The Arts of LARP: Design, Literacy, Learning and Community in Live-Action Role Play

by David Simkins

Overview

This ethnography of a live-action role play (LARP) community examines the structure of play, how new participants are introduced and apprenticed into the culture, player expectations and motivations, and games as they are designed and as they are performed. The main focus is on LARP's affordance for learning across a variety of disciplines and interests. The book is intended for LARP participants, academics interested in play or in collaborative development, those interested in new uses of familiar learning environments, and game developers with an interest in creating games with highly interactive narratives and co-creative play experiences in which the role of designer and player is blurred.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780786496013
Publisher:	McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Publication date:	01/26/2015
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 2.20(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

David Simkins is an assistant professor of game design and development in the School of Interactive Games and Media at the Rochester Institute of Technology. He is active in the assessment of learning in games, and is a founding member of the Learning and Educational Games (LEG) SIG of the IGDA and the Games, Learning and Society (GLS) group at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He lives in Madison,Wisconsin.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Preface
Introduction: On Studying LARP
1. deleteWhat Is Live-Action Role Play?
2. deleteA Definition of Role Play
3. deleteRole Play as a Tool for Learning
4. deleteStory
5. deleteRules
6. deleteEnvironment
7. deletePlay
8. deleteCharacter
9. deleteWorld
10. deleteTheme
11. deleteLARP as a Literacy Practice
12. deleteLARP and Empathy
13. deleteCritical Ethical Reasoning
14. deleteUses of Technology in LARP
Appendix: Methods
Bibliography
Index