Why MegaGames are better than LARPs

This post was originally hosted over at MegaGameAssembly.com but because I wrote it and want a copy of it myself forever more, I’m sticking it here too. :P

Also, go check out the MegaGame Assembly’s entire site, they’ve got some great blog post contributors and lots of resources for the hobby.

Why megagames are better than LARPs, a rebuttal

I recently read a post by Jonathon Pickles entitled “Why LARPs are better than megagames” and I wanted to give a rebuttal to this heinous, disgusting, outrageous post! I’m just kidding, I really enjoyed his post but at a high level, I didn’t agree with it and wanted to express another opinion, perhaps addressing some of his major criticisms of the beautiful hobby that is megagaming. I’ll be referencing his post a fair bit so if you haven’t read it, I suggest you give it a look-see as it’s worth the read. I’ll start with my own qualifier – this too is just a humble opinion and I intend to change absolutely nobody’s mind.

I want to quickly preface this piece by saying that I lean toward the more role-play heavy roles of megagames than the mechanical ones. That’ll give you an idea of where I’m coming from and should add weight to some of my arguments later.

To begin, I think it’s helpful to give you MY definition of what differentiates a megagame from a LARP. This definition isn’t cut and dry, nor is it complete: A mega game puts you in a role whereas in a LARP you play a character (despite the obvious reference to live-action ROLE playing). Now that’s not to say you can’t play your megagame role as a character and that’s the first of my points awarded for megagames over LARPs.

A megagame gives you the freedom to turn your head of state role into a character whereas a LARP “forces” you to play the character. This immediately lowers the barrier to entry for the majority of folks. Just yesterday, I met a guy at a work event who played D&D and I was explaining what a megagame was. Before I was halfway through my pitch he told me he “couldn’t do voices” and had anxiety when it came to role-playing his character. Megagames totally eliminate the mandatory nature of character play but give you a defined role without the added pressure the character comes with. (Ironically though, one of my most memorable megagame movements comes from Den of Wolves when as the Admiral I was chastising one of the captains for disobeying a direct order, only to later overhear that they thought I was seriously annoyed at them going against orders. We had a good laugh about it later out of character.)

Pickles talks a lot about how the “minigames” of megagames can feel like filler or dissociated from the “actual game”. Whilst I agree that some game designers may use them for filler purposes, I believe they play an important part in a megagame:

Firstly, minigames give players something to “do” and provide focus to their game. I have played many LARPs where I feel like I’m talking for the sake of talking. The last LARP I played was at Gencon and I played a nobleman at a ball. My goals were to work out why a certain lesser noble got an invitation (when he shouldn’t have) and make an alliance with another house to secure my legacy. Perhaps I was playing it wrong but I felt like 95% of the other characters were completely irrelevant to my story line, and subsequently so were 95% of my interactions. I learned some of the overarching story but I didn’t feel important nor like I made any interesting decisions all game – all I did was talk in character to a lot of people who I ultimately didn’t care about. And I’m fairly outgoing, so it was easy for me to have those interactions. New and more introverted players will find that level of interaction extremely difficult.

I feel strongly that boardgames give people some social lubrication. They provide a “reason” for interaction with others and something to focus on. Minigames in megagames are no different. For introverted folks, they give players things to talk about rather than some fabricated backstory on a card that you were handed when you walked in the room that you have trouble remembering unless you look at it every 2 minutes. Maybe that’s just me.

Secondly, minigames provide players with a reason for being. In Den of Wolves, generating goods gives the team a goal and a reason for interaction – you use what you’ve created as a bargaining chip with other captains and a way to contribute to the overarching story of the game. If you’re the ship that makes materials, you provide those to the science team and they’ll use them to make something cool! In WTS, the war room creates conflict and alliances and that has ripple effects for the UN, the aliens, the head of states etc.

Thirdly, minigames can make you feel important. If you’re on a team and you’re the only one from the team that gets to do X, you have directly contributed to the team with a very unique view into the overarching game. If you’re a UN member, you have just helped determine that the actions of Russia were ones of war and now you have to let the rest of the team know what transpired.

I don’t disagree with any of Pickles suggestions for minigame improvements: They should be given context and it should make sense to represent the theme and they should be easy enough to understand yet they should also have depth. I’m designing a megagame myself right now and those are things I think about all the time. Yes they are going to take a turn or so to get to grips with but that’s why we have our wonderful control team to help facilitate. LARPs are not immune to this criticism – they take time to get up to speed with and will require rule clarifications as you get going.

And to wail on LARPs a little bit more, LARPS can feel a little cliquey. To me they’ve always felt like I found an invitation on the floor to a private party and when I got inside everyone already knew each other. Perhaps my impression is jaded because I’ve never played a LARP with friends. Megagames get around this by having teams. Even if you’re a solo player, you'll likely be placed on a team who you’ll be working with for the entire game and can share your experience with. Hopefully by the end of it, you can share contact details and become friends after the game.

And one final cheeky comment to end this piece with and it’s a quote from my wife. She says that “you can invite your girlfriend to a megagame and still have a girlfriend at the end of it”. Woah there wifey! Shots fired.