Panopticon is dead - long live PanoptiCorp!

It finally happened. Panopticon, probably the longest-planned LARP of LARP history, is cancelled. Talk has been around since 1997. Preparations have been going on since 1999. Just last summer, it seemed everything was "Go!" for the biggest LARP of Norwegian history - we had enthusiasm, experience, cash, a location, a reputation, a network.

But in the end one person cannot carry such a project alone. And it became painfully obvious that Panopticon had only one truly dedicated organiser of the kind who would spend time that didn't exist and energy that wasn't there to keep the project going. No, it wasn't me - I chickened down to a lower level of involvement ages ago.

About two minutes after cancellation, we had invented the basic concept for another LARP, PanoptiCorp, which would re-use many of Panopticons concepts and still be a very different LARP. Panopticon was supposed to occur in 2048, in a "safe zone" governed by multinationals. PanoptiCorp will be today, in an ultra-trendy ad agency were the ultra-ambitious adniks fail to realise they are really no more than slaves. It won't be realistic - i.e. this won't be a "real" ad agency - but it won't be in any recognizable genre either.

The worst thing about PanoptiCorp is that it is in many ways a stronger concept than Panopticon. And far easier to organise. Official launch of the concept will be at Knudepunkt. Date horizon: june-july, 2002