The Larp Census

I recently spoke to Aaron Vanek, founder and developer of Seekers Unlimited, which develops educational larps (or edu-larps) for the purpose of teaching groups of various ages and sizes. I met Aaron at the Living Games Conference this past March where he spoke on Seekers Unlimited. It was during that time he also spoke on another undertaking. Aaron and Ryan Paddy have developed and released The Larp Census. It's goal is simple, to begin to get an understanding of just how many people are in this hobby that we share.

The realm of Larp Academia is an up and coming field, with the likes of Aaron, Sarah Lynne Bowman, and Whitney Beltran being some of the frontrunners I've had the honor to meet here in the United States. One of the questions that keeps coming up is "how many of us are there?" With a definition as fluid as 'live action role play' and with groups that can crop up independently and without any form of notice, it becomes difficult to decide exactly how much of the population considers this activity an aspect of their life. The Census looks to combat that, though they admit that they can't reach everyone. If they succeed, they'll have come up with a fair estimate of how many people larp.

That is one of the key goals, and both Aaron and Ryan believe (as do I) that the answer may surprise people. Larp is has been perceived as an odd hobby, the bottom most level on the geek hierarchy. But that seems to be fading away, as more and more people are trying it out. They also wish to map out what kinds of larps are popular and where they are. Is boffer larping more prevalent in the North Eastern United States while Jeepform larps are more popular on the West Coast? This will help academics in mapping trends, styles that can help in research.

This can also help those burgeoning groups whose businesses are to develop larps to have something to sell to investors and other businesses. It's easy to dismiss something when there are no numbers to back it up. This could help give the community a fair shake in terms of recognition as an art form, a business, and as points of research in fields such as sociology and psychology.

Speaking with Aaron, he states that the Census is currently using 14 different languages to give as many populations the opportunity to take the Census. The results of the census will be shared under Creative Commons. All results will be anonymized to protect the privacy of the individuals taking it. Having taken the Census myself, I can see that Aaron and Ryan have put a lot of thought and consideration into the writing of this material. One of my major problems with censuses is that some of their questions presume a lot of information about the person taking it, their gender, nationality, identifiers. The Census is pretty open and has many 'please give us your description' boxes instead, so while they are looking at information, they want people to comfortably identify themselves instead of having to fit into a box to tick off.

To conclude, if you're reading this, and you haven't taken the Larp Census yet, please do so. Spread the word. This could help the community and culture of larping in many different ways. While we may not see any affect in a while (research takes time) getting started on the right foot will help give us an idea of where we are and where we're going.

Here's the link for the Census: http://larpcensus.org/