The trend towards "real-life super-heroes" is both endearing and worrying - see http://worldsuperheroregistry.com/ http://superheroes.members.winisp.net/
It's easy to sympathize with youngsters who want to be superheroes, making the world a better place while looking all cool and mysterious, but the grim realities of vigilantism are something else again. My proposal is to institute a new form of live action role playing game to channel their energies into something a little safer and more realistic.
Just as people trek off into the woods on weekends and battle it out as knights, ninjas, special forces operatives or whatever, a similar set of rules could be worked out for wannabe superheroes (and villains). They would get to live out their fantasies in realistic simulations, performing relatively safe combat (q.v. medieval re-enactment, paintball, etc.), developing cool costumes and gadgets, and generally living the life of a superhero in all meaningful senses except for literally fighting crime.-- HappyZenWolf, Oct 22 2005 World SuperHero Registry http://worldsuperheroregistry.com/Link from the above text. [jurist, Oct 22 2005] Real Life Superheroes http://superheroes.members.winisp.net/Link from the above text. [jurist, Oct 22 2005] The Go Game (2003, San Francisco) http://www.thegogam...ption/superhero.asp [jutta, Oct 23 2005] "download the application from here" http://www.whowantstobeasuperhero.tvFrom [HappyZenWolf]'s annotation. [jutta, Oct 23 2005] MTV casting call, blog entry http://www.mtv.com/...ry.jhtml?id=1483868Might be what [HappyZenWolf] is quoting from. So how'd you get the link to the application details? [jutta, Oct 23 2005] Catch Jane McGonigal next time she's touring, she helps plan and run massively multiplayer games like that.
Something like this tailored to 8-12 year olds would be a lot of fun.-- jutta, Oct 23 2005 Looks like an idea whose time has come ...
Who Wants to Be a Superhero? Reality Show
Do you have a secret identity? Are you committed to protecting the innocent and battling evil? Do you think you've got what it takes to be the world’s next great superhero?
MTV and Stan Lee challenge you to jump into the fray and present your heroic alter ego to the world!
Contestants will compete against each other in a show designed to develop their superhero characters and test their mettle as defenders of justice. The winner will then be eligible to have his or her idea developed and expanded by Stan Lee's team, possibly for a comic book spin-off, AND maybe a television show.
Download the application from here: www.whowantstobeasuperhero.tv
Please send a picture and a brief description of your superhero to superhero@mtvstaff.com or the mailing address below, ASAP.
Superhero Show 1438 N. Gower Box 10, Bldg. 35 Hollywood, CA. 90028 Attention: Randy Bernstein
Ultimately, one superhero will be the lucky winner handpicked by comics legend Stan Lee to have their character immortalized in their own comic book. Will it be you?-- HappyZenWolf, Oct 23 2005 Someone will have to be the supervillian then. I volunteer, especially if I can have a getup like Galactus.-- bungston, Oct 23 2005 [admin: There's a [link] button over to the left that you can use to link to documents. Don't quote them literally - in particular, don't duplicate address information that may be incorrect or wholly fictitious, and don't duplicate copyrighted documents.
I love other people's information, but let's attribute our sources and keep the original publishers in control, OK?]-- jutta, Oct 23 2005 random, halfbakery