ATTN: Cramulus

[AFK]

As you unofficial and unasked for financial and career adviser, I would like to recommend your next venture.

LARP for Kids.

This came to me after reading the TV thread and thinking about some related discussions we've had at work.  (About kids watching too much TV, not about LARPing)

Why do kids get glued to the TV?  They want their little minds stimulated with stories and adventures.  Books are okay, but they want more immediate imagery.  They like being steeped in the fantasy. 

It would seem to me that there is a way for LARP or some similar model to fill this niche that fills two missions.  It gets kids physically active AND it allows them to be steeped in a creative world.  Except, they get to participate.  It isn't passive, it's interactive. 

Now this would need to be more then just dressing up in costumes and swinging plastic swords around.  This is where you weave in some kind of educational component.  Not necessarily teaching kids HOW to be creative, but something a little more Discordian.  It would be more about helping kids figure out how to tap into their creativity, their imagination, and what they need to do to make that interface with the rest of the group. 

Anyway, this little idea popped into my head the other day and of course I thought of you.  Go get some stimulus money from Obama and make it happen!

[LMNO]

My name is Doktor Alphapance, and I approve of this message.

[AFK]

Of course, they should be doing this kind of shit in schools.  But we don't test kids on creativity and imagination.  Which is a whole load of horseshit for another thread.  Has it not occurred to anyone that one of the things Bill Gates had going for him was that he was able to imagine and create those things which ended up turning him into a multi-Billionaire?  Sure the math helped, but there are plenty of people who graduate with high math grades who go nowhere because they can't work outside of the text-books. 

[Cramulus]

hell yeah man

one day I will be able to figure out how to draw some serious $$$ from immersing people in fantasy worlds or fantastic activities.

What really gives me a charge, in life, is to overhear people telling stories, years later, about some experience I created.

And it's so much easier with kids!

There are a few commercial ventures to get kids into LARP. One is called Fantasy Quest, and it's more entertainment than education. Basically they set up this big building like a fantasy kingdom - one room is a forest, one room is a castle, one room is a graveyard... and there are these video screens around the whole thing. Kids get these magic wands which are sort of like the controller to a wii. Then they go up to these video monitors, and a character appears on it and gives the kid some kind of quest. They have to explore the building and use their wand to interact with other objects. "Find all 9 enchanted mushrooms so I can make a potion to wake up prince so-and-so..."

There are also a few summer camps that run as LARPs. Each day is a different activity (arts and crafts, team work, summer camp stuff), and the activities are connected through some kind of rough storyline.

But it's not quite there yet. I agree, education is probably a great angle for getting PARENTS fired up to take their kids to the mystical forest where I will pelt them with lightning bolt spells until they LEARN. 

My GF and my roommate and I have this idea to start a company that runs kids birthday parties. My GF teaches music to kids, and my roommate is a professional piercer who wants to get in on the "piercing parties" that are apparently getting more popular right now? Birthday parties for little girls -- she'll invite all her friends over to get their ears pierced at the same time. But my component of it would be for boys - something about foam sword fights, scavenger hunts, puzzles, that sort of thing.

My buddy Brian just bought a plot of land in New York. It's about 30 acres, and he wants to use it to run live games. Him and I have been writing a game to run there, but we realize that in order to make money (rather than just meet cost) we'll need a few different ventures. He has a strong background in event planning, and we both have experience running games. Something for kids is probably a great idea.

I want to run big ass games. Over in Europe, LARPs get really large - Mythodea is an annual event with 5000+ people in attendance. In contrast, the LARPs I run / play are more in the 80-120 person range. There are a lot of obstacles to running games for adults, one of them is that they have to be plugged into RPGs already for this to sound like a fun activity. And I find that kind of limiting - because games like this have an appeal which I think a lot of people would dig, not just the pen and paper d20 crowd. Being outdoors, getting exercise, being creative, using your brain -- it's really stimulating!

I think you're right, Rev, I should take a harder look at running activities for kids.

[Elder Iptuous]

That's a fantastic idea!
i would definitely be interested in having my kiddos do something like that if there were something like that in my area.

one thing to consider is that you would have to have fairly tight age groups if it's for kids, especially if it were focused on some kind of educational angle....
that would heavily impact the logistics, i think.