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BATTLE FOR THE PLANET OF THE NERDS
DARKON
Words Michael Mann
"NerrrRRRDDSS!"
-Ogre in Revenge of the Nerds
In most cases you wouldn't have to specify that the quote comes from
Revenge of the Nerds but when talking about the Darkon, a quote from
"ogre" could mean any number of things. Directed by Luke Meyer and Andrew
Neel, Darkon is a new documentary currently doing the festival circuit
that brings the viewer into a world of live action role-playing, or
LARPing. What is LARPing? Neel explain: "I guess simply, people who create
a character. Get dressed up in some sort of costume then go out and play a
game. Usually physical, though there are a lot that are more mental."
Meyer adds, "It's like Dungeons & Dragons, but instead of making decisions
by rolling a dice it's played out by people physically with foam weapons.
Either settling wars, like two-sided disputes, or through adventures."
The idea came to Neel while in film school and he was working on a short
about online worlds. After completing that, he developed the idea into a
feature length intended to be on Dungeons & Dragons. Through his research
he discovered LARPing and Darkon, a group of LARPers in the DC area. After
some coaxing, he got members of this community to agree to be in a
documentary, which follows the lives of these people in and out of the
game. Aside from interviews and talking heads, Darkon features cinematic
battle sequences, complete with crane shots and embedded cameramen. Hardly
typical documentary conventions, but this is hardly a typical documentary
subject. Like Murderball that introduced us to wheelchair rugby, or
Spellbound, which brought us into the world of elementary school spelling
bees, documentary film makers are showing us that, sociologically
speaking, there's still a lot of undiscovered land out there that needs to
be mapped outŠ even if this land is in the Middle Earth.
Beyond the obvious what makes LARPing an engaging subject for a
documentary the spectacle, the bizarreness, the hyper-nerdery Neel
thinks it brings a lot more to the table. "It's interesting ethnographic
subject matter in terms of watching human behavior. Americans, and the
world, are very interested in virtual worlds right now. Our existence as
human beings is becoming increasingly psychological. This game manifests a
lot of
interesting topics that have a lot to do with that. It very clearly
represents the way that human beings try to bridge the gap between fantasy
and reality in the world of the mind and the world that's in front of us."
Immediately coming to mind when a lot of people first hear about Darkon is
a video that was circulating the Internet a few years back. In it, a
portly fellow screams "Lightening Bolt! Lightening Bolt!" while throwing
foam bolts of lightening at fellow nerds in armor. I was told that LARPers
hate that video and that "One of the cool things about Darkon is you get
some of the football jocks from high school and some people who are really
interested in what can be a rigorous physical exercise." Whether or not
putting on a suit of armor and fighting overlords with crossbows will
replace Bikram's Yoga remains to be seen.
Like many, I've had a roll of the 50-sided die to determine whether or not
a treasure chest contains a runed wand of the abyss or an angry mage who's
going to cast a magic missile spell on me. But I was in a young, stupid
and experimental stage of youth. The people in this movie are full-grown
adults with day jobs. Skirting around the issue I politely ask: "Who are
these people that are into live action role playing?" hoping that they'll
confirm my suspicions that it's only nerds doing this thus allowing me to
sleep better at night. Meyer claims that "one of the most surprising
things to me was how wide the spectrum was. It goes from high school kids
to lawyer parents to whatever."
Okay, but is it just nerds? I get an emphatic "No" from Neel. But after a
short pause he concedes, "There's no question that a good percentage of
the people that are in the game did play Dungeons & Dragons. I guess dorks
are the way of the world right now. We're all IT managers and computer
people. That's sort of connected to the idea that our world is becoming
psychological. In our everyday lives our effect on the world is not always
very tangible. If you're working as a stockbroker or whatever you're doing
you don't really get to see things move in front of you when you do
something. This game allows you to do that. Maybe that's dorks. I guess it
is and Luke [Meyer] and I would have to consider ourselves part of that
category."
True dork and nerd are no longer dirty words. That there are six million
people (500,000 people online at any given time) all pretending to be
minotaur shaman or night elf rogues in The World of Warcraft shows that
role-playing is hardly the closeted behavior of nerds that it used to be.
So fly your nerd flag high, without shame, because you are not alone. May
all your treasure chests contain enchanted chainmail armor.
-
BATTLE FOR THE PLANET OF THE NERDS
DARKON
Words Michael Mann
"NerrrRRRDDSS!"
-Ogre in Revenge of the Nerds
In most cases you wouldn't have to specify that the quote comes from
Revenge of the Nerds but when talking about the Darkon, a quote from
"ogre" could mean any number of things. Directed by Luke Meyer and Andrew
Neel, Darkon is a new documentary currently doing the festival circuit
that brings the viewer into a world of live action role-playing, or
LARPing. What is LARPing? Neel explain: "I guess simply, people who create
a character. Get dressed up in some sort of costume then go out and play a
game. Usually physical, though there are a lot that are more mental."
Meyer adds, "It's like Dungeons & Dragons, but instead of making decisions
by rolling a dice it's played out by people physically with foam weapons.
Either settling wars, like two-sided disputes, or through adventures."
The idea came to Neel while in film school and he was working on a short
about online worlds. After completing that, he developed the idea into a
feature length intended to be on Dungeons & Dragons. Through his research
he discovered LARPing and Darkon, a group of LARPers in the DC area. After
some coaxing, he got members of this community to agree to be in a
documentary, which follows the lives of these people in and out of the
game. Aside from interviews and talking heads, Darkon features cinematic
battle sequences, complete with crane shots and embedded cameramen. Hardly
typical documentary conventions, but this is hardly a typical documentary
subject. Like Murderball that introduced us to wheelchair rugby, or
Spellbound, which brought us into the world of elementary school spelling
bees, documentary film makers are showing us that, sociologically
speaking, there's still a lot of undiscovered land out there that needs to
be mapped outŠ even if this land is in the Middle Earth.
Beyond the obvious what makes LARPing an engaging subject for a
documentary the spectacle, the bizarreness, the hyper-nerdery Neel
thinks it brings a lot more to the table. "It's interesting ethnographic
subject matter in terms of watching human behavior. Americans, and the
world, are very interested in virtual worlds right now. Our existence as
human beings is becoming increasingly psychological. This game manifests a
lot of
interesting topics that have a lot to do with that. It very clearly
represents the way that human beings try to bridge the gap between fantasy
and reality in the world of the mind and the world that's in front of us."
Immediately coming to mind when a lot of people first hear about Darkon is
a video that was circulating the Internet a few years back. In it, a
portly fellow screams "Lightening Bolt! Lightening Bolt!" while throwing
foam bolts of lightening at fellow nerds in armor. I was told that LARPers
hate that video and that "One of the cool things about Darkon is you get
some of the football jocks from high school and some people who are really
interested in what can be a rigorous physical exercise." Whether or not
putting on a suit of armor and fighting overlords with crossbows will
replace Bikram's Yoga remains to be seen.
Like many, I've had a roll of the 50-sided die to determine whether or not
a treasure chest contains a runed wand of the abyss or an angry mage who's
going to cast a magic missile spell on me. But I was in a young, stupid
and experimental stage of youth. The people in this movie are full-grown
adults with day jobs. Skirting around the issue I politely ask: "Who are
these people that are into live action role playing?" hoping that they'll
confirm my suspicions that it's only nerds doing this thus allowing me to
sleep better at night. Meyer claims that "one of the most surprising
things to me was how wide the spectrum was. It goes from high school kids
to lawyer parents to whatever."
Okay, but is it just nerds? I get an emphatic "No" from Neel. But after a
short pause he concedes, "There's no question that a good percentage of
the people that are in the game did play Dungeons & Dragons. I guess dorks
are the way of the world right now. We're all IT managers and computer
people. That's sort of connected to the idea that our world is becoming
psychological. In our everyday lives our effect on the world is not always
very tangible. If you're working as a stockbroker or whatever you're doing
you don't really get to see things move in front of you when you do
something. This game allows you to do that. Maybe that's dorks. I guess it
is and Luke [Meyer] and I would have to consider ourselves part of that
category."
True dork and nerd are no longer dirty words. That there are six million
people (500,000 people online at any given time) all pretending to be
minotaur shaman or night elf rogues in The World of Warcraft shows that
role-playing is hardly the closeted behavior of nerds that it used to be.
So fly your nerd flag high, without shame, because you are not alone. May
all your treasure chests contain enchanted chainmail armor.
