This piece was originally published in the Italian Larp Festival magazine (ILF Mag) 2025, and is republished here with thanks.
In a capitalistic world that thrives on conformity, joy becomes one of the most radical acts we can choose.
More than just an emotion, joy is an expression of vitality and hope. Different from the kick of dopamine after securing a ticket to that larp you wanted, joy is a conscious choice, resisting commodification. It is an act of rebellion in the face of a world built on oppressive structures. A challenge against the established order, arising when people break out of the rigid roles, norms, and systems weighing them down. Joy is contagious and collective, thriving when shared – an act of defiance against resignation and despair. Joy grows in spite of oppression and is multiplied by community.
Joy and larp, though different in form, share this radical kinship.
Larp is a refusal to conform to the norms of society. It is an expression of creativity, a continuation of childhood play-pretend and imagination, and a search for others to share that creativity with. When we larp, we connect with each other and build new communities.
Together, we challenge the world as it is, question established norms, and redefine our realities. We play with hierarchy, reimagine authority, and experiment with power. We explore themes we would never be able to understand otherwise and catch glimpses of lives we will never truly live. We try to walk a few steps in the shoes of the marginalized and oppressed, and those of oppressors, getting closer to an understanding of why the world is how it is – and how it could be reshaped in different, better ways.
As such, larp is much more than entertainment.
Larp is political.
It is a testing ground for different possibilities, showing us that the world itself can be remade. It allows for a suspension of the existent reality, where participants can explore new forms of identity and power structures, and can question not only the world, but themselves.
It makes rebellion imaginable and brings us together under its banner, an experience much more powerful than any manifesto’s call for action.
Just as joy thrives in defiance of despair, larp gives us the chance to plunge into the dark waters of turmoil and allows us to envision a different outcome. It can drive us towards change, altering lives in the process. And from joy grows new ideas, new dreams, new larps.
So find your joy in what cannot be commodified: The stories we co-create, the communities we build, the shared embraces and tears after a larp, the moment of pause when we ask the stranger, who just played our greatest love, “Who are you, really?”, and share a laugh.
And let your joy be disruptive. Let it be a challenge, a roar of defiance towards the system. Create stories that dares to question, dream, and redefine – be loud and bold and laugh in the face of those who want to silence your joy.
In a world that consistently attempts to conform and commodify, joy is an act of rebellion.
And so is larp.
Cover photo from the larp Panopticon, by Christian Kierans
