Monday, May 6, 2019

Unexpected Surprises

Advertising works, my friends, advertising works. I don't say that just because it's my business, but it’s the reason I have this story to share, so here's an anecdotal example of how I know it to be true.



While driving north on route 75 heading through Fort Myers towards the Sarasota airport again (the less obvious route home from Miami, lol) I noticed a billboard that said "HeadPinz...more than just bowling. Laser Tag. Next exit." Well, I just about flew across several lanes of traffic to get over to the exit for this! It was an unexpected surprise because even though of course I had done a search online for laser tag along my route, it didn't look like there was much opportunity for tag until closer to Tampa. When I saw this opportunity I was very excited (and ready for a break from driving) so I was ready for whatever system of laser tag they had to offer. Pulling into the parking lot I noticed the side of their building had a wall mural (more good advertising) featuring some Zone imagery. I hoped that was what we'd be playing, but I've learned not to put too much stock in the photo as quite often the reality is something completely different…and that was the case here as the actual system in use was Cyber Blast. But that's still among my favorites, so I was definitely ready to play. 






What I found to be the next unexpected surprise was that this arena was awesome! Such a terrific find! Sometimes I have a tendency to think that laser tag takes a backseat in FECs where the main emphasis is on bowling, but that was certainly not the case here. This was a spacious arena with a really "cool" (play on words) and ironic theme. You see after getting a sunburn on South Beach the day before and spending a large part of this day out in the blazing Florida heat it was kind of funny to walk in and find that this place turned up the chill with an ice cave theme!





The entrance was designed to look like an igloo or cave covered in ice. Then they kept the theme going through the briefing area....






And then into the arena that was decorated with snowshoes, sleds and more to add to the motif.






You could get a good view of it all from the upper half-level running along one upper wall and accessible by ramps on either side.







And something else that you could see well from that vantage point (which unfortunately I could not get a picture of) was the projection on the wall. This I did not expect at all and wish I had noticed a little earlier in the game. An animation of a gorilla popped up every so often. The game master said it correlated with a timer. There was also an avalanche animation that I believe may have been synced to base deactivations. I'm not certain as I could not see it when I took my bases, but that's what I believe was happening there. This was not a full wall projection, but that didn't matter. It was an incredibly impressive touch. I do not believe it was one of the interactive projection targets like I had seen at the Laser Blast booth at IAAPA (someone please correct me if I am mistaken), but it was very cool nonetheless.



I left that game feeling pumped up and thoroughly impressed with this site. I'm so glad that I saw their billboard and was able to add this final stop before leaving Florida. It was a great trip with a lot of great memories. Here's one that has nothing to do with tag, but is worth sharing. I've mentioned that I am a gecko mama to my little lizard Leon. However, one of the coolest things about touring the Everglades was getting to visit with the alligators this region is known for. So here I am with a significantly bigger reptile...meet Casper the alligator!





Here's another wristband challenge. If you think you know WHY my lizard is named Leon and what the laser tag connection is then drop me an email. If your answer is correct I'll send you a glow in the dark Laser Tagging America wristband (U.S. entries only, please). And thank you to HeadPinz of Fort Myers for a great tag experience. Getting to play at your arena was a wonderful unexpected surprise!






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Because Perez Says...

If you checked out "Look Who's Tagging" (a new feature on my website) then you probably saw the video where Perez Hilton shouts out his recent laser tag experience saying "We just played it a week and a half ago in Miami at this venue in Wynwood called Fun Dimension". This is not why I chose Miami, but once I heard this I knew that visiting Fun Dimension in Wynwood, FL was an absolute must. You know, because Perez says so.






I must say I had some reservations about this place upon arrival as it appears to be in a part of town where there is more tagging happening with paint than with lasers. However, the small 1v1 game we played early in the day in the arena was enjoyable. After checking in and signing the waiver (and buying my t-shirt to show I was there...





...we were led to a combined briefing/vesting area to watch the Delta Strike briefing video and select from a wide variety of color choices. Then it was time to enter the arena.










If you have been following this blog for a while and would like to hazard a guess as to how many times I’ve taken a photo next to this same CW center structure then just drop me an email and I'll send you a wristband for playing the game. I have to laugh at just how many times I’ve seen it and I may actually have to go back and count for myself how many pics I have with this same structure in various laser tag arenas throughout the country.







But other than the overly familiar aesthetic the arena was nice. It’s small (I'm going to guesstimate it at around 2500 sq ft) and there are two raised turrets to give the arena some height with clear sight lines from one side to the other so long shots are fairly easy. The bases were not active although it was interesting to check them out though as this may be the first time I've seen a Delta Strike base in this particular arch style housing structure that I associate more with Zone and Force arenas (for no particular reason other than that's where I tend to see it the most).





And the game was fun. We let ourselves out (I have no idea where the game master was at the end of the game) and I took a couple more pics.





This place must be of some note in the area as not only did it get a mention from Perez Hilton, but as you can see on their website the band Imagine Dragons filmed their music video for Zero here on the Fun Dimension website.






Here are a few parts of the facility you might recognize from that video.






I had a nice time at Fun Dimension while in Miami. Perez, if you are ever in New York hit me up and I'll pick the arena, lol!





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Sunrise, Sunset...aka Miami-ish

This past weekend in Miami was not intended to be a tag trip...but who's kidding who, every trip is, right? Tag is life! The trip was also not intended to detour to the airport in Sarasota, but whenever I travel I just roll with things and this change in plans meant getting to visit Laser Quest in Sunrise, FL a little ways outside of Miami was unexpectedly added to the agenda, so everything worked out pretty well after all!





This turned out to be the start of a really fun night. Not just because I got to play some LQ, but because this site showed us all a really great time! We got into a game right away and I explored the maze. Honestly, I don't remember anything particularly distinctive about the left and right towers, but at the far back the third tower was like a gorgeous neon crystal castle! All sorts of crystalline designs were artfully painted on the walls and this became my favorite spot in the arena.



Another thing that made this site memorable was the staff, particularly game marshall Chance who led a group of adults in several front of house "mini games" in between tag rounds. In the past I have watched these games be played with children at various LQ locations, but this was the first time I'd been part of a group of adult players who got to act like children and it was such a blast! We were all getting into it as Chance led the group in "Don't Flinch" with a big blue ball, "Bank, River, Sidewalk" which was reminiscent of elementary school gym class and "Zap" where he would point to one person and the player directly on either side would have to point to and yell "zap" before the person directly on the other side of the first player could do so. Everybody was really getting into it! That was probably the most memorable part of the night besides the laser tag. Well, that and picking up another magnet for my collection. :)





The staff here was great. I enjoyed chatting with them about my tag travels and when I shared some of the photos from Texas and the promo pics we took in Mississauga one team member was positive he had seen my picture before and thought I might have been on one of their banners. Interesting! I'm not certain if that is actually so (we didn't find it in any case), but as I did give LQ my permission to use those images it's kind of cool to think my pic might have ended up on a banner somewhere.



Unfortunately, this first night in Florida was a little rainy, but I got a pic in front of the Sunrise center and left with great memories of another terrific night at Laser Quest. Many thanks!







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Sunday, April 28, 2019

Look Who's Tagging!

Today I launched a new feature on the website called Look Who’s Tagging. Check it out!

 Here's a sample video...

And here's the full feature...

Look Who's Tagging:

This section will be dedicated to spotlighting people of note who enjoy laser tag. Right now you’ll find some videos featuring celebrities talking about their experiences playing laser tag (including Melissa Joan Hart, Joey Lawrence and Perez Hilton just to name a few) and some pro athletes offering their thoughts about tag and tips for tournaments and competition. Watch for this area to expand soon to include articles and links to tag on tv, tag in the news and more from people you probably never knew also love laser tag too!


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Tuesday, April 16, 2019

Member of the Month and Views on Memberships

Over the weekend I went out to play some laser tag as usual. I had been playing for almost the entire night before something caught my eye. Apparently this had been flashing right in front of me all evening and, oblivious me, I hadn't actually noticed it until the last fifteen minutes of the night.





I didn't even see the whole message at first, just my name blinking on the new LED board. I asked Jared why my name was flashing and he informed me that I was the member of the month. Well...that's a nice surprise! To be perfectly honest I have no idea what that means or how I was chosen, but I was told that it's a new promotion that they are starting and I appreciate that they picked me to start it off. Many thanks! The Fun Warehouse is a great place to play laser tag and I enjoy being a member...I must, because I have roughly seven or eight memberships here!






This actually gives me an opportunity to bring up something that I've had a few interesting discussions about recently...memberships in general. 




Most places where memberships are offered there are a few incentives that make them particularly appealing to the players. Things like choosing your own custom code name, tracking personal stats and unlocking achievements or power-ups are among the typical perks common across most laser tag systems that have membership options. Sometimes there may be discounts or other perks made available depending on the individual business location as well. And often times the more frequent, dedicated players won't mind paying a little extra to have access to these perks. 



Like with anything, there can be pros and cons, so from the site operator's perspective there may be reasons both for and against implementing memberships. Here are a few varying perspectives.



When asked about memberships at this particular Laserforce site where I was playing in Syracuse, NY manager Michael Brandt explained why they see memberships as a benefit to the business, saying “We use memberships to help create a customer database and a repeat customer. All of our memberships come with special member pricing, access to member only events, and in game features that makes the laser tag experience a much more interactive one. We encourage all of our customers to become members if they want to be involved in leagues and tournaments, as these are required to access them.”



Meanwhile Laser Quest has taken a different approach in recent years. Although traditional memberships were once offered at Laser Quest locations, that is no longer the case. However frequent players can become an LQ Arena member and use their app instead which allows access to other kinds of incentives. In this excerpt from a February 2019 interview, Laser Quest Vice President Jeff Morris related his take on memberships...





I've also heard opinions from some people about reasons to NOT have memberships. During a recent discussion I had with one site owner who has seen and helped laser tag establishments all over the world I learned that for his own business he opts against offering memberships. I asked him the reasons why and, I'll paraphrase, but the essence of what he said is that sometimes members can feel a bit too entitled, can start to take over and become overbearing when playing with the public and he also told me that most of the highest grossing laser tag facilities actually do not offer or encourage memberships. I was a bit surprised to hear that last part (let me say the source is quite knowledgeable, but this was a casual conversation so I have no statistical info at hand to corroborate that). I can certainly understand his point, but personally I think there is also potential for these same members to have their “enthusiasm” redirected in ways that can be helpful to a business. As you can see there are a variety of opinions about the value of memberships and what they can mean to a laser tag operation.



As a player I think memberships are a way of adding to the sense of community that I value in the tag sites I visit the most. And while I'm not deterred by the lack of it, I definitely feel that I am more likely to actively take interest and engage in the activities at the sites where I feel that sense of community the strongest, whether it's local or from afar. I don't become a member everywhere I go of course, but I do have active memberships at laser tag centers in North Carolina, Ohio, Wisconsin, California even Hawaii (codename "Tivia in HI") just to name a few. To me being a member is more about the experience and the people, so when I decide to become a member somewhere that means more than just having a codename...it means having a connection.






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Saturday, April 13, 2019

First Impressions

This is a customer service cautionary tale more so than my typical kind of review, so I won’t be naming any names or posting pics. In fact I held this for awhile before deciding it was worth posting.



A new laser tag arena has opened up near me and you may be surprised to hear me say this, but...I'm not exactly in love with it. I'll just tell you why I had a less than favorable first impression and I'll try to make this a constructive criticism because I really do want all laser tag to thrive.



I had showed up at this new FEC several weeks ago only to find that, although the rest of the business was open, the laser tag arena had not yet been cleared to open for players. Sigh, but OK, I understand that delays happen and the manager told me they should be ready to go in two days. And yet, by the following weekend (when I called ahead rather than just showing up again) I was told there was still no tag open. That was a few weeks ago, so when I at last heard through the grapevine that their tag arena had finally opened I made plans to check it out.




There were two employees at the front counter when I walked up to purchase my game pass. Neither initiated a greeting. I had to start the conversation myself, which consisted of only four words from the employee..."ten dollars" and "sign here". 




So that was my experience before even getting into the arena. And as for the arena itself? Well, I'll start with a positive...they do have a pretty arena. It's obviously a CW design with a few elements I don't recall seeing before.



However, it is rather unbalanced with the green base on an upper level (there is only half of a second level as the ramps take you to an upper deck that only runs along one side of the arena) and the blue base in the center with the red base on the lower right side. 



I walked into the briefing room alongside a family group of five that included a couple of younger kids. A proper division of this group of six players would have been two teams of three and I would have tried to be helpful to the little ones as this appeared to be their first laser tag experience. The two game masters played the introductory briefing video. Then the two employees had some discussion between themselves. One employee said that he'd already played a few games in a row so the other could play again this time. Ok...




So one of the employees (we'll call him Karm...maybe short for Karma) announced that we would be divided into two teams (so far so good) and he would also play as his own one player solo team against all of the rest of us...sigh. THAT is where Karm made a big mistake! This is a new business (and a very corporate FEC at that) and while I have no problem at all with employees stepping in to fill out or balance a game as needed I think it is a HUGE mistake to let them feed their own ego by playing hard or going solo against the paying general public while they are there on the clock. I've seen this happen all too often (usually at locally owned establishments that are a bit more lax), but that's no excuse to start out with this poor practice. Usually I find that it's the corporate FECs that tend to be more stringent with their policies about this.




There was no reason for him to play at all, let alone as a separate solo team of one, and especially not against presumably inexperienced players (hey, he doesn't know me from Adam...he probably figured we were all fish in a barrel). Whenever this scenario is set up it means that the one solo player has ALL the targets available for tagging for the most potential points while the players on the other teams have significantly less targets, meaning inevitably less potential points from the start. It messes with the fairness of the game as the odds heavily favor the one solo player taking the top score if they are even moderately skilled. It's mildly annoying when it's a customer doing it, but totally unacceptable for an employee to pull that move in a public game.




Please understand that I'm not saying this with any concern for my own score. My goal this game changed when I heard what he had in mind and instead I decided to settle it like a laser tag vigilante! Rather, I say this because a new laser tag business will simply not be well served by this practice continuing. This place is less than eight miles from an established tag site operating with the very same tag system so customers do have other choices and most will not pay a premium per game just to have new staff members try to farm points on them. The staff should be there to make sure customers have a safe and enjoyable experience, not just to play free tag for meaningless bragging rights.




Well, since that's how they decided to separate the teams, I decided if this guy was going to act all "Cody" in this game that it was now ok for me to play harder than I intended and be a bit more renegade. Please understand I did NOT make a point of going after the other team unless they happened to land right in my path. Instead I focused all of my attention on keeping this guy's pack down for as much of the game as possible. That's the only way to counter the one man solo team approach. I took my bases and made sure I had the points. I also accomplished a bit of my earlier goal by helping the young ones to at least get a team victory. And in the end I feel like I settled the game in the appropriate way…yes, I beat his solo score.




So now here's the constructive part of my criticism. This is a perfectly easy thing for a business to fix. With a new business especially it's important to start out with clear employee expectations. I am not a fan of the blanket rule that some corporate centers impose saying employees can never play in public games. That can be equally counterproductive if you have someone (like me) show up at an off-hour and want to play when there is nobody else around. And sometimes you really do need a more experienced player to add proper balance and an employee might fill that need perfectly. There are sometimes appropriate situations for this. These things happen often enough and at those times it is perfectly reasonable for a staff member to participate because they are making sure that you walk away as a happy customer. And in those instances I really WANT the employees to play well and give me a challenge. But when there is a group of paid customers ready to go and the game is not in need of any extra balancing then the employee (guided by a best practices policy from the management) should know enough (i.e. just have some good common sense) to not insert himself into the game unnecessarily. Come back and get good at the game on your own time, not your employer's and not the customer's. That's my two cents on that matter. And for the record, with this as my initial reaction to this site I decided to exercise my consumer’s choice to leave after that one game and did in fact go eight miles down the road to play elsewhere for the remainder of the evening. So, while I'm always happy to play in a new arena, I hope this account provides food for thought because you really only get one chance to make a first impression.





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Wednesday, April 10, 2019

Talking Tag In The Community

Last night I had the opportunity to speak to a local community group about my favorite topic…laser tag. :)



Before I had even arrived I had a really nice surprise. While I was in route I was listening to one of my favorite nationally syndicated radio programs, the Bob and Sheri show, when I was pleasantly startled by my own voice! At the beginning of the third hour (roughly at the 47 minute mark) they had included a pre-recorded plug for Laser Tag Day that I did not expect would be used after the fact, but how nice to hear that it was included on the show anyway!






Shortly thereafter I arrived at the meeting destination. I had been invited to speak about my adventures laser tagging America and give a presentation as part of the literary program to members of the Floyd Grange. I appreciated being welcomed to talk to the group about my journey. There were about 14 attendees who gathered in a member’s home this night instead of the meeting hall, so it was a really intimate gathering and an informal discussion, but also an opportunity for me to raise awareness about what laser tag is…and what it is not.



I began my talk by bringing out a Laserforce Gen 6 pack from my collection and explaining how laser tag works and showing them the features of the pack.






Because I know that sometimes people who are not familiar with the game tend to have questions about the phaser I also took a moment to explain that this is called a “hand held unit” or “phaser” and it’s used to deactivate the lights using the words “zap”, “tag” or “target” because this is a non-violent sport game so the semantics matter for anyone who might have been concerned that it could resemble a weapon. After addressing this point I moved on to share some of my favorite memories from my trips to various states.



I shared photos of some particularly unique experiences like the time I got to play laser tag with Olympic athletes in Denver, Colorado and how members of the National Guard came out to play tag with me in Wasilla, Alaska. I showed them some of the more interesting arenas I’ve played in and related the stories I had been told about how people were housed at Laser Tag of Baton Rouge, Louisiana in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. I shared the fitness focus of the laser tag/parkour hybrid of LasRFit in Los Angeles, California and the finale of my journey playing laser tag with George Carter near where it all started in the area around Dallas, Texas. It was such a nice opportunity for me to reflect on the memories as well as share them with others. I thank the Floyd Grange for inviting me to give this presentation.



When the meeting was over one member hung back to ask me a question that I really appreciated having a chance to answer. She wanted to know if I think that games like this have any connection to the gun violence and the school shootings that we hear about in the news. I was glad she asked me about this because it gave me an opportunity to explain that I definitely do NOT believe that there is any connection. Just the opposite really. Laser tag is a very social game. It is completely family friendly and non-violent, right down to the terminology that is used. There is no physical contact permitted in this game. Laser tag fosters friendly competition and is also a great form of exercise that releases endorphins. For all these reasons I think laser tag is a very healthy activity for people of all ages to enjoy, so I disagree with any suggestion that there could be a connection. And yet I am very glad that she asked me about this because it gave me a chance to address her question with facts about all the positive benefits that people of all ages can experience through playing the game. I left the meeting feeling like I had shared some great memories, but also brought some enlightenment about the game that I love so much. Thank you to the Floyd Grange for the opportunity to talk about tag!





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