I was asked to blurb this book, and here's what I said:
- The rise of the ars ludorum is not confined to the bombastic power fantasies of the videogame but is manifest all over the globe in diverse ways, from the doujin games of Japan to the passionate intensity of the indie games movement to the rise of the Euro-style boardgame. Not least among these movements is larp, brought to its apotheosis in the Nordic countries, where vast, imaginative works of enormous artistic ambition receive attention not only from game geeks but from their national cultures as well. This vital phenomenon is now accessible to English speakers through this landmark work, an anthology of articles describing some of the most impressive and compelling works of the form. Anyone seriously interested in role-play, interactive narrative, and the collision between games and theater will find it of enormous interest.
It's 30 Euros, but unquestionably worth the price. You'll read about everything from large, city-wide LARPs that go on for months to week-long forest gatherings involving hundreds to ambitious minimalist LARPs produced with funding from art museums to LARPs staged on ferry boats representing an annual meeting of a society of mad scientists who are literally insane (each with a diagnosis from DSM-IV)... I could go on, but better you should read this thing yourself.
