Embodiment in Online LARPing: Design Guidelines for Future LARP Designers

Abstract: Online LARPing has been practiced for a long time, but gained its popularity as the Covid-19 pandemic hit. However, online platforms have some drawbacks and limitations in various aspects, for example, in embodiment, in accessibility, etc. This thesis aims to gain deeper insights into factors influencing players in terms of embodiment during online LARPing and important features that future online LARP designers should pay attention to. This thesis is a qualitative research aiming to create design guidelines through empirical investigations of online LARPing. For the empirical investigations, the study embraced an ethnographic approach through participatory observations, complimented by analysis of scripts and interviews with writers. The study then used the findings from the empirical investigations to understand what make players feel more embodied during an online LARPing and let the results inform the creation of design guidelines that could bring a higher degree of embodiment to online LARPing. The work is mainly a design proposal or a design guidance intended for future online LARP designers, instead of building a new technology or a new prototype. The design guidelines aim to create comprehensive recommendations to bring out more embodiment while LARPing online.