"Do You Cosplay?" Topic

In another discussion – TMP link – Rebelyell2006 writes:

…Cosplay is a huge thing in the USA and Japan, something done by teenagers, adults and old folks. Dorks with extra pocket money for going to cons and making costumes. It's wargaming for people who would rather dress like toy soldiers (historical or fantasy) instead of people who push toys around on a table. And there is certainly overlap between the two.

Cosplay stands for "costume play," and is defined as "a performance art in which participants wear costumes and fashion accessories to represent a specific character or idea."

I dressed as Slobbovain Czar Raoul I Raskolnikov D.G.I.O.S. once for a science fiction convention.
I had my name on an Imperial purple tee shirt. I don't think that counted.

I dress in costume each year for ComicCon in San Diego, but it's not really cos play as much as "getting into the spirit."

No.

I wore a replica early Edwardian dress at Texicon last year, which included at least 30 lbs. of undergarments. I'm so glad the convention center was air conditioned!

I don't really think what I do is cosplay. We call it Halloween around here.

No, but I often dress in a Halloween costume to celebrate the day. That's as close as I get. Some younger gamers in their 20's-30's that I game with do. I also know several who reenact.

No, I am too fat and hideous. I could play Nurgle
I guess….

Only at the renaissance faires.

Never. No interest. I don't even dress up on Halloween. I figure it's for the kids.

Ummm… no, but the ones who do are fun to watch at conventions

I usually dress up as Catw- I mean Batman !!!

I go all out for Halloween. Nope for the other 364.

Used to be in the SCA.

Was just explaining LARP to a guest at dinner tonight.

Noted that at conventions where LARP is on the schedule that costume coverage is very often in inverse ratio to the attractiveness of the wearer…

with my body type about the only Cosplay I could pull off would be Porkins from the first Star Wars movie

No, but my local community college is actually offering a course on cosplay, go figure.

I don't but I have two friends who do.

When they told me & showed me photos I thought that was pretty strange.
That's OK: because they thought (& she still does) think my wargaming hobby is peculiar.

my local community college is actually offering a course on cosplay

Has there been any serious scholarly studies on cosplay?
I'd like to read more on the topic.

It seems to meet an increasing need people have for costume & ritual. I think the American version of Halloween might fit in the same category. I wonder if re-enacting is part of the phenomena too.

As and fewer fewer people attend church in order to put ritual in their lives, & fulfil the need to transcend the ordinary, I think that might explain, partly, its growing popularity.

All in all, an interesting topic.

Yes, but I don't call it cosplay. A few of my other gamer buddies do too. Sometimes we even game in costume, when I ran a In Her Majesty's Name demo I wore my Victorian clothing in hopes of drawing in the crowd. And when another friend ran one, three of us wore our gear. Next go around I'm hoping to get a few of my female friends involved, because nothing draws in gamers like good looking girls in corsets.

Current list are Stargate SG-1, Airship pirate, Starship Troopers, The Walking Dead sheirff and currently working on Captain America from the movie in WW2 gear.

For historical I own a Union Civil War Captain's Uniform, British Sudan uniform(its not really 100% correct to the period) and a D-Day 101st Airborn Captain uniform. Myself and a few other gamer friends have even used my uniforms to color match paints.

I don't but believe it is great idea. modern life can be bit crushing, clothes wise. So more power to them for having the confidence to break out!

martin

"… Used to be in the SCA…." for many years pre-kid in California (south and central) but not now.

"… As and fewer fewer people attend church in order to put ritual in their lives, & fulfil the need to transcend the ordinary, I think that might explain, partly, its growing popularity…"

Interesting comment, as my spiritual life and enjoyment of Church (ideally but not realistically the same thing in this world) has improved I find myself drawn more to the "High Church" forms of Christianity/worship. At I won't go any farther down that road on this forum…

Edit: I think I would rather be comfortable than "period" at a convention, especially before the 20th Century.

@ Mute Bystander

I'd agree: a regular attendance at a Catholic mass is all the ritual I need. However, we won't talk religion but I think it safe to say that ritual is a basic need.

Westerners have less & less in their lives as traditional practices die out: even non-religious things such as 21st Birthday ceremonies or Debutante Balls etc.

I think as a culture we're in the process of adding new rituals to our lives eg cosplay.

No. Each to his own but this hasn't much to do with wargaming and has nothing to do with miniatures.

Phil

No.

I LARP, which is both similar and different to cosplay. Still involves dressing up in silly clothes, though.

What is traditional cosplay – no. One of the problems I find with cons is you can't just wear a Star Trek shirt without everyone fanboy or not expecting you to be able to recite all the lines to every episode backwards in Klingon standing your head drinking a glass of water and throwing your voice.

When I run a game at a show, I make a reasonable effort to wear something genre appropriate that isn't going to be disruptive. An Old West costume is close enough to regular clothes to be fine. A tunic and sandals for ancients, not so much, so I will maybe go for a piece of headgear. Many scifi outfits are often too much work, so a nice shirt with a logo will suffice for me.

SWMBO, SOM, and DOM have a great time at Halloween. My wife is a theater major and I am an engineer. We can build lots of fun stuff … a gingerbread house conversion for the porch, me in a dancing hut (with chicken legs) and SWMBO as Baba Yaga, swirling Mummenchantz silver dragons, etc.

No. I have enough trouble not looking like a fool on an ordinary day. When I put on a costume, I look like me in a costume. Which isn't good.

Not myself but my wife dresses up as an Airship pirate, Steampunk adventurer and Victorian vampire ( was really funny when after I picked her up from The Vampire Ball, she felt hungry after drinking so she wanted me to take her to get a burger….so in full victorian garb including stick on vampire teeth, she walked through the door and pronounced " I'm hungry, do you have any blood?"…..and just stared at the girl behind the counter for a few seconds, before she smiled and said…."no?…..oh well I'll have a cheeseburger then"….Gold! )

No. I have enough trouble not looking like a fool on an ordinary day

Ha ha ha, my sentiments exactly. I always dress to blend and disappear into the crowd and not stand out..and I always sit facing entry/exits. Maybe that's more of a statement about paranoia.

Nope, assuming Halloween doesn't count. 'Cause Zombie Walks are fun.

No, but I admire and appreciate it when it's done well. There are often, however, pitifully lame results on the other end.

I'll go out on a limb and say it creeps me out.

Halloween only. When District 9 came out my wife made me a prawn hand. One of our guests who works in health care was very concerned and wanted to know if I'd had an injury.

No

No, too old. Of course one guy at a recent convention was Dave from AllState. That is one I could pull off. Lol

Yup, particularly at Anime and Comic cons were cosplay is quite widespread, I like to do cosplays related to the games I'm running. (Much different environment social environment than miniature conventions where historical military uniforms can get creepy!)

Let me be the first to say it…

Cosplay is an excuse to look at lovely ladies in skimpy outfits.

Re-enacting is the same thing for fat men except the outfits are not skimpy.

At Wizard World Comic-con in Philly last yeat I wanted to go as Big Daddy and I wanted my daughter to go as Hit-Girl. I kept telling her, "But your favorite color is purple!". But she wasn't butying into it. So we just both wore our matching Marvel Avnegers T-shirt.

No, but a lot of my friends do.

"Each to his own but this hasn't much to do with wargaming and has nothing to do with miniatures."

So what? If you have been around TMP for even a short while you should have realized by now that this site is about all aspects of the lives that miniatures hobbyists lead, and constantly carping about it not being exactly what YOU want it to be is futile at best. Turn off the non-miniatures oriented boards and you might (and I stress MIGHT) not see so much that (apparently) offends you.

Good luck with that.

A bit like ArmymenRGreat, I find it quite uncomfortable when adults are playing dress-up around me. I suppose part of it is being embarrassed on their behalf (at dressing-up in public) and part of it is my reaction to being associated with such odd behaviour. 'Cosplay' is quite different from wargaming and although I accept some wargamers dress-up, and some people who play dress-up also wargame, I see no overlap.

So what? If you have been around TMP for even a short while you should have realized by now that this site is about all aspects of the lives that miniatures hobbyists lead, and constantly carping about it not being exactly what YOU want it to be is futile at best. Turn off the non-miniatures oriented boards and you might (and I stress MIGHT) not see so much that (apparently) offends you.

+1

On this site have been discussions about all manner of interests wargamers might have in addition to wargaming.

No,I don't really get it either. I have no issue with people who do. Many are very talented. I question how they make money dressing as someone's intellectual property.

Yes, every weekday, I go to work & cosplay being a responsible adult.

I don't dislike it but I don't tend to.

I did wear a soviet army jacket at work for a while as a protest.

Each to his own but this hasn't much to do with wargaming and has nothing to do with miniatures."

So what? If you have been around TMP for even a short while you should have realized by now that this site is about all aspects of the lives that miniatures hobbyists lead, and constantly carping about it not being exactly what YOU want it to be is futile at best. Turn off the non-miniatures oriented boards and you might (and I stress MIGHT) not see so much that (apparently) offends you.

Good luck with that.

Precisely, Nazrat … that's why I said each to his own. The question asked 'do you' (and I presume the idea is that we give our answers … I think you are reading far too much into my answer if you think I am carping or – goodness! – offended …)

As for the 'so what' – well, indeed, it pretty much covers everyone's thoughts and answers to these open questions, doesn't it? … (so +1 to that )

Phil

I am collecting a Vietnam era uniform and if wearing that to a Wargaming event is Costume Play then, yes at some point in the future.

Seems fine to me. Just saw a documentary with Draco Malfoy exploring fandom and the dressing up that was shown looked great fun for all involved. So +1 to cosplay.

Not for me though personally but no issues with it and them.

Nope, never.

Some interesting responses. So is dressing up as a SS infantryman commanding SS troops in a WW2 game considered cosplay? Is it considered bad taste? Is an obese person wearing a shirt three sizes too small with their layers of blubber muffin topping over their too tight pants considered bad taste? What about dressing up as a casualty?

Just curious as I don't have the cosplay gene.

Cosplay is generally dressing up as characters from fictional settings and is different than re-enactment. So no, SS soldiers are not typically counted as cosplay.

And yes, a few years ago when Saltute invited an SS re-enactment group to their con it did indeed offend quite a few attendees and was in bad taste.

As some others have said, I used to be active in the SCA, so I sort of did cosplay (and LARP), although SCAdians are often offended if you call what they do by those terms.

I have also once spent a day at a (sci-fi) con as Dionysus (my wife was Hera, and a friend was one of my satyrs, complete with goat horns and fuzzy pants). It was fun. It gave me an excuse to wander the con with an amphora (one of those rather cool collectible Jim Beam decanters) of wine under my arm. I'm not sure the folks at the con really realized that it was indeed wine in the jug. Also, chitons are REALLY comfortable. Eventually, I'll get around to running a (gaming) con game of Ludus Gladiatorius with the Port-a-Rena in a toga.

Doug