Lately I've been going through stacks of older larp pics, mostly looking for kewl pics of friends to put on my wall. I also love all the nostalgic feelings and 'no shit, there I was...' moments that come flooding back.

But that is not the subject of this post. It is cool to see an upward turn in things such as costumes and weapons, but that is a fairly natural thing as the hobby itself 'matures' (pun intended). What I do notice is the increasing use of technology and theater experience in larps I attend. Part of this is also due to the increasing level to which technology is integrated in our own lives, but Vortex for instance is no longer unique in having dedicated electrical and special fx people. I hear things being discussed such as 'lighting plans', and people toting around notebooks with maps of the grounds and where all the electrical resources are.
Looking at EE we're toting around several laptops, mix sound and music for certain larps, make vigorous use of desktop publishing programs for physreps and have become quite good with images and video. I'm pretty used (spoiled, one might say) to having internet where-ever we go with EE, and the Symbols grounds have their own wireless network for the sound fx when they are there, too. We've done stuff with lasers, beamers, smokegenerators and several smaller electricals, to the point that we have to be careful not to overload the local electrical net. And we're no exception, nor the forerunner in these things. Symbols makes heavy use of such things, going far beyond what they started with. And ambitions keep growing. Many other larps also heavily use those, especially in the last two years. Lex, being modern age and an extreme example, sees more equipment being dragged to the location then I've ever seen anywhere, mostly due to JW and Simon who want to have their Foresight Security Suite...

Where does it go? What do we think will be used next? Are we talking holographic generators in a few years time? I open the floor.