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I would have put furries on the poll, but I didn't even know what they were until this thread! There is some disturbing gak in this world, I goggles the term, and there are folk out there that have sex in their furry costumes?!?!?!?!

WTF!?

I am sorry, but that is just fething weird on a level that is both disgusting and disturbingly fascinating, like a car wreck! Why in the world would you want to make love to a stuffed animal? That is some crazy Freudian childhood sexual hangover gak right there.

Better a willing, idiot, human animal than an unwilling, helpless, non-human animal.

On topic, I guess homosexuality is nerd-like behaviour. Specific knowledges, role-playing different genders, often encountering social difficulties, hosting big silly conventions.

But do they have forums where they discuss their 'hobby'? Actually had better not look into that.

Ozymandias wrote:

I'll admit that Live-Action BloodBowl would be awesome.

now thats something i could agree on! 11 people a side dressed up, a coach on the side lines, and all you need are your dice

On topic, I guess homosexuality is nerd-like behaviour. Specific knowledges, role-playing different genders, often encountering social difficulties, hosting big silly conventions.

But do they have forums where they discuss their 'hobby'? Actually had better not look into that.

...anyone else find that borderline offensive?

sourclams wrote:Neat and barbaric and everything but the "fighting" was so much waving sticks around; huge windups, windmilling arms, blah blah blah. In my limited experience, I've noticed that looking like a viking but not being able to fight is a bad habit amongst SCA-ers, in the Madison, WI and Tucson, AZ area. Even a medium-bad club sport fencer can regulate against the most "mighty" of SCA-ers, primarily with footwork and telegraphing (or not) your offense.

This was about looking good, though -- not about winning! I love fencing (and I'm not bad at it, though I'm out of practice, and at 39 I'm never likely to be as fast as the youngsters...) but it doesn't LOOK interesting to watch, unless you're a fencer & can see exactly what's going on. Even then -- it never looks as good as a movie.

Most of the guys at Outlore can fight pretty well (you might be surprised at how well -- or badly -- a sport fencer manages when you change the rules -- multiple attackers, no regulated start time, off-piste movements allowed, different weapons... and when some of the guys facing him have trained in some of the Western Martial Arts traditions that fencing sprang from -- see YouTube below -- they will beat him using the kind of range of weaponry allowed in LRP, outside of a one-on-one duel with single-handed swords) but the requirement there is that you look good as well -- like you were part of a really well shot, grimly heroic movie, rather than like you were just trying to win at all costs... I guess the comparison to wargames would be GW's much-loved (!?!) "Most Important Rule".

Anyway -- I mentioned the Western Martial Arts stuff -- these guys are doing 15th century longsword (that is, what most gamers would call a "bastard sword" or something) fencing. You will notice some pretty big swings there. That's necessary when (a) your longsword weighs a couple of pounds, rather than being barely more than a car antenna with a hilt, like sport fencing swords, and (b) it's long enough to act as both sword & shield at the same time... you just can't expect to hit your opponent at the limit of range with a quick fencing-style tap, you need to ensure that the geometry of your attack also defends you against any possible attack by your opponent.




That's of more relevance to LRP than sport fencing is (though most LRPers aren't as good as that).

Reecius wrote:

I am sorry, but that is just fething weird on a level that is both disgusting and disturbingly fascinating, like a car wreck! Why in the world would you want to make love to a stuffed animal? That is some crazy Freudian childhood sexual hangover gak right there.

say what now?! is that what you people were talking about??

in my stupidity i googled that to find out if you were kidding.... i want my innocence back....*crys*

Not sure what you count as nerdy, but as a person that used to dabble in LARPing a few years back, I can say the people there are a lot less nerdy than the regular neckbeards I've found in specifically Warhammer.

The majority of them aren't even fans of any other nerdy stuff, which is far from what you can say from your regular warhammer gamer. Think about it, when you go into a FLGS, what are you going to hear people discussing, other than the game they are playing? Most likely video games, anime, other wargames, and possibly even tabletop roleplaying games all in a big mixpot.

Also, LARPing has a lot bigger girls:guy ratio too!

I remember reading on GameSpy (boo!) that in Russia a lot of guys got together and did a LARP of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. which looked pretty awesome. The article was full of typical GS-mockery of the stupid-non Americans who ran around in a muddy field while instead they SHOULD be playing the game on the PC.

Arctik_Firangi wrote:
On topic, I guess homosexuality is nerd-like behaviour. Specific knowledges, role-playing different genders, often encountering social difficulties, hosting big silly conventions.

But do they have forums where they discuss their 'hobby'? Actually had better not look into that.

Actually, I find heterosexuals make a very nerdy (sub)culture in a lot of ways. This is just a short list of all the annoying and antisocial ways they act, together with some hopefully illuminating examples of hetero-quotes:

- Most apparent is that they talk about and make references to their hobby at all times, and take it for granted that everyone around is interested in it. "I met this awesome hot girl at the bar this friday!" "I'm getting married"
- They brag about their prowess in the hobby. "We are getting pregnant, again!"
- They complain about strange problems that only exists because they subscribe to pretty arbitrary rules. "Women, you can't live with them, you can't live without them"
- They discuss the tactics related to the above mentioned arbitrary rules. "If I let her hang out with her girlfriends on wednesday I can get away with having a beer with my mates after work on friday."
- They discuss the meta game important to their tactics. "I've heard that over 60% of the guys involved in a longterm relationship wants to cheat on their spouse, does that mean that my BF plans to cheat on me?" (Mind you, any hetero-nerd seeing this statistic will always unconciously consider the longterm relationship mentioned above as being a guy+girl relationship, unless otherwise specifically stated)
- They do _indeed_ roleplay gender roles. Worst of all is that most don't even notice they are doing it, and just think they want to act that way is "natural". Also they have a very strong and informal system of reward for the ones that roleplay their roles the best, and punishments for those who fail. "Real men don't use lipstick. Real women don't drive trucks."
- A lot of companies take great commercial interest in the heterosexual demographic.
- They have loads of forums to discuss their hobby, using a lot of technical lingo. See any number of dating sites, parental communities, womens-/mensmagazines, most religious groupings etc etc etc...
- They get more respect within the community the better they are at fulfilling the stereotypes of the hobby. They are also proportionately more ridiculed by people who are not into their hobby (unless those people are envious of the very nice community and great fun that the heteros seems to have going for them.
- They consider people who are not into their hobby as not having understood the great fun and reward awailable from participating.
- They place the interests of their hobby so high on their priorities that they select their place of living, line of work, friends etc etc all based on it. In fact, most things they do are in some way influenced by their nerdyness.

If you haven't noticed any of the above, it is probably because you are also a nerd in the heterosexual hobby and mostly hang out with other people who share your nerdyness. Admittedly, the heteros are in a majority, but that doesn't make them any less nerdy.

As a final note, I want to say that it is really tempting for me to just consider all the heteros as being and acting pretty much the same. I know this is not the case, the list above is pretty predjudiced and I try to give every one of them the benefit of doubt. Several of my best friends are heteros, and I have no problem with that. So if you feel like a hetero, please don't take offence from this post, just try to mind your nerdyness a bit, and don't expect everyone to share your fascination for the subject.

Oh my god.. I'm guilty as charged. Is it too late to become bi? You know, flip the scales a little with a bit of Ying and Wang?

The path to enlightenment is always available. Only you can choose to walk it.

In Soviet Russia, Path to Enlightenment Walks on You!

Gwar! wrote:In Soviet Russia, Path to Enlightenment Walks on You!

Sorry, I tried the whole bondage thing but no, just no.

On topic though I can't gauge whether Arctik_Firango is trying to stoke anti-gay fires or is just trying to be funny.

BrookM wrote:
On topic though I can't gauge whether Arctik_Firango is trying to stoke anti-gay fires or is just trying to be funny.

It could be he is just a bit clueless and predjudiced by growing up in a hetero-dominated culture. It is not necessarily his fault.

There were some re-enactors sort of doing blood bowl a bit back, Rugby in full armour with a wooden ball!

Told it was really good fun, until someone got the ball stuck on his Sabbaton and just ran with it there :-)

If you interested in REAL steel fighting check out http://www.lancasters-armourie.co.uk, there are video's there of full contact stuff somewhere.....

I'm on there as Sir Hamish McDougle, and the wife is on there somewhere as Lady Raven :-)

Ian Sturrock wrote:

Flashman wrote:

Kilkrazy wrote:LARPing does not look amazing. Ever.

Kilkrazy here -- I didn't type that.

I think this looks pretty amazing. :p




None of that was staged... Outlore looks & feels that good, every year.

In Soviet Russia, Magic Missile casts you!

Back on topic, I read a very interesting article in Slingshot (the journal of the Society of Ancients) a few years ago. It was by a guy who wanted to find out what techniques might work in medieval sieges. So he recruited a whole gang of LARPers and make them siege and defend a castle for a few days. Among the interestings things he found were:

How the attackers should do covering fire.
How to successfully escalade.
How not to run across the courtyard in groups.
How defending while backing up spiral stairs is a bad idea.
How much damage someone hiding under a big table can do with a crossbow, and how difficult it can be to winkle them out.

Kilkrazy wrote:Back on topic, I read a very interesting article in Slingshot (the journal of the Society of Ancients) a few years ago. It was by a guy who wanted to find out what techniques might work in medieval sieges. So he recruited a whole gang of LARPers and make them siege and defend a castle for a few days. Among the interestings things he found were:

How the attackers should do covering fire.
How to successfully escalade.
How not to run across the courtyard in groups.
How defending while backing up spiral stairs is a bad idea.
How much damage someone hiding under a big table can do with a crossbow, and how difficult it can be to winkle them out.

M-388 Davy Crockett in a Purification Spread
With Nukes!
More Nukes!
Not if he had Nukes!
Over 9000, because he had a Nuclear Crossbow!

But on topic, that seems like a rather cool study. Makes you think just how different warfare was back then.

Indeed, several historical LARP communities have helped with these tests so to say.

I voted LARPINg... the lightning bolt videos and magic missile videos I've seen just take role playing to another 'wrong' level.. lol

its called "re-enactment" for a reason, I can tell you now our RPG games are much more reasonable, untill you have tried crawling in armour, or carrying multiple weapons, or moving a spear in wood, you have NO IDEA!

On topic, I guess homosexuality is nerd-like behaviour.

Naah.
Would you consider someone who suffers from depression, bipolarism, or some other mild mental disorder to be engaging in "ner-like" behavior? Neither would I.

Anyway.....

TR

Forgive me if someone already mentioned this but I'm surprised the movie Uber goober wasn't mentioned.

It has been.
I mentioned it around page two or three. It's a pretty good movie, and although it does not star ol' Trenchie here many of his friends do feature in it.

TR

Trench-Raider wrote:

On topic, I guess homosexuality is nerd-like behaviour.

Naah.
Would you consider someone who suffers from depression, bipolarism, or some other mild mental disorder to be engaging in "ner-like" behavior? Neither would I.

Anyway.....

TR

*sigh* Oh dear. *Pats Trenchies head*
Well, I won't blame you for taking the easy way out. A lot of seemingly clever people stamp "mental disorder" on persons that would otherwise challenge their perception of things. Ignorance is bliss I guess.

(on the offchance that you actually tried to make a good natured joke: you failed)

This thread is closed for offensive or potentially offensive statements by several posters.