Heckler: "What the heckler is cosplay?"
As I briefly explain in the final chapter of Virtuous Worlds, cosplay is what you're doing when you dress up as a character from a movie, a television show, a book, a video game, or some other medium of pop culture. That's a simplified definition, mind you, but there you have it.
When I compare myself with some of the folks who have exhibited their work on http://www.cosplay.com/, my own attempts at cosplay seem half-hearted--but believe me, I've had fun doing it!
You may have already browsed the photos I took with my Link cosplay at this year's Gen Con (see the link at the bottom of the page). Here's another link (pun intended) to my album from last year's Gen Con, when I dressed as Mario:
Believe me, if you're a geek and you've never tried it, cosplay is a blast. Just try walking into your local Taco Bell dressed as Mario or Link and count how many stares you get (I speak from personal experience). Better yet, attend one of your local gaming or anime or generic pop culture conventions as that same character and see what it's like to hang out with thousands of other people doing the same thing.
Those of you who have a hard time relating to this experience and who may already be on the phone with the local sanatorium hoping you can get me committed before I infect the rest of the human race should hold that thought for a minute. We all have hobbies and passions and interests that can make us look silly to others. It isn't a sin, and sometimes these things enrich our lives in ways we're not even aware of!
All this talk of costumes and characters has a point. When gamers play the part of their favorite characters, whether on the television or computer screen or--better yet--in a costume, they are inhabiting and taking on and representing everything that goes with that character, whether they realize it or not.
Case in point. When my cousin and I dressed as Mario and Luigi at last year's Gen Con (this was the first time I had ever cosplayed), I knew people would recognize the characters, but I had no idea of the reception we were in for. One smiling little girl ran up to my cousin and hugged him; her mother said that Luigi was her daughter's favorite character. I had people shouting things at me in the hallway like "It-sa me, Mario" or "Our princess is in another castle!"
Oh, I'd love to tell you in detail about what it was like doing impressions of Mario on a stage in front of a crowd of 800 people at Tracy Hickman's Killer Breakfast. Even at the time, I think I was well aware that they weren't really laughing and applauding for me. They were doing it because they loved the character.
Role-playing Mario that weekend was an experience I'll never forget.
In a similar way, Christians are called to role play as Christ. No, you don't have to put on a beard and a robe and a sash and sandals and walk around quoting the Sermon on the Mount until your neighbors have you arrested, but we as believers are supposed to role play Christ's characteristics. "It is no longer I who live," Paul wrote to the Galatians, "but Christ lives in me" (2:20).
That weekend at Gen Con, it wasn't I who lived, it was Mario who lived in me (go ahead and laugh if you want, but it's true to some extent). And that wasn't such a bad part to play. Try to find a happier or more pure character in video game history, I dare you. I feel like a better person for having done it.
Heckler: "Stop making me spew my soda all over the monitor."
Anyway, that experience meant a lot, but I know that even Mario isn't the most important role I'm called to play in life. Son, brother, friend, and believer in God come to mind immediately. Those aren't easy roles to play, but they're even more worthwhile than the ones we play for three or four days in a crowded convention center. And depending on your taste in dress, chances are it's much easier to "cosplay" a son, a brother, a friend, and a believer than it is to cosplay a video game character.
Gamers, brothers, sisters, believers, PLAY YOUR ROLES WITH ZEST!!!!
