Lucid Immersive’s Virtual LARP “The Board” – A Conference Call To Remember
June 22, 2020 Jamey Alea 0 Comments
I’ve been doing a lot of gaming since the stay-at-home order went out. Tabletop games translate really well to an online format—it’s easy to play D&D, for instance, over a video call, and there are lots of tools out there to facilitate virtual maps and dice and all the other accoutrements for a standard tabletop game.
I wasn’t sure if LARP would have a virtual analog in the same way. LARPing requires a greater level of immersion, and there are lots of aspects of that immersion that seemed inherently intertwined with being present with each other physically, like setting and costuming and movement. The two things I love so much about LARP are the sense of immersion and the intense connections it fosters between people. I feared that if online LARP wasn’t able to hit those buttons in a way that was satisfying, it would make me feel more lonely and isolated rather than being cathartic, like a reminder that what we had now just wasn’t as good as what we’d have normally. But when given a chance to give it a try, I had to see for myself.
Appreciate how sleazy I look in my costume as Head-of-Marketing Alexei Baryshnikov – and then read the rest of the review on Sidequest!