Wow, that is not a good mask for paintball or airsoft. I mean, those holes are big enough to let airsoft pellets through. You really don't want to get one of those in the face. At least the eye protection is good.
It's perfectly fine for paintball - and most fields use something similar, because they're relatively cheap, last a long time, and are easy to replace when they break.
A Laser Tag professional actually e-mailed us and told us a lot of the things we said about Laser Tag are actually wrong. Apparently not only is it doing well, but hardcore players are really only a problem, and you can't make money off of them.
A Laser Tag professional actually e-mailed us and told us a lot of the things we said about Laser Tag are actually wrong. Apparently not only is it doing well, but hardcore players are really only a problem, and you can't make money off of them.
Are you going to correct yourselves on the next game night?
Well, relatively well. There still isn't a lot of Laser Tag out there, but it's certainly far from dead. I did a little digging, and there appear to be clusters of Laser Tag centers in some regions, but almost none in others. The companies we talked about going under did in fact die, but new names have actually appeared in the industry since then, and they're doing quite well.
We'll have to do another show on specifically why the "hardcore" players were the biggest problem the game had... I think the idea has wider relevance, beyond just Laser Tag.
We'll have to do another show on specifically why the "hardcore" players were the biggest problem the game had... I think the idea has wider relevance, beyond just Laser Tag.
Whoa, how is this possible? Wouldn't hardcore players bring in tons of revenue? Or is it the fact that a hard core player will frustrate the newbies? I want to know more about how this is a problem because I never realized it was.
Hardcore fans or players in any field will frustrate and discourage new participants. The very fact that new participants are called newbies or noobs or nubs is a sign of how little they are valued. Meanwhile when the people who need new participants (the ones making money, not the hardcore players) want to be as attractive as possible.
A similar example, taken from real life, is a bar I visited that had a pool table. One guy, obviously a good player, was at the table and won his game. I approached with a friend and put some coins on the edge, to reserve the table for when the current players were done. But the good player said "here we do winner-stays-on." That meant I would pay for the next game, but I couldn't play my friend. Instead, by his rules, I had to beat this good player, and then I could stay on the table and play my friend, the person I actually wanted to play.
This setup worked great for the good player, as he could spend all night at the table, and by winning all the time could play the whole night for free. If this was the culture of the pool table, I wouldn't return to the bar and buy drinks (which is what the landlord really wanted from me) if I couldn't just play pool with whom I wanted.
It didn't work out that way, as in some situations I won't take any bullshit, and I told the good player to fuck off (there were two of us wanting to play and just one of him). But I'm sure many other "newbs" had been driven away by such behavior from the hardcore players. Hardcore players who probably didn't buy that many drinks either.
In response to Scott's love of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay: did anyone else notice that Scott Rudin is producing the film adaptation? Coincidence? I think not.
During the paintball portion, especially when Rym was talking about wanting to use more realistic tactics, I just couldn't stop thinking of the paintballing scenes in Spaced.
I always found laser tag to be weak sauce. Never done Airsoft so can't comment, however I have been trained to use gas powered dart guns and rifles for use at the Singapore Zoo which was awesome, when training, I had to hid a 20cm diameter circle with the sniper rifle from 500 metres away. If you want accuracy I would suggest the compressed air.
Paintball is freaking awesome here (Australia), even before it was legal here, the games were great fun and totally put me in an FPS like zone however with more adrenaline, sweating, not worrying about getting dirty and not feeling the bruises till you see all the blue marks on your body the next morning - You turn up with your team at a certain spot, are taken via bus to a paint ball field that wasn't known to anybody. Everybody wears camouflage jump suits, it doesn't matter whether it's 40C or not. Face masks as shown in prior posts. Only time the Ref interferes is if someone gets shot and don't walk off the field or if you need a "reload' of paintballs. The paintballs - here's the kicker - were refrigerated / frozen to start off with so they were super accurate. All the guns CO2 pressure are at the same level. The games were pretty cool - Capture the Flag with a red base and blue base, gotta set up defence and attackers, very similar to Halo - except not as slow, without vehicles but does have off hand grenades, yes paint grenades, you can frag a bunch of people at one time, you can throw these things with surprising force without it exploding.
Protect the bus, double decker bus filled with one team a field with heaps of cover through which the opposing team has to navigate while getting shot at and to win they have to get a paint grenade into the bus (you can shoot this out of the air if you're awesome).
Sniper field - A whole bunch of trees planted specifically in very specific parallel rows, 1.5m apart. You move up one tree and you may reveal 3 or 4 opposing shooters on diagonals who you couldn't see before, I was often one of the last 2 left on the field. Majority of these games are all - you get shot you walk off the field. Tree sniping is also allowed which is great.
Some maps had buildings and buses to hide in.
One cool game was "Commander" in which you had to protect one person on your team, if he was shot the whole team lost but similarly if the commander was able to plant a flag at the opposition's base your team won.
Speed ball, closest thing to quake death match, heaps of cover, you get shot you die, frags are tallied up, if you die you respawn at the start of your side of the map. I was really good at this for some reason, I was able to sneak up behind the opposing team's line of defence and I shot them all sight unseen.
Other thing was capture the flag (single flag) centre of field and you have to get over the enemy's start line.
None of this no cover fire bull shit, it's the only way to help win the last game I mentioned.
One cool game was "Commander" in which you had to protect one person on your team, if he was shot the whole team lost but similarly if the commander was able to plant a flag at the opposition's base your team won.
The three or four times I've played paintball this was the most interesting.
Airsoft seems to be right up my alley, but if I'm going to do it, I'll probably only do Milsim. Playing with a bunch of 14 year olds who want to just shoot each other seems like a waste of time to me.
Care to elaborate on the rest of the issues? Really, in a pay-per-play system such as laser tag, I fail to see how hardcores fuck everything up.
First of all, there were never that many hardcore players. Those hardcore players that did exist, turned the laser tag place into their clubhouse. They hung out there a lot, but tried to play as many games as possible for as little money as possible, often getting free games. Also, because they played for serious, they were extremely hard on the equipment, which broke a lot.
My friends talked me into going paintballing this weekend. Wat do?
And by that I mean, pointers on what to wear, what to bring, what to expect, etc. would be appreciated. Keep in mind that I will probably be renting equipment.
Buy a good mask. Everything else can be rented and you will still have a good time. If you can spend the money, get one with thermal lenses. That's pretty much a guarantee against fog.
Jeans and long sleeves. It'll hurt a little more than a jacket, but you can get away with a long sleeved t-shirt. If you have a pair of gloves that won't restrict your hands or make it hard to use the marker, wear them; knuckle shots can hurt like a motherfucker.
what to bring
Water and, depending on how long you'll be there, lunch in a cooler. Water is important no matter what, though.
what to expect
From my limited experience, there will be an area with equipment rental, co2 compressor, and probably some tables and tents. They'll have a sleeve that you have to keep on your gun at all times outside of the field, and they might have a colored strap or something to denote what team you're on. Whether or not it's speedball, objective based, or what-have-you depends on the size of the field(s). Some places do both, so just talk to the people who look like they know what they're doing when you get there.
That's what advice I've got. I'm sure there's some other people here who can tell you way more than I can.
Aim for Center of mass. Unless you own your own marker, and you can vouch for it's accuracy, most field markers have less accuracy than just throwing the damn balls at the opponent. Make the most of it by aiming for the biggest part of the body, and taking the time to aim - an extra half second that results in a hit is an extra second not wasted.
Jeans and long sleeves. It'll hurt a little more than a jacket, but you can get away with a long sleeved t-shirt. If you have a pair of gloves that won't restrict your hands or make it hard to use the marker, wear them; knuckle shots can hurt like a motherfucker.
Should I assume that any clothing I wear is going to be ruined by the experience, or does the paint wash off easily?
Did you guys ever get to try Airsoft? I finally bit the bullet and bought a couple of decent automatic rifles, and am working on building up a second set of gear (tactical vest, goggles, hydration pack) so I can lend it to any friends of mine who want to go to a game.
Comments
We'll have to do another show on specifically why the "hardcore" players were the biggest problem the game had... I think the idea has wider relevance, beyond just Laser Tag.
A similar example, taken from real life, is a bar I visited that had a pool table. One guy, obviously a good player, was at the table and won his game. I approached with a friend and put some coins on the edge, to reserve the table for when the current players were done. But the good player said "here we do winner-stays-on." That meant I would pay for the next game, but I couldn't play my friend. Instead, by his rules, I had to beat this good player, and then I could stay on the table and play my friend, the person I actually wanted to play.
This setup worked great for the good player, as he could spend all night at the table, and by winning all the time could play the whole night for free. If this was the culture of the pool table, I wouldn't return to the bar and buy drinks (which is what the landlord really wanted from me) if I couldn't just play pool with whom I wanted.
It didn't work out that way, as in some situations I won't take any bullshit, and I told the good player to fuck off (there were two of us wanting to play and just one of him). But I'm sure many other "newbs" had been driven away by such behavior from the hardcore players. Hardcore players who probably didn't buy that many drinks either.
All's fair in love and paintball
Never done Airsoft so can't comment, however I have been trained to use gas powered dart guns and rifles for use at the Singapore Zoo which was awesome, when training, I had to hid a 20cm diameter circle with the sniper rifle from 500 metres away. If you want accuracy I would suggest the compressed air.
Paintball is freaking awesome here (Australia), even before it was legal here, the games were great fun and totally put me in an FPS like zone however with more adrenaline, sweating, not worrying about getting dirty and not feeling the bruises till you see all the blue marks on your body the next morning -
You turn up with your team at a certain spot, are taken via bus to a paint ball field that wasn't known to anybody.
Everybody wears camouflage jump suits, it doesn't matter whether it's 40C or not. Face masks as shown in prior posts.
Only time the Ref interferes is if someone gets shot and don't walk off the field or if you need a "reload' of paintballs.
The paintballs - here's the kicker - were refrigerated / frozen to start off with so they were super accurate.
All the guns CO2 pressure are at the same level.
The games were pretty cool -
Capture the Flag with a red base and blue base, gotta set up defence and attackers, very similar to Halo - except not as slow, without vehicles but does have off hand grenades, yes paint grenades, you can frag a bunch of people at one time, you can throw these things with surprising force without it exploding.
Protect the bus, double decker bus filled with one team a field with heaps of cover through which the opposing team has to navigate while getting shot at and to win they have to get a paint grenade into the bus (you can shoot this out of the air if you're awesome).
Sniper field -
A whole bunch of trees planted specifically in very specific parallel rows, 1.5m apart. You move up one tree and you may reveal 3 or 4 opposing shooters on diagonals who you couldn't see before, I was often one of the last 2 left on the field.
Majority of these games are all - you get shot you walk off the field.
Tree sniping is also allowed which is great.
Some maps had buildings and buses to hide in.
One cool game was "Commander" in which you had to protect one person on your team, if he was shot the whole team lost but similarly if the commander was able to plant a flag at the opposition's base your team won.
Speed ball, closest thing to quake death match, heaps of cover, you get shot you die, frags are tallied up, if you die you respawn at the start of your side of the map. I was really good at this for some reason, I was able to sneak up behind the opposing team's line of defence and I shot them all sight unseen.
Other thing was capture the flag (single flag) centre of field and you have to get over the enemy's start line.
None of this no cover fire bull shit, it's the only way to help win the last game I mentioned.
And by that I mean, pointers on what to wear, what to bring, what to expect, etc. would be appreciated. Keep in mind that I will probably be renting equipment.
That's what advice I've got. I'm sure there's some other people here who can tell you way more than I can.