I love that, because I think that role play, storytelling, live theater, and live musical performance are natural outgrowths of a world with less commodification, more leisure time, more community connection, and less social pressure to enforce conformity.
I think an amphitheater is good too, but I like when spaces aren't all too general.
I think it makes sense to have this as a dedicated space. It's kind of like a paintball arena, but for melee combat. And I think most LARPers would agree: it can be surprisingly difficult to find good areas to practice and hold LARPs! Dedicated infrastructure would be amazing.
While I understand your point of view, the thing with effective use of space is that good spaced are multi-functional. A park can be a picnic area, an improvised sports field, or even a wedding location. A larp arena can only be a larp arena. Further, the amount of people that larp are relatively small. I'm not trying to poo poo the community - it exists, and I'm sure it's vibrant and growing, but it's not mainstream yet.
I have never in my entire life met a boy who didn't at some age want to play castles and swords. And I think if adults were a bit more open minded, 99% of girls would want to join in too.
You're right. I'm missing the point of the post. A larp arena actually would be great for kids, and if it was geared towards their enjoyment could be used for other things, like interactive story telling/theater stages
(Also, while there are larp-safe flails, the 'chain' on those is short enough not to wrap around any limbs, because that can create hazards, so the one depicted here is unsafe)