Need Help Catagorizing My Game!

[Citadel]

I have a game I've created and I'm having a hard time putting it into a catagory. I'm a little sheepish about this because I don't come from an RPG background. I've never been involved in an RPG or LARP game or even a gaming community. I just put this game together in a vacuum without any gaming experience and then pulled my head out and started looking around.

My game is called The Citadel. It's a live action spy game and was recently featured on the cover of New Times Magazine in Phoenix, AZ. http://tinyurl.com/phx-spy-game The article on The Citadel compared us to a LARP but I'm not sure. We are a pay to play game that works with a team of four players within a fixed time between 4 and 6 hours in downtown Phoenix. We utilize spy equipment, web & video media along with live actors as the team goes to 10 locations throughout the downtown area on a four hour interactive fiction. So, for those of you with a lot of gaming experience, what are we? We've tried to make The Citadel feel like the team is in the middle of their own movie, so I've come up with the term, "my-fi", but it seems a little cheesy... Any constructive insight would be greatly appreciated. Thanks from the newbie!

[Citadel]

Yeah... so... just googled my-fi.. very taken! Back to the drawing board.

[Excalibur]

You have an interactive fiction with props and acting within the physical environment. It's similar to Live Action Role-Playing.

How do you settle conflict/task resolution? In most RPGs, there are dice involved (or cards). In LARPs they use a simpler mechanic such as Rock-Paper-Scissors.

My guess is that you are running an LAIF or Live-Action Interactive Fiction.

[David Artman]

Ex has it right: if you have some kind of resolution system, then you have "game" elements.

If your participants are expected to act like other people (i.e. not themselves + gear) then you have "role playing." (Technically "acting," but RP has that as one of its main connotations.)

It's obviously live.

All those add up to a "Live Role Playing Game." ("Action" has always been optional, though I wish it were now used only as a disambiguation term to distinguish non-contact/parlor LRP from live combat/Airsoft/boffer LARP.)

If your productions lack significant character embodiment (acting) or a gameable resolution system (i.e. not just GM fiat), then you most likely are running an ARG (Alternate Reality Game).

And you should go tell it on the mountain at the RPG.net Live Action Board or Shade's LARP List. I don't see much in the way of live gaming discussion here at The Forge.

[Callan S.]

Why do you want to be categorized? Is it to feel part of a larger community? Well, atleast for myself it sounds fun and has alot of stuff I could relate to already.

[Mike Sugarbaker]

I suggest "pervasive urban game." Check out the stuff at Ludocity and some of the stuff by area|code, and see if that seems like company you'd be comfortable in.