From College of Wizardry to Witcher School: A Comparative Study of Franchise Larp Design

• Authors: Mochocki Michał

Title variants

PL

Od College of Wizardry do Witcher School. Studium porównawcze larpów franczyzowych

• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

A study of live action role plays as transmediations of a global franchise universe, this work analyses two cases: College of Wizardry (world of Harry Potter) and Witcher School (world of The Witcher), using Mark Wolf’s (2012) framework of eight infrastructures: space, time, character, nature, culture, language, mythology and philosophy. The case studies lead to questions and predictions about franchise larps in general. For example, characters, culture, mythology, and philosophy are most useful as vehicles for direct imitation / adaptation of elements from the franchise media (books, films or video games) to larps; philosophy is most likely to be subject to ideology-based modifications; whereas space and nature will be heavily influenced by the physical features of the game site. The text ends with a look at possible relationships between larp creators and the copyrighted multimedia entertainment industry.

PL

Przedmiotem pracy jest transmediacja uniwersum z globalnej franczyzy do teatralnej gry fabularnej (larpu). Analizie poddaję dwa przypadki: College of Wizardry (świat Harry’ego Pottera) i Witcher School (świat wiedźmina), posługując się siatką ośmiu światotwórczych infrastruktur według Marka Wolfa (2012): przestrzeń, czas, postacie, natura, kultura, język, mitologia i filozofia. Studia przypadku prowadzą do pytań i przypuszczeń na temat franczyzowych larpów w ogólności. Przykładowo, postacie, kultura, mitologia i filozofia mają największy potencjał jako kanały bezpośredniej imitacji/adaptacji elementów z franczyzy (książek, filmów, gier wideo) w larpie; filozofia jest najbardziej podatna na zmiany motywowane ideologicznie; przestrzeń zaś i natura będą w dużym stopniu warunkowane fizycznym kształtem terenu gry. Tekst kończy się spojrzeniem na możliwe relacje między twórcami larpów a przemysłem rozrywki multimedialnej chronionej prawem autorskim.

Keywords

EN

larp; franchise; transmedia; witcher; Harry Potter

PL

larp; franczyza; transmedia; wiedźmin; Harry Potter

• Publisher: Polskie Towarzystwo Badania Gier (Games Research Association of Poland)
• Journal: Homo Ludens
• Year: 2016
• Issue: 1(9)
• Pages: 197-223

Dates

published

2016

Contributors

author

Mochocki Michał

• Uniwersytet Kazimierza Wielkiego w Bydgoszczy

References

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• Ludography:
• Agencja 5 Żywiołów (2015). The Witcher School design document. Online: <http://5zywiolow.com/files/serwer/design.document.witcher.school-en.pdf>. Access date: 4 November 2016.
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Identifiers

ISSN

2080-4555