Hacker News Reader

Comment by scyzoryk_xyz | Hacker News Reader

LARP-ing is becoming incredibly popular here in Poland it would seem.

I have some acquaintances who do a very involved War in Vietnam LARP with several dozen guys going out to Polish mountains for a week or two to pretend they're U.S. Military. It's very important to them, lots of attention to detail, lots of rules on how to stay in character.

It's fascinating to see Americans' reactions to these things. I don't think collectively Americans seem to notice the extent to which their culture has inundated the world, especially places like Poland where USA obsession is rooted in the 1980's and 1990's.

View on HN

When I visited Belgium a few years ago, one of the things that really stood out to me was all the ads for American media and brands. Netflix, Marvel movies, Patagonia clothing, and more. It had been 25 years since the last time I visited Europe (a business trip to Bavaria) and the change was really remarkable.

I now understand Rammstein's Amerika better.

Even when visiting Western Europe coming from the Eastern part of the continent one can very easily have the same impression. For example I find that France is quite obsessed with the US and, dare I say, it also has a small inferiority complex (which, in a way, the US also holds when it comes to France). All the daily action now for young people happens just outside the cities/towns, where you have all those hyper-markets and fast-food joints, similar to the “spirit of the Mall” that came from the States. NBA is also pretty big, no wonder Tony Parker has become such a star.

Northern Italy is pretty similar, for example LeBron had lived there for a while and was an AC Milan fan, there’s commercialization of everything, a feeling of “you don’t really live if you’re not shopping”, that sort of stuff.

Again, the US holds its own Europe-related inferiority complexes, that’s why I think this cultural dynamic between Western Europe and the States is pretty interesting.

> the US holds its own Europe-related inferiority complexes

Does it? Most of the folks I know here think of Europe as quaint, and have never actually been there or want to go. We do seem to think that Europe has the skin and hair care advantage though, as pretty much any upscale products in those markets are branded as being European.

Most of the folks I know here think of Europe as quaint

Every US political discussion on just about any topic always has very vocal group shouting some variation of "why can't we be more like Europe?" Often these people have a very naive or outright incorrect view of how things actually are in "Europe", but they definitely seem convinced that things are much better there.

Couple years ago there was a Worms LARP in Poland. Yes, the game. People dressed up as worms, there were rules about movement in each turn, throwing granades etc.

Is there another group that is LARP-ing as Viet Cong?

No opponent actually, only jungle-like military operation.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com