane conditions (there are horror stories of tourist dogsledding companies, and of course the gambling empire built around horseracing where the animals are viewed as nonliving assets), but working animals actually enjoy working! It's what they were bred for, we selected those traits, and soo many pets go stir crazy when denied fulfillment of said instincts. But imo the first world has internalized the concept of work as miserable drudgery thanks to capitalism, and I think we project those feelings onto the animals we keep. that they must love this easy life in our living rooms and would actually find misery in work.

There's been studies measuring blood cortisol levels in horses before and after working and guess what, when done correctly they aren't distressed by pulling carriages, even in NYC!!

At worst this attitude can be downright harmful to vulnerable populations. For example, animal rights groups successfully petitioned to have horse carts banned from cities under the banner of welfare.

But these animal drawn carts are vital to Palestinians who have EXTREMELY restricted access to cars and certain roads by the apartheid government. This guise of humane animal rights can so often be weaponized against minorities. From the demeaning paternalistic attitude that these folk must not know what's best for them to actively sabotaging their culture by uprooting and destabilizing their way of life in an effort to assimilate them.

These people who say "just left machines do it" think it is by default the more humane option. Would you also goad on the systemic culling of Inuit sled dogs and replacement with snowmobiles that was pushed by the Canadian government in the mid 20th century? Do we really need more gas guzzling machines to replace something an animal can do better and also brings a sense of cultural fulfillment and connection to the world around us?

I'm sick of leftists who haven't left sheltered urban or suburban areas speaking on animal welfare and the relationships humans have with their animals when it's anything beyond a pet cat or dog. Wtf constitutes a useless animal!?? Shouldn't you be in Yellowstone larping as a Disney princess and harassing the bison? They are so disconnected from the rich history and culture humans share with our domestic animals.

I understand the stereotype of rich horse people but it's kind of gotten insane that anyone with a horse is now automatically seen as a landed gentry bourgeois so much so that people are straight up calling horses bourgeois creatures and calling for their ABOLISHMENT and even extinction like wtf is wrong with you. Don't let the era of the automobile erase the horses history as a beast of burden for the working class and farmers. Horses belong to the proletariat just as much if not more than the role of rich person's plaything.

[female-malice]

i’ve been listening to a certain spooky topic podcast with two gay hosts, and they do a great job telling fucked up stories with a good balance of laughs. But they’re Canadian and I just listened to an episode where they open the show with a trans pandering disclaimer. It was the most awkward thing ever. while one host was giving this over the top trans ally speech, his partner was just silent, waiting for him to finish. Which was pretty funny tbh. He was like “cool... anyway lets talk about ghosts now” Like, same. I’m annoyed too lol. 

Like, this trans speech really ended with “if you don’t believe in gender identity, stop listening to our podcast right now.” He was sooo worked up about it too. Like, really? This guy has to know that his tiny audience is literally only gays and goths. So he’s really just deciding to kick out half his gay audience and perform for internet straight women who larp as gay men. I guess they spend more time online and spend more money on podcast bullshit. I would normally be too annoyed and stop listening to the podcast. But, he said “you can’t listen!” so I’m simply going to continue listening

[needmoresleepers]

have you seen YAEL BARON yet this school year?? maybe in/at GAMER CLUB/LARP/LGBTQ?? i heard some wild rumors about the SIXTEEN year old last semester, but now that they’re a SOPHOMORE it might be a different story. according to their friends they’re pretty RELIABLE, but sometimes THEY can be CAGEY. who knows, this might just be THEIR year ! [ JAMIE BLOCH] ( emma, 18, EST ).

name - yael baron

pronouns - they/them/theirs

age - 16

star sign - virgo sun, libra moon, capricorn rising

BIO / FACTS

yael lives with their mom, dad, and grandma, and while they have some issues with communication, they all tend to get along and share the same sense of dry humor

they still haven’t figured out their romantic/sexual orientation, and when asked, usually just shrug and say “jury’s still out on that one”

they have an older sister who’s in college right now

hates sports and still doesn’t totally understand the rules of hockey, even if it makes them a ~bad canadian~

has a twitch account where they stream video game play-throughs, but doesn’t do it often enough or is popular enough at it to get much money from it

after coming out, they joined the lgbtq club at school, and has been in the gaming club and larping for most of their time at degrassi

yael doesn’t know what they want to be when they grow up, but is planning on going into stem

OOC THINGS

my name is emma, and my tumblr/discord is open if you want to plot and the like! im pretty new to tumblr rping, the yael muse just got to me

[kkintsugi]

Ok so I had an idea for an episode of Sunny allow me to explain it to you in detail

The episode starts with Frank and Charlie asking Dee for help with a scheme. She’s like “I don’t wanna help with anything you guys are doing, get Mac or Dennis” to which Charlie says that Dennis is sick and Mac is on a date. Dee’s like “Oh, he doesn’t have a date, he’s just saying that so you won’t rope him into your scheme! Who would go on a date with Mac?”

Cut to the title card: Mac Gets A Boyfriend

The next scene opens with Frank, Charlie, and Dee getting dinner at Gugino’s. Frank is saying something like “I’m so glad you decided to hear us out, Deandra” and Dee says she’s only there because Frank is buying dinner. Frank explains that he and Charlie are moving, and they want to buy a new place because they hate landlords. However, they want someone else to help them talk to the realtors bc nobody would ever sell a house/condo/apartment to Frank and Charlie. Dee says she’ll help but Frank and Charlie have to listen to everything she says. As she’s saying this, Charlie (clearly not listening to her) spots Mac and Dennis having dinner together across the restaurant and gets mad that they lied about where they were. Convinced that they’re hiding something, he sneaks over near their table and hides behind a plant so he can overhear part of their conversation.

Dennis goes “Shit is that Dee and Frank? I told them I was sick!”

Mac is like “It is! Goddamit, I told them I was on a date tonight!”

Dennis looks surprised. He’s like “Wait, really? You told them? I thought you weren’t telling anyone yet!”

Mac says “Yeah, but otherwise they would have roped me into their stupid scheme”

The waiter tells Charlie to stop lurking behind a plant. He goes back to Frank and Dee and tells them that he thinks Mac and Dennis are secretly dating. Dee says Dennis would never allow that to happen. Frank says it’s irrelevant and they should focus on the scheme.

The next day, Dee is at Frank and Charlie’s place looking through their clothes for anything acceptable they can wear to their first open house. They insist that they can wear some all denim outfits they found under the bridge because “in Canada this is like a fucking tuxedo Dee, maybe we’re fancy Canadians!” Dee gets exasperated and sends Charlie to get a button down from Dennis.

Charlie goes over to Mac and Dennis’s apartment, but when he gets there, Dennis has Mac pinned up against a wall and they’re both sweaty and flustered. They appear to have just been making out. Charlie’s like “Uhhh sorry to interrupt” and they immediately both start launching into an explanation about how they were fighting bc Dennis was angry that Mac told a hot girl that Dennis was trying to hit on an embarrassing story about him. Charlie’s like “Cool, whatever, can I borrow a button down for this open house?” Dennis gives him some nice clothes, and Charlie leaves.

We see Charlie and Dee pose as a married couple at the first open house. They both do ridiculous Texan accents, and improv a long backstory about how they met when they joined a cowboy LARPing society and had to share a horse. There’s a little bit of confusion when they both say Frank is their dad, but they recover after Dee explains that Frank is her dad and Charlie’s father in law, but they’re such a cute, loving family that Charlie also calls Frank dad sometimes.

They have a good time, but Frank says he doesn’t like the place, so they decide to keep looking. We see a montage of them looking at different places: Charlie gets kicked out after seeing a cheese plate and eating all the cheese, Dee tries to do an Irish accent and the realtor turns out to be actually Irish, once they all show up in ridiculous costumes. Eventually, they sit in the bar having a drink. A phone buzzes on the counter – it’s Mac’s. It’s a text from Dennis saying “Date tonight?” Charlie says this proves his theory about Mac and Dennis dating, and Frank and Dee relent. Dee says they have been awfully touchy lately, more so than since before Mac came out.

Frank, Charlie, and Dee go to another open house. Charlie says the place is nice, and they end up getting into a huge screaming match about random aspects of the house like the carpet and the furniture and the doors. Charlie storms out.

Early the next morning, Charlie goes to Mac and Dennis’s place again. He walks into the apartment without knocking, and instead knocks on Mac’s bedroom door. Mac’s like “What are you doing here? How did you get into our apartment?” Charlie says the door was unlocked, and Mac says that seems weird, but he moves past it. Charlie’s like “I wanna talk to you about something, can we talk?” Mac says he has to be quiet because Dennis is sleeping. Charlie asks why they don’t just go in Mac’s room, but Mac says that the can’t bec Dennis is sleeping in Mac’s room, and says Dennis had a girl over last night who tried to strangle him in her sleep, and he couldn’t get her to wake up, so he’s hiding out in Mac’s room until she leaves.

Charlie is clearly not buying it, but they go for a walk, and Charlie talks about how he’s mad at Frank and he feels like they’re not on the same page anymore, and Frank wants a new place but Charlie likes their old place. Mac says Charlie should tell Frank how he feels. Charlie leaves and talks to Frank, who reveals that he also likes their old place, but he threatened Huang with a gun the other day, and Huang said he would call the police if Frank didn’t get out. Dee points out that their building is actually for sale, and suggests Frank buy the building. He agrees, and he and Charlie are back to normal.

The next day, they’re sitting in the bar. Mac comes in, and he says that he has to tell them something: he has a new boyfriend. He starts going into explicit detail about his sex life, and after a while Dee is like “Stop! That’s my brother you’re talking about” and Mac and Dennis are like “Huh? What are you talking about?”

Dee and Charlie are like “We know you’re banging Dennis, dude”. Then a man who came into the bar shortly after Mac goes “Wait, you’re cheating on me?” and Mac is like “No, I swear I’m not!” but the man doesn’t listen and ends up breaking up with him.

Dee and Charlie are like “Oh, shit. Sorry.” They start asking him about all the stuff they’d seen. Mac explains that he went out to dinner with Dennis after his boyfriend cancelled last minute, his boyfriend was asleep in his room when Charlie came by the previous morning, and he and Dennis really were just fighting that one time. Dee is like “but you guys are always touching and putting your arms around each other and stuff” and Dennis is like “Yeah, well it’s a lot more comfortable doing that with someone who’s not in love with you. Now that Mac is over me we can go back to normal.” He calls Dee a bird, and they walk out of the room arguing.

Charlie tells Mac he can’t believe he finally got over Dennis and Mac is like “Of course I’m not over Dennis, I just needed him to think I was so that he would relax around me. Now I can finally make him fall in love with me!”

Charlie’s like “Yeah, that makes more sense. Anyways you wanna hear about the open houses we went to?” Mac says sure, and Charlie launches into a monologue about the cheese plate. Cut to the credits.

That was great 😆

I love how Charlie doesn't really give a shit about Mac and Dennis being in a relationship he's just like "you guys are totally banging but whatever". I like the twist of them not actually dating, very on brand for sunny. I think if(when?? Manifesting "Mac gets a boyfriend" ep for season 15) Mac gets a bf Dennis will act like "oh good for him, he'll stop bothering me now" but will actually be extremely jealous.

Charlie and Dee both doing ridiculous characters is great, their accents would be terrible, they'd be so insufferable together 😆

[thebachelordiaries]

‘Battle of the Beauty Queens:’ The Bachelor Ep. 3 Recap

Colton’s journey to find love has officially taken a back seat to the drama between Miss Alabama and Miss North Carolina.

Grab a seat and get comfortable, because I have nothing but time to discuss this Beauty Queen rivalry.

So here’s the sitch: Hannah B. and Caelynn were roommates at Miss USA. From what Hannah said, Caelynn made the already stressful experience harder for her. However, Caelynn claims Hannah B., who placed outside the top 15, is just jealous she was named first-runner up. 

So what’s the truth? I’ll get to that in a bit.

Yo-Ho-Ho And A Group Date Rose

In case you didn’t watch the episode and didn’t get the extremely clever reference in the above headline, the first date this episode was a live action role play (LARP) Pirate edition group date. It kind of reminded me of Medieval Times.

Don’t forget to warm up. Or in Colton’s case, practically lose your virginity stretching out a very flexible NBA dancer:

Production was able to choose two girls who were the “best” pirates, who then got to compete against one another to rescue Colton. Cougar Tracey, who most likely has weak bones, and Caelynn, who jumped off the beam instead of fighting her much stronger rival Hannah B., was also chosen. Sounds like a setup but ok. 

Caelynn obviously beat cougar Tracey and went on to rescue Colton, who was tied up on a high pillar. They awkwardly kissed. Demi threw a turkey leg onto the stage.

Colton was very into his performance. Dare I say, it was kinda hot?

During the cocktail hour portion of the date, Katie and Colton bonded over how much they both like food, which is like, so weird. Who knew that one day, in this world filled with 8 billion people, they would find another person who likes food! They are so lucky to have found each other. They truly are kindred spirits.

On the count of three, name your favorite food. One, two, three:

Hannah B., egged on by never-been-kissed girl (it’s the quiet ones you need to worry about), decided to tell Colton about her former friendship with Caelynn. 

She goes on to explain that rooming with Caelynn during Miss USA was “one of the most high stress environments” she’s even been in.

Hannah insists that her and Caelynn— two straight, white beauty queens from the south— are completely different people and Colton could not possibly like them both.

‘If [Caelynn] is what you want, then you don’t want me,” Hannah B. says.

Colton, who can only make decisions within his bubble of protection or else he explodes, does not like this ultimatum. Spoiler alert: He does not jump the fence this episode.

Colton talks to Caelynn about what Hannah B. said, and she starts crying. She emphasizes she “handles competition” differently than Hannah does and says she “gets quiet,” when stressed. I don’t know about you but that seems like code for “I’m a giant bitch.”

Caelynn then starts crying and basically implies she isn’t ready to leave because she hasn’t had a 1-on-1 yet to tell her story.

Seems genuine.

Caelynn got the group date rose because Colton is attracted to girls who cry to get what they want.

Cougar Leader Elyse’s 1-on-1 Date

Hot take: Elyse is not into Colton whatsoever. She’s just getting a good edit and will go far because she has Bachelorette potential.

Colton and Elyse took a helicopter to San Diego and arrived at an empty amusement park that they would enjoy all to themselves. 

Just kidding. They were joined by 18 children they had to babysit for the rest of the day. How romantic.

The worst part was Elyse and Colton had to act like they enjoyed spending the day with a bunch of annoying kids. Elyse deserved better.

We learn why Elyse got this 1-on-1 during the dinner portion of the date. Elyse’s sister was diagnosed with cancer while she was pregnant. She decided not to seek treatment and gave birth to her baby. Later, (the timing is unclear) she passed away from her illness. Elyse’s sister was a nurse, and her co-workers created a charity in her name called Sarah’s Closet. 

I truly don’t know how Elyse got through telling that story without shedding a single tear.

Colton gave Elyse the date rose, obviously. She’s the America’s Sweetheart of the season. 

The Other Group Date

Despite Terry Crews and his wife hosting this group date, I remember very few details about it.

Terry Crews’ biceps are overdeveloped. There, I said it.

Nicole can’t do a pull up. 

Catherine is like a black belt in karate or something.

Onyeka won the competition.

Colton sent home Caitlyn the Canadian because she couldn’t say one interesting about herself if her life depended on it. “I like going out with my friends” is not a personality trait.

I have no recollection of who got the group date rose.

Pool Party

I don’t know about you, but replacing a rose ceremony with a pool party is always a great idea, mostly because something always goes wrong. every. singe. time.

This pool party was ruined— or to some, made better— by the Beauty Queen drama. Hannah B. continued to insist that Colton needed to choose between the two. Meanwhile, Caelynn is making sure everything plays out in her favor by crying and using her Miss First Runner Up charm. Sadly, I think Caelynn, who may be in the wrong in real life, is getting the favorable edit on the show. In case it wasn’t obvious, I’m Team Hannah B.

“There’s a beautiful monster inside of me,” —Hannah B

Once again, when presented a choice that isn’t within his control, Colton freaked out. He hid in the production room, forcing Chris Harrison to wake up from his nap to find out what’s going on, and didn’t talk to any of the other women at the pool party, instilling fear of the unknown within them all for the Rose Ceremony later that night.

Rose Ceremony

I regret to announce that my Aussie fav Bri went home. But it’s fine. We’ll be fine. She’s obviously going to be on Bachelor In Paradise. I hope she’s sassy as hell at the Women Tell All. Until then, I’ll just continue to follow her on Instagram.

Night one villain Catherine was also sent home. So, who will be our villain? Do we even have one? I guess it’s Demi.

Up Next: Singapore

Typically the first two travel locations are domestic, then the girls go to a nearby international location. But not this year. ABC apparently got a new budget and they’re ready to spend it faster than Lamar Odom in a Las Vegas whore house.

I think it’s great there’s cool dates, a lot of celebrity guests and more international travel than previous years, but at what cost? Why are we trying to mimic Juan Pablo’s season? We all know how that turned out.

What’s worse than a budget heavy season with Juan Pablo? The season that followed: Chris Soules. And nobody in their right might wants a repeat of his season. Firstly, the guy literally killed someone. Secondly, the show spent six weeks touring the Dust Bowl of the United States, which is an LA content creator’s worst nightmare.

But I guess we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.

[scifrey]

I am a fandom old! I am 37, and got into fandom when I was 9 years old. I totally fell for a Canadian TV series and found forums discussing it on Bravenet, and then later Yahoo!Groups. We had dial-up and I would load pages and open a hundred browsers and then shut off the internet and read for hours. 

I learned about fanfiction through that, and started writing my own stories at age 10, printing out the pages and illustrating them with a friend.  At that point, fandom was just something fun to do with my IRL friends: telling each other silly stories based on our favourite shows, and sometimes (for me anyway) sharing them online.

I really got into fandom hardcore in University. I was introduced to cosplay at age 18 and was hooked. (And one year later, pulled @ sagedarkwoods here into the madness and joy with me). I was a theatre kid so getting to make costumes and props, and pretend to be characters, and act and sing, and getting to put together skits and everything? It was heaven! 

I cosplayed at conventions and in Masquerade competitions for over a decade, right up until we won a Best In Show award and my Master’s level ribbons, and I switched to judging. Around that time, I had also transitioned from one side of the convention table to the other and became a profic writer.

I wrote my MA thesis on the power and necessity of Mary Sue fanfiction, and how it should be uplifted (instead of reviled) as the product of young women finding their own voices and exploring their own creative drives, sexualities, and power for the first time. I used that thesis to springboard into my fantasy series, The Accidental Turn a few years later.

Biut immediately after I finished my thesis, I got a deal to publish my first original novel - Triptych - which then won some major awards.  I wouldn’t have been half the writer I am if it wasn’t for fanfic.

AND, on top of all that, as a baby actor I did fandubs and fan audio dramas, and now I’m a professional voice actor, represented by an agent and crooning into the mic about toilet paper or pretending to be a hyperactive baby fish, and getting paid for it. Again, if it weren’t for fandom, I wouldn’t have this career as a pro.

I have published nine novels; I get paid for my writing and win awards; I am auditioning regularly. I can pay my rent and I can do it on the skills I learned from engaging in fandom.

Keeping up with my profic careers as, sadly, prevented me from being able to produce fannish content as much as I’d like, but I still write fanfic occasionally, still read fanfic and fancomics daily, still attend cons (though lately only as a guest - but a guest who still goes to the masquerade and wanders the dealer’s room and adores Artist’s Alley). I still cosplay, when I can get away with it. (Fellow Guest of Honor Robert Picardo really liked my TARDIS bolero, which I wore to a fancy dinner at a SF/F con over a cute blue dress, rather than with the whole steampunk gown it usually goes with.)

Moreover, I have made all of my best friends through fandom. High school friends who loved to talk about Star Trek with me, and read tie-in novels. An online-only friend I met in those Yahoo!Groups and who is also now a professional writer - we are very close despite never having met IRL in all our 20+ years of being friends. Cosplay folks who have become so close that I am helping one plan her wedding while being the bridal party with others. University friends who bonded over fanfic, and drawing fanart in the margins of our notes, and LARPing. Profic author friends met while we were guests at SF/F cons.

I owe literally every happiness I have at this stage of my life to fandom.

And as Sage stated above - the older you get, the less patience and care you have for the fandom wank and bullshit. It is cyclical. It happens over and over again, in every fandom, for the same damn stupid reasons. The first time it broke my heart and it felt like the end of the world. Now, I get that - as much as I hate it and think it’s ridiculous, and wish it wasn’t - wank is part of every fandom. (And not just nerdy fandom - there is wank in gaming fandom, sports fandom, politics fandom, etc. Anything with fans has wank.)

So you learn to walk away. To unsubscribe. To block. To mute. To not feed the trolls.

My loves, it’s not worth it. 

Don’t let the venom someone else spits poison your cup of tea. Put your hand over the cup and walk away. 

And find another, lovely, tea party to join. I promise you, the little sandwiches your fellow party-goers make and share are to die for, and you’ll never get bored with the conversation and the life-long friends you’ll make.

thinking about Fandom Elders and how there’s not enough love and appreciation for them: i’d really like to see a thread where 30-and-up fans talk about the fandom work they’re doing now and how much better things are when you’re finally shut of the insecurity and confusion of your twenties. 

if you’re a fan over 29, reblog this with some positivity, please! brag on yourself and your friends. let us know how much better things can get. 

[theserpentsadvocate]

Tell HolyClothing Racial Slurs ARE a Big Deal

I have two friends getting married this summer, and I’m in both wedding parties, so naturally they’ve been sending me pictures of dresses to look at. Since my BFF is both pagan and really into LARP, she also considered some dresses from a historical/fantasy clothing site, which would be great, normally (I got my prom dress from one, and it was awesome)... but I was really disconcerted to see that one of the dresses she was looking at for me had a racial slur in the description.

This is really common, unfortunately, with sites like that, because there’s an unfortunate lack of awareness (at least in North America, I can’t speak for elsewhere) about the fact that g*psy is a really offensive and oppressive term for the Romani/Rromani people (and an offensive and inaccurate term to use for other nomadic groups like Irish Travellers).

Anyway, since the company is committed to ethical practices, I hoped they’d be receptive to a request to change the descriptions on clothing featuring that word (which also appears in the hover-over text for the tab), and I sent them a long, very polite email about it, including a link to a Romani person discussing the issue. Unfortunately, this was not the case. Evidently, HolyClothing had been alerted to this previously, but because their Facebook followers didn’t see an issue with it, and since they’re of the opinion that they’re using it in a non-derogatory way, they think it’s fine to keep using it.

I’m sending them a still polite but markedly disapproving response email, but if they want to ignore me... they’ll ignore me. However, if they were suddenly inundated with polite-but-markedly-disapproving (or even polite-and-utterly-distressed) emails and Facebook comments, that might sway them.

I’ll include all the emails under a cut. If you want to help, you can email them at  store@holyclothing.com for Customer Service, or info@holyclothing.com for Press/PR. If that’s a little overwhelming, their Facebook page is here.

Please send them an email or a Facebook message or comment if you can. If you can’t, for whatever reason, please don’t feel bad about it, and signal boost if you’re up for it.

Here’s my correspondance with HolyClothing, unaltered except for spaces for readability and editing of personal details: Bolding for clarity of formatting.

My first email to them:

Hey, I posted this on your Facebook earlier because I couldn't find your 'Contact' link on the website. I suspect this is the fault of my computer, which displayed a few bugs when I was looking through the website for other things; sometimes it's kind of temperamental.

So, here's what I said:

"I'm looking at some clothing from your shop because my friend likes them for her bridesmaid dresses, and while I really like a lot of your clothes, I'm uncomfortable about buying clothes from a company that uses a racial slur in their descriptions.

I know it's common for companies that sell historical- and fantasy-inspired clothes to use the term 'gypsy' to refer to a certain style of clothing, but it is in fact an offensive and marginalizing term to a minority group which is still persecuted today, and I would feel a lot better if you would address it, and, hopefully, change the names on articles like this one:

http://holyclothing.com/…/kyla-scalloped-hem-gothic-embroid…

Here is an article by a person who IS Romani explaining why the word is offensive and some of her negative experiences with similar branding. http://gypsyappropriations.blogspot.ca/…/problem-with-word-…

Thank you for taking the time to read and respond to my concerns." Since I'm off Facebook I'd like to elaborate - I know the company is based in India, but I understand that it's run by Canadians. It's VERY common in North America for non-Romani people not to know about the offensive implications of the word, and I myself (I am not Romani) only found out this information a few years ago. I am sure that your company's usage of the word was done unintentionally rather than callously.

At the same time, as you can see from the article I've linked, using the word the way you have can cause huge amounts of unintentional harm to Romani people who see it, and who have to deal with people who have normalized it because of seeing similar things, so I really felt I had to say something immediately.

I'm very conflicted - I love most of your clothing and I'm thrilled to find an ethically-sourced and semi-Canadian company selling the sort of thing I'm so interested in... and, of course, I want to make my friend's wedding perfect for her, which includes wearing whatever she picks out. But I'm really uncomfortable purchasing from a business that uses a racial slur not just in some of their product descriptions, but in their branding.

Given HolyClothing's dedication to ethical business, I'm confident you'll address the matter in a satisfactory manner, which would send a good message to your customers, as well as distinguishing you among other historical and fantasy-esque stores who use similar branding.

Thank you so much for your time and attention,

Riley [last name redacted]

Their response:

Hello Riley,

Thank you for taking the time to email us. This has been addressed in the past with HolyClothing and more than one poll was taken on our Facebook page. We are not using the term in a derogatory manner and to date, have not received any complaints from Romani people.

We appreciate your feedback.

Regards - Brenda

And my latest email:

I'm really disappointed to hear that. I had higher expectations from you as a business.

May I suggest that you read (or reread) the post at the link I sent you ( http://gypsyappropriations.blogspot.ca/2010/04/problem-with-word-gypsy.html ), in which the large guest section details a Romani person's experience, and demonstrates how the term is no less hurtful even when not used with malice. There's also an explanation of how such use of the term contributes to erasure of the Romani people (the author of the blog is regularly told that she's not real), and gives some context to its history and utter inappropriateness when used by anyone who isn't Romani. If you require anything more than that, it's easy to find Romani people discussing or explaining this in various places online, and I would also be willing to provide you with as much additional material as you require.

I'd also like to suggest that perhaps it's time to set up another one of those polls - but even if the response doesn't condemn the term, it would reflect well on HolyClothing as a company, especially one committed to ethical practices, to do what's right rather than simply what's easiest.

(Incidentally, in my experience it is very easy to rebrand anything described as 'g*psy' as either 'boho' or 'pirate' as is fitting. If you find 'pirate' doesn't quite fit your store, you could always try 'nomad', 'hippie', 'flower child', and so on, or in specific descriptions, substitute one of your other branding terms, like, again, 'boho', or 'peasant' as appropriate. Simply dropping it from your hover-over tab description would still leave you with four adjectives which still convey very effectively the variety and type of clothing you provide.)

Thank you for your time. [initials redacted]

[bisoroblog]

How Schools Spark Excitement for Learning with Role Playing and Games

Michael Matera’s students don’t merely learn about medieval Europe, they live it. Albeit, with a few monsters and enchanted items thrown in the mix.

The Milwaukee teacher’s Grade 6 history class is an ongoing role-playing game called Realm of Nobles, where students join guilds, earn achievements, make trades and wage the occasional epic battle in an imaginary medieval kingdom. Matera has played the game for years, and maintains that the fusion of history, fantasy, narrative and role-play is an effective formula to engage students in learning.

“The excitement and the pride in their accomplishments are all through the roof. I love seeing kids gaining real-world skills, taking risks and learning from defeat in this gamified class,” said Matera, who wrote Explore Like a Pirate: Gamification and Game-Inspired Course Design to Engage, Enrich and Elevate Your Learners, a manual for teachers who aspire to design their classes as games.

A growing number of educators like Matera are remodeling their classes by fusing game elements to their instructional environments. But, does switching grades for experience points and homework for quests amount only to cosmetic surgery? Is school merely being “reskinned” with a new paint job without fundamentally altering the age-old classroom rituals?

The Rise of the EduLARP

The use of simulations and role-play in education is not a recent development. Model United Nations, historical re-enactments, mock trials and other types of dramatic simulations have been in the teacher toolbox for decades. What is new, however, is that the simulation is packaged as a game and sustained for an extended period, often spanning the entire school year.

This particular union of role-play, narrative, and game owes no small debt to Dungeons & Dragons, the classic role-playing game (RPG) that is enjoying a recent resurgence. D&D pioneered and popularized an array of RPG conventions that are now video game and tabletop staples, like experience points (XP), levels, loot, character classes and boss fights.

In the mid-’70s some eager D&D fans donned armor, weapons, gowns and cloaks, and transplanted RPG elements to the real world in the form of live-action role-play, or LARPs. Players stay in character as they interact and battle in elaborate adventures set in real-life forests and fields that evoke medieval fantasy. The popularity of LARPs in Scandinavia inspired a pair of Danish educators to open the Østerskov School that teaches with edularps. Today, edularps are found in schools in Sweden, Finland and Denmark, and even some U.S. schools have jumped into the fray.

Sanne Harder, a game designer and educator who worked at the Østerskov School, thinks that edularps are not only a fun way to learn, but also a better way to learn.

“When I choose to use role-play as a means of teaching, it is because it is an excellent way of organizing teaching, not because the hobby appeals to its fans,” wrote Harder. “In the 21st century, being a teacher is not about teaching pupils facts, it is about helping them internalize knowledge, skills, and competencies.”

Sarah Lynne Bowman and Anne Standiford conducted a 2016 mixed methods study of edularps at an L.A. charter school and found that they encouraged “greater motivation, engagement, interaction with peers, collaboration, and comprehension of material,” which is promising, but the area is new and the research nascent.

Choosing a Road to Victory

Edularps, and other class-as-game variants like alternate reality games (ARGs), pervasive games and gamified class, are popping up in schools, universities and even camps across North America. While the sword-and-sorcery motif remains prevalent, some educators have diversified into themes and settings that better fit their learning goals.

While still a high school science teacher, University of Connecticut assistant professor Stephen Slota designed a unit-length game to teach human reproduction and sexually transmitted diseases. “The students worked in teams of three to control a character avatar in a fictitious village, and their goal was to engage in an epidemiological study of the area by investigating locales and speaking to non-player characters as enacted by the instructor,” said Slota, who edited Exploding the Castle: Rethinking How Video Games & Game Mechanics Can Shape The Future Of Education, a collection of game-based learning essays.

Slota has since developed half a dozen class-as-games for subjects as far-flung as education technology, Latin, psychology and biology. Matera also sets one of his games during the Cold War, and the edularps at the Østerskov School involve a wide range of themes and settings.

The games tend to be flexible and students are able to alter the unfolding experience through the choices they make. This freedom to shape their circumstances and the accompanying sense of agency is a big part of what engages them in learning.

“I’ve found — both anecdotally and in my research — that freedom to push and pull at the game’s narrative and ruleset provides students with a sense of greater personal ownership, and therefore greater depth of knowledge about content than usually accompanies schoolwork,” said Slota.

Matera also stresses the importance of student agency, and feels that it marks a significant departure from typical classroom dynamics.

“Games have clear objects, but no one set path to that victory. This is where strategy comes into play. An RPG, as with many well-designed games, allows for the players to create their own path to victory,” said Matera. “This level of customization and personalization feels different than traditional school because it is different. Students have an opportunity to create their own experience within the game. They earn badges, items and power-ups that allow them to have a unique game characters. This leads to endless strategies, trades and allegiances to help successfully make it through the Realm.”

Houston-area teacher Kade Wells also personalizes his class by using a D&D-style character class system. He gives his students a basic personality test and, based on the results, assigns them one of four roles designed to support classroom management.

“Protectors keep the peace and manage group outbursts; Initiators get things ready and help to get materials, sharpen pencils and put things away; Diplomats help group members and facilitate all processes and are ultimately responsible for the group’s behavior; Sages keep the records, help with attendance, make sure that things are orderly and accounted for,” said Wells, who has found the class system empowers his students to self-regulate and take greater ownership of their environment.

There’s an App for That

Matera, Slota and Wells design their games from scratch, cannibalizing a pastiche of web applications, pen-and-paper elements, learning management systems, Google apps, spreadsheets and any other available tools that they can bend to their playful purposes. But teachers who don’t have the time, confidence or knowledge to dive into the DIY approach can turn to commercial software designed to help educators run their classes as games.

Rezzly’s 3D GameLab, the University of Michigan’s GradeCraft, NEXED’s Answerables and Classcraft are gameful learning management systems that have tapped into the class-as-game zeitgeist to help educators keep track of quests, levels, experience points, badges and other game features.

“They will do anything for XP [experience points] and GP [gold pieces] to level up their avatar,” said Carrie Casey, a Wisconsin middle-school science teacher who uses Classcraft. “I have seen some of my students who will not hand in work — work hard to get their work in for me so they get XP and do not disappoint their team.”

It has also helped Casey reach some challenging students: “I have connected to them through gaming where no other teacher has connected to them that year.”

Canadian teacher Justin Matheson says that his Grade 6 students loved the sword-and-sorcery motif, and he credits Classcraft’s video game qualities for fostering perseverance. “With video games, people get to a point where things become increasingly difficult and they experience repeated failure. Then, you are encouraged to try again and again, and to seek help through outside resources to find success. This is the most notable benefit that I have seen in my class. My students see difficulties as speed bumps instead of roadblocks.”

Grafting Dungeons & Dragons-style RPG elements to classrooms can have an effect that delves much deeper than mere optics. Games and classes are both systems that operate with rules. When the rules that typically govern the class are hacked by the rules of the game, a fundamental shift can take place. Games offer a valuable palette of functions and features that can be creatively repurposed to rewrite some of education’s more problematic operations. Educators who are not satisfied with business as usual can tap into the power of play and design the change they want to see.

How Schools Spark Excitement for Learning with Role Playing and Games published first on https://dlbusinessnow.tumblr.com/

[perfectzablog]

How Schools Spark Excitement for Learning with Role Playing and Games

Michael Matera’s students don’t merely learn about medieval Europe, they live it. Albeit, with a few monsters and enchanted items thrown in the mix.

The Milwaukee teacher’s Grade 6 history class is an ongoing role-playing game called Realm of Nobles, where students join guilds, earn achievements, make trades and wage the occasional epic battle in an imaginary medieval kingdom. Matera has played the game for years, and maintains that the fusion of history, fantasy, narrative and role-play is an effective formula to engage students in learning.

“The excitement and the pride in their accomplishments are all through the roof. I love seeing kids gaining real-world skills, taking risks and learning from defeat in this gamified class,” said Matera, who wrote Explore Like a Pirate: Gamification and Game-Inspired Course Design to Engage, Enrich and Elevate Your Learners, a manual for teachers who aspire to design their classes as games.

A growing number of educators like Matera are remodeling their classes by fusing game elements to their instructional environments. But, does switching grades for experience points and homework for quests amount only to cosmetic surgery? Is school merely being “reskinned” with a new paint job without fundamentally altering the age-old classroom rituals?

The Rise of the EduLARP

The use of simulations and role-play in education is not a recent development. Model United Nations, historical re-enactments, mock trials and other types of dramatic simulations have been in the teacher toolbox for decades. What is new, however, is that the simulation is packaged as a game and sustained for an extended period, often spanning the entire school year.

This particular union of role-play, narrative, and game owes no small debt to Dungeons & Dragons, the classic role-playing game (RPG) that is enjoying a recent resurgence. D&D pioneered and popularized an array of RPG conventions that are now video game and tabletop staples, like experience points (XP), levels, loot, character classes and boss fights.

In the mid-’70s some eager D&D fans donned armor, weapons, gowns and cloaks, and transplanted RPG elements to the real world in the form of live-action role-play, or LARPs. Players stay in character as they interact and battle in elaborate adventures set in real-life forests and fields that evoke medieval fantasy. The popularity of LARPs in Scandinavia inspired a pair of Danish educators to open the Østerskov School that teaches with edularps. Today, edularps are found in schools in Sweden, Finland and Denmark, and even some U.S. schools have jumped into the fray.

Sanne Harder, a game designer and educator who worked at the Østerskov School, thinks that edularps are not only a fun way to learn, but also a better way to learn.

“When I choose to use role-play as a means of teaching, it is because it is an excellent way of organizing teaching, not because the hobby appeals to its fans,” wrote Harder. “In the 21st century, being a teacher is not about teaching pupils facts, it is about helping them internalize knowledge, skills, and competencies.”

Sarah Lynne Bowman and Anne Standiford conducted a 2016 mixed methods study of edularps at an L.A. charter school and found that they encouraged “greater motivation, engagement, interaction with peers, collaboration, and comprehension of material,” which is promising, but the area is new and the research nascent.

Choosing a Road to Victory

Edularps, and other class-as-game variants like alternate reality games (ARGs), pervasive games and gamified class, are popping up in schools, universities and even camps across North America. While the sword-and-sorcery motif remains prevalent, some educators have diversified into themes and settings that better fit their learning goals.

While still a high school science teacher, University of Connecticut assistant professor Stephen Slota designed a unit-length game to teach human reproduction and sexually transmitted diseases. “The students worked in teams of three to control a character avatar in a fictitious village, and their goal was to engage in an epidemiological study of the area by investigating locales and speaking to non-player characters as enacted by the instructor,” said Slota, who edited Exploding the Castle: Rethinking How Video Games & Game Mechanics Can Shape The Future Of Education, a collection of game-based learning essays.

Slota has since developed half a dozen class-as-games for subjects as far-flung as education technology, Latin, psychology and biology. Matera also sets one of his games during the Cold War, and the edularps at the Østerskov School involve a wide range of themes and settings.

The games tend to be flexible and students are able to alter the unfolding experience through the choices they make. This freedom to shape their circumstances and the accompanying sense of agency is a big part of what engages them in learning.

“I’ve found — both anecdotally and in my research — that freedom to push and pull at the game’s narrative and ruleset provides students with a sense of greater personal ownership, and therefore greater depth of knowledge about content than usually accompanies schoolwork,” said Slota.

Matera also stresses the importance of student agency, and feels that it marks a significant departure from typical classroom dynamics.

“Games have clear objects, but no one set path to that victory. This is where strategy comes into play. An RPG, as with many well-designed games, allows for the players to create their own path to victory,” said Matera. “This level of customization and personalization feels different than traditional school because it is different. Students have an opportunity to create their own experience within the game. They earn badges, items and power-ups that allow them to have a unique game characters. This leads to endless strategies, trades and allegiances to help successfully make it through the Realm.”

Houston-area teacher Kade Wells also personalizes his class by using a D&D-style character class system. He gives his students a basic personality test and, based on the results, assigns them one of four roles designed to support classroom management.

“Protectors keep the peace and manage group outbursts; Initiators get things ready and help to get materials, sharpen pencils and put things away; Diplomats help group members and facilitate all processes and are ultimately responsible for the group’s behavior; Sages keep the records, help with attendance, make sure that things are orderly and accounted for,” said Wells, who has found the class system empowers his students to self-regulate and take greater ownership of their environment.

There’s an App for That

Matera, Slota and Wells design their games from scratch, cannibalizing a pastiche of web applications, pen-and-paper elements, learning management systems, Google apps, spreadsheets and any other available tools that they can bend to their playful purposes. But teachers who don’t have the time, confidence or knowledge to dive into the DIY approach can turn to commercial software designed to help educators run their classes as games.

Rezzly’s 3D GameLab, the University of Michigan’s GradeCraft, NEXED’s Answerables and Classcraft are gameful learning management systems that have tapped into the class-as-game zeitgeist to help educators keep track of quests, levels, experience points, badges and other game features.

“They will do anything for XP [experience points] and GP [gold pieces] to level up their avatar,” said Carrie Casey, a Wisconsin middle-school science teacher who uses Classcraft. “I have seen some of my students who will not hand in work — work hard to get their work in for me so they get XP and do not disappoint their team.”

It has also helped Casey reach some challenging students: “I have connected to them through gaming where no other teacher has connected to them that year.”

Canadian teacher Justin Matheson says that his Grade 6 students loved the sword-and-sorcery motif, and he credits Classcraft’s video game qualities for fostering perseverance. “With video games, people get to a point where things become increasingly difficult and they experience repeated failure. Then, you are encouraged to try again and again, and to seek help through outside resources to find success. This is the most notable benefit that I have seen in my class. My students see difficulties as speed bumps instead of roadblocks.”

Grafting Dungeons & Dragons-style RPG elements to classrooms can have an effect that delves much deeper than mere optics. Games and classes are both systems that operate with rules. When the rules that typically govern the class are hacked by the rules of the game, a fundamental shift can take place. Games offer a valuable palette of functions and features that can be creatively repurposed to rewrite some of education’s more problematic operations. Educators who are not satisfied with business as usual can tap into the power of play and design the change they want to see.

How Schools Spark Excitement for Learning with Role Playing and Games published first on https://greatpricecourse.tumblr.com/

[monogull-blog]

Experimental roleplay: make-believe, emotion, and play.

Dungeons and Dragons is one of, if not, the most iconic role-playing table top games. It enticed millions worldwide to gather graph paper and dice in order to explore worlds only limited by the imagination. This type of game was to be known as an RPG, a role-playing game. The game itself, however, still limits the player. Chance in the form of a dice roll decides the strength of your characters arm or the speed they might spot danger. Discontent with the limited scope of their actions, many players took to the outdoors, physically acting out their characters, and thus, Live Action Role-playing (Larp for short) was born from the need to make fantasy worlds more real.

   The act of engaging in live action roleplaying (Larping) is done all over the globe. With the help of the Internet, the community for larp enthusiasts remains global and approachable. Among this community, there is a form of roleplaying that breaks from the “norm” of orcs, elves and magic. Known as Nordic larp, this kind of role-play is more experimental, often tackling interesting or complex social situations in unconventional ways with a strict hold on pursuing a narrative.

 An example of this would be the 2001 gathering of 40 players in Norway called Europa in which the players were assigned the roles of refugees fleeing their native countries over 4 days. Players were under stress and with minimal resources not to trivialize or make a game out of such harsh conditions, but rather to come to a deeper understanding about what it means to flee your home. (Stenros,& Montola, 2010, p.102)

  So why “Nordic” larp? These kinds of artistic or character driven events are not exclusive the Nordic nations, but they were popularized there. This analysis will examine Nordic larping as a means of cultural exploration and meaningful extended play. Walking through audience analysis and interaction of experimental roleplay can reveal new ways of emotional understanding and connection. Although this topic might seem very fringe through a western lens, a census directed towards larping reported that Denmark specifically had a staggering 0.02972% of the population planning to attend a larp event in the future (Larp Census, 2014). To put this in perspective, the amount of registered Canadian hockey players makes up 0.01819% of Canada’s population. (IIHF, 2016)

            In the most recent update to the world happiness report, John Helliwell et al ranked the top 5 happiest countries based on factors such as life expectancy, GDP per capita, and freedom to make life choices among other things. The top 5 rankings are as such:

 1.          Denmark (7.526)

 2.         Switzerland (7.509)

 3.          Iceland (7.501)

 4.          Norway (7.498)

 5.          Finland (7.413)

 (Helliwell et al, 2016) Four fifths of the world’s happiest countries are Nordic. Exploring the role of escapism in role-play might shed some light on why the countries shifted towards the pinnacle of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs have such a large role-play subculture.

            Similar to a public performance art piece, larping remains ephemeral and fleeting making documentation hard and making the book published by Anna Westerling & Anders Hultman titled Nordic Larp all the more valuable. It documents nordic larp events of all types spanning 15 years of time. 

             Core idea: the role of play in game media

             Games as a media form are often misunderstood. Many take it to mean video games, a new media, but this isn’t the only case. Games at a base level facilitate play, an abstract concept to most adults, but one that comes almost universally to children. Most children understand what it means to play, but can’t quite explain it. That’s where famous anthropologist Gregory Bateson sheds some light. In studying the systems needed in place for play he claims it “could only occur if the participant

organisms were capable of some degree of meta-communication”. The idea of meta-communication is of critical to Bateson’s argument as it’s the delivery method to send the message “this is play”. He quickly and deftly expands upon the message “this is play” describing it’s meaning as: “These actions in which we now engage do not denote what those actions for which they stand would denote." Or simply put: current actions stand in for another action, but don’t carry the same meaning. (CITE) The mutual understanding of this between involved parties lays the groundwork for play.

             The “meta-communication” around this is a fundamental structure of roleplaying and to a farther extent larping. Without the degree of separation, assuming a cultural role and enacting it is simply how the masses live their lives, enacting the roles either placed upon them or that they have created themselves every day. Where role-play becomes play is in the act of assuming a new role, as the meta-communication among all involved parties is that the action of assuming a role stands in for completely assuming a role or character and identifying as them. The result is that the interactions between players takes place on a separate level, on the other side of a social contract. A place where the player acts as the scriptwriter and the actor at the same time, the character being becomes the point of interaction with other characters.

 Going forward, it’s imperative to comprehend the difference between player and character. Henceforth, any references to the player refer to the person acting out and “writing scripts” for the personas they take on. Any references to the character refer to the roles or alibis adopted by said character to separate them from reality to enter the world of play.

             “The world of play” is another approach to understand exactly how it relates to games systems, while broader than the interactions and communication that define play the idea of play as a space is something Vygotsky details. “The preshool child enters an imaginary, illusory world in which the unrealizable desires can be realized, and this world is what we call play." (Vygotsky 93). Play in this circumstance is synonymous with “make-believe”, where disbelief can be suspended and possibilities are limitless. While the term “make-believe” sounds rather un-academic, Caillios uses it explicitly to define what constitutes play.

             Vygotskys idea of play in conjunction with the pillar of make believe as proposed by Caillios is a reason players can strongly associate with characters. This is where the separation of most larp and Nordic larp begins. For demonstration, the idea of play has been agnostic to an overarching game medium, which isn’t the case in reality. Make no mistake, Nordic or other, these larps are a form of game media. Nordic larp specifically is experimental by nature and an often-held practise among participants is to “play to lose” (find a citation on this). Instead of playing to win a game, the goal is to enhance or develop a powerful narrative, even if that means losing the game. These games become media unto themselves, making use of the act of play to deliver a narrative to the player albeit in a much more mature and complex way than most play.

      Core concept 2: Role theory

 How role theory intertwines with role-play, but not as directly as one would think. Role theory, a perspective in social psychology, becomes relevant to Nordic roleplaying through the lens of audience studies, the main methodology of this investigation. In this thought experiment, the audience of Nordic larp, or any media for that matter can be considered in terms of individual roles that may apply. For example, a 34 year old teacher could have the roles “sister”, “daughter”, “professor”, and so forth. These roles, whether accepted by the individual or imposed by a society, have significant overlap with relevant demographics audience information. Age, gender, job status, education, and wealth are all targeting areas of importance of both media producers and advertisers alike.

 In the cultures of developed nations, appealing to specific target demographics is normal in media. Nordic larp however doesn’t appeal to demographics or specific roles partly due to the lack of a concrete organization, and partly because “roleplayer” could just as easily be a role someone could have applied to them. Roleplaying at large is a subculture, with which self-identifying would result in a label or role. Someone with the role of role-player would do just that: find time in their life to role-play.

 In terms of assigning demographics to the roleplaying audience, it’s largely irrelevant to the act of engaging in the medium. Nordic larp is wildly different than say a television show aimed at educated women in their 30s and 40s. Nordic larp can’t pander to audience demographics and roles because the act of larping isn’t about the players “assigned” social roles, it’s about the social roles they wish to experience the media through. Demographics, socioeconomic status, and method of media consumption pale in comparison to the psychographics of the audience. Recognizing that the attitudes, moods, and values in a roleplaying audience become the prime metrics for targeting larp media towards a specific audience is necessary for creating a successful larp event for said audience. That said, the psychographics going into an even don’t have a direct causation with the values and attitudes of the personas taking part in the event. This is due to “the illusory world in which the unrealizable desires can be realized” (vygotsky) which was previously described. The degree of separation between player and character can lead to a complete reversal of values.

             Part of the appeal larp has is that it lets the audience break from their roles in a form of escapism. While it is possible to stick to roles one is familiar with, in a setting where “unrealizable desires can be realized” (vygotsky) it’s not unheard of to radically shift to roles normally impossible to experience. Especially in Nordic larp where planning is meticulous and well vetted with ample meeting and prep time, characters and roles are often prescribed specifically to challenge the original mindset the audience entered with. By taking on a different role, the audience can come to a deeper understanding of said role be it gender, race, religion, etc. ultimately walking a mile in their shoes and gaining a sense of empathy for all that may fall under the respective role.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gu-cgtQjnH0

  Core idea 3: emotional audience interactivity

 How an audience interacts with media can define what the media, or the understanding of the media is. This analysis features two sections devoted to audience interaction. The first: emotional interactivity. Emotional interaction is only one of many methods of interpersonal interactions an audience can have. Social and physical interaction in respect to Nordic roleplaying is banal and obvious. Unless an experimental approach is taken that limits one of these traits, social interaction and to a slightly lesser extent, physical interaction are implied. One thing is clear among the community of role-players: emotions are hard to manage.

              The concept of bleed (as seen in figure 1) is the name given to the phenomena that emotions seem to break the social contract that role-players opt into. If a character feels a particular emotion over an event, say getting kicked out of a tavern, and the player feels the same emotion about not getting to interacting and role-play with the people inside, they face bleed head on: the line between their personal emotions and their characters emotions is no longer clear. It can also happen when a character someone has played for a long period of time dies. The player in this sense has the right to feel sad: a personality they have come to empathize with is no more. Now the boundary between play and real has been broken because the events of the game are changing the events or personality of the player.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtjeFU4mxw4

             The idea of bleed itself directly contradicts one of Caillois definitions of play, specifically number 4: Unproductive.

  Nordic larp dives into the bleed, looking to make meaningful impacts on the lives of those involved through experience. There is no physical difference between before and after, no goods nor elements have been produced, but something has changed. The emotional experiences had, even if separated by the wall of make believe, can change people. In Nordic larp the whole premise to create a narrative mimicry leading to a “play to lose” style meant to make emotions and experiences more powerful, the effects can last a very long time. As stated previously, the emotions felt whilst roleplaying aren’t segregated by the wall of the social contract or meta-communication, those are higher level processes, emotions are primal and instinctual. This bleed happens more often than most would like to admit but Nordic larp, having embraced it as a powerful method of understanding and empathy, has systems in place to observe and control this bleed.

Core idea 4: Audience content interactivity

 Most media forms can never come close to the raw level of interaction that roleplaying exerts. Having previously outlined emotional interactivity and how it shapes the players, covering content interactivity can demonstrate how the players can shape the game. Nordic larp, particularly the experimental and complex events, are often preceded with workshops, information sessions, small narrative build ups or framing. The active audience (the players) is working in very close in proximity to the organizers and game runners. It’s not uncommon for those that helped set up the world participate in it to.

 This steady stream of interaction leads to a cohesive experience of immersion when the time comes to dive in for the player, but it also has another use. The creators can take the opportunity to observe the psychographics of the players and the roles they may assume once the game begins and start to tailor it. If players invent their own characters (a common occurrence), the world builders can plan a loose narrative and stock the powder keg as it were to guarantee friction or cohesion as they saw fit. In short: the audience works in such close proximity with those organizing the event that a two way street can emerge in which the player is fostered in the information needed for the upcoming immersion and the creators can tailor the event to the audience.

 https://nordiclarp.org/wiki/Pre-larp_Workshop

https://vimeo.com/107540990

 Due to the impactful nature of the “play to lose” larp on the emotions, debriefs after the event are conducted to make sure the organizers understand exactly what happened and how people feel about it, ultimately improving the experience if a repeat of the event is held, but the ultimate control of the content lies with the audience. Even in a 5 player group, when everyone is playing a character, the social and emotional interactions can be very complex: it’s ultimately impossible to plan what any one person could do. The ultimate point is that the audience shapes the content and media because in a way they are the content and media, it would be like going to the theatre to watch the play as you acted in it: your characters actions defines what you get. This is the power of the audience dynamic of this immersive and life changing medium.

  Conclusions and synthesis

 Its 5:07 am and I have 233 to work on. Please have mercy on my soul.