By: Silas Urwin
Connection – Endings – Online
Scenario format: Larp
Duration: 2 hours
Number of players: 5-15
Agora is a long running online virtual world where users create avatars and interact with each other and with user-generated content. On the night the servers are due to be shut down its most dedicated users gathered for an ‘end of the world’ party. Now the party is over, but a few people plan to stay online to the very end; to reminisce, to connect, and to watch the world that meant so much to them blink out of existence. See You Soon is about community, friendship, online personas and identities, and digital archiving and the nature of virtual worlds. While the characters can do nothing to prevent the loss of their shared world, some may try to hang on to the connections they have made with each other.
Players will choose short prewritten characters and the structure of the larp switches between a group scene (part guided by the party’s host), and meta scenes where characters can interact one-on-one representing direct messages between users. The larp is based on the real ‘See You Soon Party’ held for the shutdown of TSO (recorded and archived as part of Stanford University’s Archiving Virtual Worlds project), and on interviews with users of Second Life and VRChat.
About the authors
Silas is a UK based larper who has been an avid writer and storyteller his whole life. He was introduced to larping just a few years ago, through an interest in interactive theatre and performance art, and has been writing short-form larps ever since. He is particularly interested in larp as a means of exploring identity and emotion.