Online, LARPing usually means performing an identity, status, lifestyle, level of expertise, or kind of access that may be exaggerated, curated, partly fictional, or completely made up.
That is the useful definition.
If somebody says a guy on Twitter is LARPing as a trader, they probably do not mean he is wearing a costume and physically acting out a character.
They mean his online identity says one thing and reality might be considerably less impressive.
The account says full-time trader.
Maybe he made $600 on a meme coin last month.
The bio says investor.
Maybe he bought three startup crowdfunding shares.
The photos say permanent first-class existence.
Maybe that was one Emirates flight six months ago and the content folder is still doing numbers.
This is what people usually mean by LARP online.
It is basically roleplay without admitting you are roleplaying
The original meaning of LARP is live-action role-playing.
Online LARP keeps the role-playing part and loses almost everything else.
There is no agreed game. No character sheet. No referee. Nobody tells the audience which parts are fictional.
The character is usually just presented as the person.
That is why the word is often used negatively.
Calling somebody a LARPer online is usually a way of saying:
I do not think this person is what they are presenting themselves as.
Not always a total liar.
Just... there is some distance between the account and the human operating it.
Sometimes that distance is enormous.
The internet makes this incredibly easy
You can build the surface of an identity very quickly online.
Username.
PFP.
Bio.
Follower count.
A few screenshots.
The right vocabulary.
Replies from the right people.
A Telegram group.
Some photos from expensive-looking places.
One screenshot of a dashboard nobody else has access to.
You can imply a ridiculous amount without ever technically saying much.
That is part of why internet LARPing works.
People are constantly filling in missing information.
If somebody posts a $70,000 wallet screenshot, viewers assume it belongs to them.
If somebody gets followed by three big accounts, viewers assume they know them.
If somebody posts from a private event, viewers assume they were invited for an important reason.
If somebody writes like an expert confidently enough, somebody newer to the subject will eventually assume they are one.
The internet is basically an inference machine.
LARPing is often just giving people the pieces you know they will assemble.
Rich LARPing is probably the easiest example
The internet is full of wealth signals that are almost impossible to verify from the outside.
Watches.
Cars.
Hotels.
Flights.
Trading screens.
Wallet balances.
Restaurants.
Apartment views.
Receipts.
Even the absence of obvious flexing can become part of the flex.
There is a specific rich-guy internet aesthetic where the person barely explains anything because explaining would make it look cheaper.
One blurry steering wheel.
A watch half visible.
Laptop open somewhere vaguely European.
Caption is one word.
That can somehow look richer than somebody standing beside a rented Lamborghini with HUSTLE NEVER STOPS written underneath it.
Both are performing something.
One is just much better at it.
Expertise gets LARPed too
Money is obvious, but expertise might be more common.
Crypto is perfect for this because almost everything happens through interfaces.
A person can look extremely plugged in from:
- knowing the current slang,
- using the right terminal,
- posting a wallet screenshot,
- having a clean PFP,
- being early in one reply section,
- and confidently saying "size" under a chart.
That may genuinely be enough to make somebody six hours newer assume they are dealing with a veteran.
The same thing happens in tech, fashion, marketing, music, fitness, finance, art, startup circles, and basically any internet subculture with visible status markers.
Every group develops a uniform.
Online LARPing is learning the uniform before you have earned the role.
But not all LARPing is malicious
This is where the word gets fuzzy.
Sometimes people say LARPing when they really mean experimenting with an identity.
Someone starts a photography account before anybody considers them a photographer.
Someone starts posting about coding while learning to code.
Someone dresses differently for three months because they are trying to figure out whether that version of themselves feels better.
Someone makes a founder account when their "company" is currently a domain name, a logo, and six increasingly concerning browser tabs.
There is a version of LARPing where the performance comes first and reality catches up later.
People become things partly by acting like the kind of person who does those things.
That does not make every fake guru a misunderstood method actor.
It just means LARP is broader than scam.
A scam normally requires deception with some material goal attached to it.
A LARP can be as harmless as pretending your tiny side project is a mysterious startup because that makes working on it more fun.
The funniest LARPs are the ones nobody can verify
Anonymous accounts created an almost perfect environment for this.
If the person has no real name, no face, no location and no public history, the account itself becomes most of the evidence that the account is legitimate.
Which is objectively ridiculous.
But it works.
A good anonymous account can feel more real than a bad personal brand using somebody's actual identity.
History helps.
Old posts help.
Friends in replies help.
Specific knowledge helps.
Being wrong sometimes helps.
Tiny boring details help.
A perfect account feels fake.
A messy account that has apparently been arguing with the same six people since 2022 starts feeling like a person.
This is why online identity gets interesting.
The internet is not just a place where people lie about who they are.
It is a place where everyone, including completely honest people, edits who they are.
The LARP is usually a question of degree.
So when somebody says "LARP" online...
They are usually accusing somebody of performing a version of themselves that is more impressive, connected, wealthy, experienced, dangerous, successful, important, or knowledgeable than reality supports.
Sometimes they are right.
Sometimes they are jealous.
Sometimes the person being accused is obviously joking.
Sometimes nobody involved has enough information to know.
And sometimes the guy everyone called a LARPer for two years actually becomes the thing he was pretending to be.
The internet is annoying like that.