Design, appropriation, and use of technology in larps

Abstract

During the last decade, there has been an increasing interest in supporting social play through the design of collocated digital games, alongside efforts to better understand social-physical modes of play. In this paper, we present relevant insights from a well-established gaming community, the larp (Live Action Role Play) community. This community has a longstanding tradition of making use of costumes, physical environments, and objects to shape player experience. We conducted a survey completed by 39 larpers concerning how they use digital technology in larp, and the way technology is designed and appropriated to augment the larp experience. Here, we present early results in the form of a preliminary taxonomy of technologies in larps, as well as key trends for design, use, and appropriation of technology to impact in-game social and emotional experience.