Should this even be considered "Larping"???

[ceejaytwoyoshi]

Okay, so, I wanna know your honest thoughts on this, because it's been on my mind for a good bit.
We've seen zoomers use the word "larp" or "larper" to refer to posers, right? And as far removed as it is to the old definition, I think that it at least sorta fits if you think about it a little bit. That can be seen as a form of "larping", but instead of larping as a medieval fantasy character, you're larping as a fan of a piece of media who's actually engaged with said media. It makes sense!

Now I wanna ask you this: is THIS larping?

The most of the comments seem to think that it's larping, but I sure as hell don't think it's larping.
I dunno, it's like people just conflated larping/being a poser with being a hipster who uses niche retro tech in the current year. I feel like unless you barely use said niche retro tech and just post pics of yourself using it to social media, maybe it could count as larping, but I've no evidence to prove that.

I dunno. What do you guys think?

edit: minor grammatical errors fixed

[Metropolis]

Most of those comments are ragebait got to be honest 😭😭.
But nope, it's not larping, if people think it's larping, they just don't have a sense of style.

[ceejaytwoyoshi]

Most of those comments are ragebait got to be honest 😭😭.
But nope, it's not larping, if people think it's larping, they just don't have a sense of style.

i guess i fell for the ragebait. fuck me i guess 🙃

[Metropolis]

i guess i fell for the ragebait. fuck me i guess 🙃

No, broo dw about it. Ragebait is ever present, but we always stay zen.

[Daniele63]

I prefer the term enthusiast.
"Larping" has taken a negative connotation in recent years because (social media) it's been misused to basically mean the same thing as "poser", and are used by people who look down on others for being "weird" to them. Some people use it ironically as well. But to answer the topic question, I do not think this example should be considered larping, in this case it's a functional set up that happens to have retro stuff, I don't think he's pretending he's living in 2005.
Either way, calling someone a larper is just cringe.

[chilblands]

We've seen zoomers use the word "larp" or "larper" to refer to posers, right?

Not using TikTok and other short form content literally makes me the "outgroup" (my little sister said I'm a millennial as an insult- I'm a GenZ) . A lot of "trend" terms rotate fast. My semi-chronically online friend would say random terms like "you are the cake", "breadcrumb" and "-maxing". Being chronically online on certain platforms build pseudo community through inside jokes (or people repeating memes, trends and certain terms). LARP is one of these terms along with "ragebaiting".

Anyways, I don't really agree with poser stuff in the first place. Sometimes people are new to the hobby and people who are more knowledgeable call them "posers" or "LARP". At the same time, subcultures have now been diluted into consumable goods through fashion and aesthetics. So people may feel frustrated by people who seem disingenuous.

[Metropolis]

At the same time, subcultures have now been diluted into consumable goods through fashion and aesthetics. So people may feel frustrated by people who seem disingenuous.

Yeah, like for people who say they are punk, but aren't leftists. Those people are larpers. Or people in alternative subcultures, but buy everything from Shein.

----

I can't exactly say ragebait is really a chronically online term tbh.. I see people irl say it, even people who aren't like super duper online.

[ceejaytwoyoshi]

At the same time, subcultures have now been diluted into consumable goods through fashion and aesthetics. So people may feel frustrated by people who seem disingenuous.

I feel like that's the only reason why people think that this setup is a "larp" to them. They see that the guy in the video I linked having a CRT TV, an old Thinkpad, a trackball mouse, an offwhite keyboard, and one of those green cutting mats and think "oh, this guy's a fuckin' larper. he's just doing it because it's trendy and to chase an aesthetic for internet brownie points," even though, for all we know, he could be using this setup often, finds a lot of benefit in it, and has reasons for why he made parts of the setup the way that it is.

I can kinda sympathize with that?
 
Like, I can't see that green cutting mat the guy has and think about those "cinematic youtubers", and how most of em have that in their setup, not for any sort of actual purpose, but because it makes for a neat and aesthetic backdrop. I think I've even seen a video about the "top (insert number here) things to make your videos more cinematic" that lists that as one of the entries for no other reason than it's "aesthetic" or some shit. I can't help but sideeye that for the same reasons why (I assume) people call the setup in the video I linked "larping."

I've even seen a similar thing with people who customize the hell out of their Nintendo 3DS. There are people out there that call that "larping," and unless they don't even use that thing other than to show it off on TikTok, or whatever, I don't think I'd call it that. Performative? Maybe. A little disingenuous? I guess?
 
It's a strange paradox, ain't it? It's almost trendy to not follow the mainstream tech trends and use weird niche retro shit shit the 3DS, or a Thinkpad (that's modded to have modern internals in it like the vid) or an iPod Classic/iPod Video. Maybe those commenters aren't actually ragebaiting. Unnecessarily dismissive? For sure. But could I blame them? Kinda??? Not really??? I don't fuckin' know man.

edit: grammar