What Genre Are Flash Mobs?
Posted on February 28th, 2008 by David McD
I recently discovered this hilarious phenomenon. Basically, a flash mob is like a very brief, highly specific, and totally impersonal LARP: a large group of people (the more the better, I surmise) perform some predetermined act in the same public space simultaneously just for the hell of it and then disperse quickly. The videos to be found of this are simply unreal.
Flash mobs are, undoubtedly, games. So in the tradition begun by Brenda on her blog, I ask: what genre are flash mobs?
Mmmm… let’s see… LARP? You spoiled it! Lol. Seriously, I think Role Playing is the top-genre, but one could find RTS elements, afterall, the act to be performed must be coordinated and shall have a previously defined strategy, right?
While they are certainly an interesting phenomenon, what makes them a game? There is no way to win or lose, and really no rules. It strikes me as much closer to some form of performance art.
Now, if someone could devise some variant of a flash mob that *is* a game, I would be fascinated to hear about it.
Instance-based micro ARGs.
Oh, I definitely think they’re games. The goal is to succeed at the activity, sort of like the goal of role-playing games is to convincingly play a role. The rules are defined: do this, at this time, for this long, then act like nothing happened.