I arrived during a quiet time of day and asked
if a staff member would be willing to do a 1v1 so I could try out the arena.
The manager said he had a guy who was getting trained on running the laser tag,
so he’d have him go in with me. In walks Austin who asks me to watch the
briefing video. Little did he know I could practically recite that video from
memory, but I appreciate that he was properly doing his job. Time to play!
This was a single level arena with a typical
(and familiar) CW theme.
And what I loved most was that they had a
miniature version of the tower I see everywhere!
I went up to hug the tower, which at this pint
I refer to as “my old friend”.
And yes, even though it is shorter than the
others this one counts for the wristband contest. Just drop me an email if you
know how many arenas I’ve now played with this particular structure as part of
the décor. The number is constantly growing, but if you get it right I’ll send
you a glow in the dark “Laser Tagging America” wristband (U.S. entries only,
please).
Austin and I played a pretty balanced 1v1 game
of Laserforce. Although he is new to running the tag games, he is an
experienced player and told me this is the first time in a very long time that
someone beat him at laser tag, so I took that as a complement. The game was
quite close! I had a great time and am glad I was close enough to get to play
at this site. Thank you All Star Bowling and Entertainment!
When I was done here I went out to my rental
car and made a couple of phone calls. The first was to the operator of a new
mobile laser tag business in the area. A couple days ago I had spoken to Spence
from Shangri-Laser (a name that I absolutely LOVE), which is a new mobile laser
tag that will be using Battle Company tactical equipment. He told me he was
expecting a shipment to arrive by Thursday and invited me to test it in a local
park with them, but unfortunately an issue came up so the equipment was not
ready to be tested just yet after all. However, I want to give them a shout out
anyway because I wich them lots of success with this new enterprise.
I also called ahead to another site called
Laser Zone, I was aware from my research online that they were selling their
business, but I figured it would be worth a call just to see if they were still
running games in the meantime. Unfortunately, they were not, so this freed up a
little more “in-between” time before I had to catch my flight.
So, I headed over to another, different corporate FEC in the
area that runs Lasertron.
I’m not going to name this place. They have
multiple locations and I had played at one of their sites previously and not
had the best experience. But I figured that this time might be better. It wasn’t.
After I purchased my game ticket I walked over
to the waiting line where there was chaos going on in front of me. Some
pre-teens were using inflatable mallets from the prize center to playfully, but
VERY aggressively hit each other. There were unattended little ones climbing on
the railings and people not waiting their turn to barge ahead in the line. Now,
I realize that most of this is lack of parental attention and I don’t really fault
the FEC for allowing it…until we get into the briefing/vesting room. The
pre-teens continued to go after each other with those stupid inflatable mallets
the entire time they should have been watching the video and even after putting
on their laser tag packs. Nobody listened (which I realize happens a lot), but
there was also no attempt by any employee to control the chaos. It was insane
and in my opinion should not have been permitted. A family group opted not to
play in that game (left the briefing area before it started) and I don’t blame
them. Even if they stayed they would not have heard any of the rules.
As we walked into the arena the game master asked
if there were any questions and I said I had a question. I asked him why he
allowed that to happen? His answer (and he was a teenager himself) was that if they
don’t pay attention and get hurt that’s on them and that he’s tried to talk
over loud people and it just doesn’t work. I find this to be an unsatisfactory
answer, but I do get that it’s probably hard for a teenager to exert much
authority over other teenagers…still, it can be done.
I’m actually amazed that nobody did get hurt
because one kid was lying on his back on a ramp for way too long before a
different employee came in and told him to get up. Gee, if only he had listened
to the briefing video he might have known not to do that! Well, since I was in a game with nobody else
but these rowdy boys I decided this was a chance to exert some “Tivia justice”
so I took my playing up a notch. When the game was over the teenage employee who
I spoke to at the beginning said to me “Damn, you wrecked them!” when he saw my
score. Thank you and good night.
So that ended my “in-between” games for the
night and I headed back to the airport. Next stop, Ohio!
Comments or Questions?
Contact: Tivia@tiviachickloveslasertag.com
Websites: www.tiviachickloveslasertag.com
and www.photonforever.com
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