Going Stealth

Our final laser tag stop on Saturday night was to Planet Play and Area 51. They have a very cool looking website and upon walking into the center we found there was a wall of monitors with cameras tracking the activity of the current game being played in the arena.

The outer part of the center was deceptively sparse compared to the arena  in the back, but once we were led down a very artfully painted space-battle themed hallway we found ourselves in a small, but impressive briefing area. OK, briefing areas are hardly ever more than a small room with risers, perhaps accented by cool lighting or design concepts, but this one was the most impressive we'd been in today, mostly by virtue of the large screen they used to project the briefing video, which was also the best we'd viewed today.

I found it a little bit interesting that every place we went to today used a video to go over the equipment and rules of the game (all similar, but different) when up until this point I believe a gaming attendant has given the instruction in person at every other facility I've gone to. However, this video briefing was clever and engaging, so props to whomever put this one together.

When the video was done I asked the game master about the system in play. I knew going in that this facility was using the Laser Blast system and according to what I found online I was expecting that they too used Hyper Blast (like the center we went to in Hamilton). However, their display monitor identified the game as Zeta Blast. I asked what the difference was between Hyper Blast and Zeta Blast since until today I had never played either. He didn't have an answer for me on that, so I resorted to the internet for answers, but I am still not sure I have a handle on it, so if anyone reading can clue me in I welcome you to post a comment or send an email to enlighten me.

The game master gave us the choice to play a stealth game as the final game of the night. He explained that once the round started the lights in the arena would be turned off and so would the lights on our packs (although they would still register hits) and the only things we would see lit up were the tiny screens on the back of the phasers. There were no bases active for this game. Ultimately that meant we had to basically rely on the accuracy of our shots in the darkness. I had never played a game like this before and I must say it was a blast (a Zeta Blast - tee-hee) to maneuver a new arena in the darkness. This was one of the coolest forms of laser tag I've played. I appreciate the flexibility that was offered to afford us this option of game play.

The phasers in use at this arena were one-handed. I personally feel a greater sense of control with my shots when I play two-handed (even if I don't need to) so I held mine the way I am more comfortable. Even when I play Laser Runner with the odder shaped phaser I still feel like something is off-kilter when I am only using one hand. What can I say, I'm a creature of habit. I liked the entire experience I had at this center (except for Paul coming in ahead of me this round...eh, it happens). And although this was not an enormous arena in terms of total square footage and it was only one-level I thought they used the space well, had creative cutouts in their obstacles (so you couldn't feel too secure in your cover) and was definitely a place I would happily play again.

Laser tag is something I really love to do, so I was glad to be able to share the experience with some of my closest friends that I don't get to see all that often because of geography. I enjoy playing laser tag with Paul almost anywhere because he is competitive like I am. Ankur seems to get into it with an enthusiasm that is similar to mine. Garth has a good time no matter what we're doing and moves very stealthily through the arena. TJ is game for almost anything and did well plunged into a sport he didn't know much about before today. Thanks guys for making this trip even more fun for joining me for a few rounds and experiencing Canadian laser tag with me :)

If you have comments or questions please visit my website at www.tiviachickloveslasertag.com or email me at tivia@tiviachickloveslasertag.com.

Meandering the Maze

One of the laser tag systems I enjoy playing is Laserforce. So when we started to plan our Canada trip I was enthused to learn that there was a center running the Laserforce system in nearby Vaughan. I figured if it was anything like the place where I play locally that it would be packed on a Saturday night and I was ready with my membership card in case it could be used to get my standard games number up while playing on vacation. Meanwhile, the friend I was coordinating the trip with agreed that playing in Vaughan sounded great...but he did his internet research separately and we discovered that even though we were planning the arrangements together we had independently been looking at websites for two totally different laser tag centers in the same town! So we explored them both, starting with the one that ran Laserforce, which was Lazer Maze.

We pulled into the parking lot and were surprised that there weren't more cars there...on a Saturday night I typically expect at least 30-40 people where I play locally. But this was Valentine's Day, a very cold Saturday and a relatively new facility in the area, so we walked in and found that our little group of five would be it (unless we waited for a group that was expected to show up later in the evening). OK, this was different from what I expected, but laser tag is always fun even with only a few players, so we decided that this would be a good starter game, especially as one of the guys in our group had never played any laser tag before. We figured this would ease him into it.

Unfortunately my membership card did not scan in this system, so I was unable to adopt my preferred code name and get my scores added to my stats record, but that was ok. We went in, game for the experience nonetheless. They showed a short video in the briefing room that appeared to feature members of the staff. A quick tutorial on the equipment got everybody in our group up to speed and we entered an arena that was a combination of a rainforest/lost civilization theme on one level. It was a smaller arena than what I am accustomed to, but since we were a small group of adult players the game master gave us some leeway in having a more custom experience. She let us enter the space for a few minutes before turning on the smoke machine and turning out the lights, so the atmosphere was enhanced and the game was a bit more challenging. We played as a free for all and Paul was definitely making an active effort to hunt me down throughout the game. Meanwhile everyone was maneuvering through the maze and doing well...although TJ may have mostly been searching the maze for a tiki bar to try and exchange his phaser for a cocktail :)

Playing in a smaller space makes me appreciate the vastness of the arenas I get to experience every week by comparison. Although smaller arenas have their assets as well and one of those benefits is being able to tailor the game experience when you have a night like this. I really wish that my score would have gone towards my stats, but since it was free for all it's probably just as well that we played as we did. It's nice to take a group with you as an assurance that you can play a round no matter what. It was a good time and I wish this new facility lots of success as their business continues to grow.

If you have comments or questions please visit my website at www.tiviachickloveslasertag.com or email me at tivia@tiviachickloveslasertag.com.

Oh, Canada...So Much Laser Tag, So Little Time

Paul and I recently visited some friends in the Toronto area. In addition to all the fun things we wanted to experience while in Canada, top of my list was getting a chance to try out as many different laser tag centers as possible. That seemed easy enough since there are quite a few in close proximity to where we were staying. But I had the itch to play even before arriving at our final destination, as I had mapped out a few options I found on www.wheretoplaylasertag.com before we had even left. So upon crossing the border into Canada we headed towards Hamilton where Lazer Mania was our first blast of the day.

I was intrigued by what turned out to be a typo...on the website listing where it identifies what system the center uses it listed the system as "Lazer Mania" which I was unfamiliar with. There's a good reason I was unfamiliar with it...it's not a laser tag system at all. I didn't connect the dots that the name of the facility had inadvertently been listed here in error. They actually play Laser Blast using the Hyper Blast game. By a happy accident this turned out to be a perfect place to start as I had never played this system before and we were intending to go to another Laser Blast facility later on once we connected with our friends. So a practice round seemed like a good idea to get familiar with the format.

We entered a game with two small groups including a party that had already been playing earlier (and were vocal about their dismay to have to watch the briefing video again with us "newbies"), then we were randomly allocated to three teams by the game master...who wisely separated Paul and I from being on the same team (we get competitive). I played on the blue team this time.

The vests had a large triangular target on both the front and the back, along with shoulder targets. The phasers were two handed (my preference) and the equipment would rumble if someone registered a hit on you.

There were two levels to the arena and some unique features within including multi-colored flashing targets...I'm not sure I had grasped the technique of smartly utilizing these even though it had been touched upon in the briefing video. The arena had a bit of an unusual feel, from the compact briefing area to the maze that appeared to have a cross between a space age theme and an island flavor (as all the bases were located under huts). The easy shots were those taken from the top level above while targeting down on the players below...and players had to make their way down because if you wanted to score a base you had to be on the lower level as that's where they were all located. As with the games I play at home you could rack up big points by tagging the bases from both opposing teams. However, I picked up on something important during the game that was not addressed in the briefing video...unlike in my local arenas where a base can only be tagged one time per game, here the bases could be gotten more than once for a major point advantage (I confirmed this with the game master during the round). Sometimes you just have to experiment a bit while in the game :)

With that piece of useful base knowledge coupled with the points acquired from tagging my opponents, I walked out of the game and found my player name at the top of the rankings (I am Batman). This center did something that I really like...at the end of the game they passed out individual score cards with stats and results of your individual performance in the game. Upon analyzing my score sheet, while pleased to have gotten the top score by a pretty good margin, I was not sure why the additional base hits I know that I got while playing did not appear to register on this paper. It identified two base hits on the green base and none for red and blue? Well, obviously I wasn't going after my own base, but am quite certain that I got the red base more than once. So before playing this system again I may want to get some further clarity about multiple base shootings. Regardless, it was a fun round on a system that was new for me. I decided it would be interesting to compare and contrast this experience with the other Laser Blast facility, so more details to come on my second LB experience.

If you have comments or questions please visit my website at www.tiviachickloveslasertag.com or email me at tivia@tiviachickloveslasertag.com.

Strategy Session

I feel compelled to write about strategy this morning, even knowing full well that by putting this out there it may come back to bite me next time.

This is a map of the arena where I was playing laser tag last night. The goals are two-fold...tag as many players as you possibly can while making sure to tag each of the opposing teams' bases once per game. Let's assume for the sake of the following examples that I am playing on the red team (FYI, my strategy will change based on which team I am on and I suspect next time I will end up selecting a different team just to keep a few surprises). There are several things I can do right out of the gate. Mixing them up so the other team doesn't know which is about to happen is key to not having a tactic predicted by an opponent. My first strategy might be to make a hard run on one or both of the bases immediately. If I'm going after the green base I will "walk quickly" from the red entry door directly to the base. However, if the green team is smart they will have already sent some of their players up the bridge, so I will pause at the first X, look and shoot left for protection and then storm the green base (second X), which may also have some players there to guard already. In my opinion those guards are simply acting as martyrs because that frees up other players on their team to go after points, which is how the game is won. If I am quick I will take this base right away. If I am not and there are more guards than I care to take aim at then I can skirt around to the next base or just kill time tagging some players while I wait for them to clear out.

Now, to mix things up I might start out differently and go for the blue base first. This is actually easier and I don't know why more people don't start here more often. You could call this a patience play because once the doors open if you patiently await the others getting deeper into the arena first you can scoot around and the blue base is generally open right there. I would anticipate there could be a guard, but I would also expect that the team is more interested in getting the red and green bases for themselves this early into the game, so it's not a bad place to begin.

An alternate tactic along this same route is to perform a sneak attack. There will be a grace period while players are entering the arena when the packs are not armed, so if I enter and then simply follow behind or mix in with the blue players (or any team...this is just a for instance) then I might catch them by surprise when the packs turn on and I have several of them with their backs turned to me. I performed this maneuver several times last night and was surprised that only the last girl in line seemed to catch on and try to give her teammates a warning, while the others were asking "how'd you get here so fast?"

I like this arena because there are two levels and those levels are the bridges. If you are on the bridge there are advantages and disadvantages. On this first bridge if you stake out the spot with the X you can see a direct shot line down to the outer part of the green base. If you are a good marksman this is a place where you can rack up points. However, it is also a vulnerable spot and, in my opinion, it's easier to get a shot from below aiming up the bridge than the other way around. So use this position, but don't stay open for too long.

Undoubtedly, there will be opposing players trying to stake out the other bridge. There is a sweet spot where you have a double advantage if you head down the first bridge and cut across. Hiding behind one barricade by the X until you are ready, you can often catch one player on the top of the bridge off guard (because they don't tend to suspect fire from below) and you can also aim directly into the blue base, which by this time probably either has someone guarding or someone trying to capture it. Either way, catch them while they are distracted and you can rack up some points by ducking back into this hidey-hole and repeating the process. Just watch your back, as this is another spot where you could become vulnerable if you hang out for too long.

Last night I was fairly consistent in my playing. Almost every game I was either in the first or second place based on points. I was not concerned with team ranking as the teams ended up being a complete mish-mash with no particular coherence. Our team from last week ended up splintering between the three team colors so I felt the teams were less coordinated and more effort was put out by individual players, yet every team had at least a couple of really solid players, which always makes things interesting. There was only one game where I really slipped up and I put the blame squarely on myself...and my scores reflected that (I think I was in 7th place...I didn't even bother to document that game). I fell victim to another team's strategy that in hindsight may not have actually been a strategy at all.

There was one guy and a group of three girls who were staking out a corner in what used to be the blue base reload station (reloads are no longer used here). They did not appear to be playing very intensely...rather they seemed to just be idly hanging out, which is why I thought this would be easy. I had the same preconceived idea about these girls that other players sometimes have about me. That said, I was hoping for fish in a barrel, but that's not what I got. I came around from the far wall by the doors and tried to shoot into the reload station. I knew they were there and they knew I was there. Unfortunately, each time I'd go for a hit on one, another would tag me. I'd try it again...same thing. They say insanity is the act of repeating the same action and expecting a different result...I should have remembered that. Instead I wasted too much time and took too many unnecessary hits while trying to prove that I could take out this corner single-handedly. If I had some team support it could have happened, however this game was part of the splintering off and I was working this area alone. Precious seconds of game play were lost.

If I had been playing it smart I would have just left them there and found my points elsewhere. Especially considering I could have better viewed this situation in a different light. I should have banked on the universal truth known by every soul living on planet earth...teenage girls are a tremendous distraction to teenage guys. If I had just let them keep him distracted over there I would have had one less aggressive opponent and could have just focused on the rest of the arena. Chalk that one up to "things I'll do better next time". And truth be told, this wasn't my only mistake that game. I also didn't properly recognize what an excellent marksman one of my fellow team members from last week was until I was opposing him (props to you Joe), so I take that entire game as my learning experience of the night. It's good to have those now and again to keep you analyzing things and striving for success in the next round. This morning I feel like a football coach reviewing my own plays in my head. I know what I'll be doing differently the next time I play this arena. However, I have at least three new laser tag experiences in my sights in the meantime, so my next strategy for this map may just have to wait :)

If you have questions or comments please visit my website at www.tiviachickloveslasertag.com or email tivia@tiviachickloveslasertag.com.

Words To Live By

This t-shirt has some good advice for life...

It's also good advice when you consider it relevant to strategy, which I will address further in my next post. However, that will wait until morning as I have just returned from a full evening of laser tag and an extra long drive back on some very slick roads, so I am ready to call it a night!

Out of the Past

Yes, Team Toronto...that title is for you ;)

I came across a neat little blast from my laser tag past...the key tag that I was assigned when I first started playing laser tag years ago. In an earlier post I mentioned that some years back I played at a center that used a code name system, but in the years since they had updated their system and these key tags are no longer used there. But if you roll the clock back a few years, this tag contained all the statistical data from when I first began playing. It was given to me upon my signing up for a membership. Back in the day I would attach this button to the front of my laser tag pack and it would retain my player information and the results and statistics from how I had played in that game as well as all my previous games. At the time I played under the name Tivia2 (that's not a typo...I added a number 2 to the end because just "Tivia" must have been taken...presumably by someone else paying homage to Photon?) and this is what the tag looked like...

I can't believe I still have this! Not that it's of much use to me, but I have to wonder if somehow my old scores are still encrypted on it? I wonder if the information stored on it makes it unique to just the system that it was originally linked to or if it could be pulled up if you found another location using similar hardware? Ah...wishful thinking. But I was curious and upon closer examination I can see some writing etched on the surface of the tag...

It's a 1-wire device with the website ibutton.com on the surface. So, what is ibutton? Here's what I found when I did a quick search...

http://www.maximintegrated.com/en/app-notes/index.mvp/id/3808

Apparently there are plenty of applications for these little tags. I'm certain there are still laser tag centers using similar progress tracking tags elsewhere (it's not like I kept this from all that long ago...in fact I think they had something very much like it for game to game player tracking when I last played in Mississauga), but I'm just guessing that they wouldn't be compatible with this one. Still, it would be interesting to take this back to the same center where I played before and still go to play all these years later and see if they have any means of retrieving those old scores to compare and contrast the progress over time. It would probably be like comparing apples and oranges, but it's an interesting thought...and makes me a little nostalgic too.

If you have questions or comments please visit my website at www.tiviachickloveslasertag.com or email me at tivia@tiviachickloveslasertag.com.

Attack of the Jim Jim Squad

Some nights you get a feel for how the games are going to go...and other nights you get some cool surprises. I showed up at laser tag right at the start of the night and in the briefing room I was the only woman (not entirely unusual) among a swarm of overly confident high school jocks who came to the arena as a group and loudly determined that this game would just be their "warm-up" until more people started to arrive. I'm not sure if they even noticed me...yet.

I do love being underestimated and they sure didn't see me coming. Typically I can tell when players don't expect for me to have any laser tag skills and I love the moment of realization that hits at some point during the game. I won that round on points and that set the tone for the evening, but things got better after the next game. A few more players arrived and I found myself playing on the red team with three young guys who just showed up while all the jocks joined together to make one big team of double our size...clearly they thought a victory was imminent. What was really cool about the guys on my team was that they too were flying under the radar at that point...all were great players and our little team easily dominated the game in spite of having significantly fewer participants on our side.

After the game the guys from my team came over to me, offered me a congratulatory Mountain Dew and introduced themselves. They suggested teaming up again and it was the start of a victorious night for what became called "The Jim Jim Squad" (I don't know what it means either...they came up with the name and some little rubber ducks from the prize counter became our mascots...cool by me).

(Tyler, Joe, Will and me...The Jim Jim Squad)

Our team had a few things going for us. Besides experience, there was some decent strategy involved with playing on a team with people who knew the arena and understood the scoring values. We anticipated what the other teams' players might do and we knew what had to be done in a logical order to keep the scores high. Plus good teamwork makes a tremendous difference in trying to scoot a group of opposing players away from a base you need to rack up team points. Our team continued to be a powerhouse all night long. I had a particularly good streak personally (top score every single game of the night...I'm not sure if I've ever had an unbroken streak that good happen before or not, but it sure helped me keep my momentum strong). Credit goes to my team for that also because I know I had solid players watching my back too. Thanks guys! One game I hit a personal best for the night at 12,300 (playing Zone) which I was really happy with. And we all had very good rankings. Every one of us was always in the upper tier of the scores and our team solidly held at least two out of the three top placements in every game. So it was a really good night for the JJS! :-)

During the height of the laser tag night there were around 30 players in the game, but by the last round we looked around and realized that there were only six of us left. The four of us, plus two additional players who teamed up with us somewhere in the middle. Since we had been playing together all night and were all quite good we knew that this would be interesting. We split up into three teams of two and had a great final round. The scores were all really close and it was a fun match playing against each other since by that point in the evening we pretty well knew each other's playing strengths and strategy. Of course I prefer to play in a packed arena, but sometimes the smaller games are better when you are more evenly matched across the board.

By the end of the night we had played hard and won all of the games (well, ok, there was one round where technically our team came in second to the jock team, but that was really just a numbers variable...our players still held the top three individual scores that round...but our team collectively won every other game of the night outright). And, as testament to the fact that I waste WAY too much cash killing time in the arcade in between rounds, I took home an extra goodie tonight...a giant stuffed Butters from South Park.

So we took a victory photo with Butters and the Jim Jim ducks. Awesome night of laser tag!

Side note...my teammates are part of a band called Dusk Till Dawn. Here's their Facebook page...www.facebook.com/vengeanceofficialbandpage.

If you have questions or comments please visit my website at www.tiviachickloveslasertag.com or email me at tivia@tiviachickloveslasertag.com.