Tangible Pleasures of Pervasive Role-Playing

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Montola Markus
2007 DiGRA '07 - Proceedings of the 2007 DiGRA International Conference: Situated Play

The traditional forms of role-playing include tabletop roleplaying, larp and online role-playing. In this paper I describe a fourth form, pervasive role-playing, which often follows many conventions of larp, but break out of the magic circle of gameplay in order to interact with surrounding society. The central pleasures of pervasive role-playing are related to playing for real, with the environment and having a tangible, unmediated experience of being a part of a complete and physical world of fiction.