Last week, Malc and I took a tour of the facilities at www.lazertreks.com which is located right at Exit 6 of the MRT’s Taipei Main Station. We also shot the bejeezus out of each other. (If anyone finds my bejeeezus, let me know!) Anyhow, we had such a good time, we decided to make this a Forumosa/TaiwanHo event! We’ve got a date in mind - April 29th, and the only question now is time. If we can make this a morning event, we’d be pretty much guaranteed to have the place to ourselves. If we do it in the afternoon, we run the risk of having to share it with individuals coming in off the street. The cost for a three hour event would probably be around $600, and it’s definitely an activity that the whole family can enjoy - erm, but maybe not for kids under the age of 7. Kids 7 and up would definitely have a blast, and I have to admit the game was more fun that I had anticipated.
So, what say you? Morning or Afternoon?
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Our registration process is probably a little unwieldy, because to date we’ve had ZERO registrations. We’re going to postpone this event until we can figure out if there’s actually any interest, and if so, how to better facilitate registration.
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I voted for the afternoon.
I’m much more likely to be awake/moving/alive then.
Would we get unlimited games for that price?
If so it’s a great deal, because 1 regular short game there costs 250.
Oh, and the 29th is on a Sunday, in case anyone’s wondering.
This is Brian from LazerTreks. The tournament will consist of both a single-elimination individual tournament and then a double elimination team play tournament. Each participant will play at least one game in the individual tournament and then at least two games in the double-elimination tournament. The number of games you play will depend on how your team does in the tournament. The average person participating in the tournament will play over 4 games. Some people will play around 10 games, it just depends if you can keep winning.
Let me know if there are any more questions, I’d be happy to answer them!
We have a few people who are really into this sort of stuff, and will presumably do well at it as they practise a lot. Others might enjoy it, but will be put off by the prospect of getting knocked out early. I remember doing this once and my friends and I were slaughtered by a group that played every week and knew all the tricks. It rather spoiled our enjoyment that our fee didn’t buy us the same amount of time as the others. It’s like trying to learn how to play pool in a pub with ‘winner stays on’ rules. You don’t get a decent game because you’re not playing against people at your own level, you’re just sponsoring someone else at a turkey shoot.
Is the objective to win, or to have fun playing?
If you wander in off the street then you take what you get, but if you go as a group then surely you’re entitled to ensure that everyone gets an equal amount of play time?
We have a few people who are really into this sort of stuff, and will presumably do well at it as they practise a lot. Others might enjoy it, but will be put off by the prospect of getting knocked out early. I remember doing this once and my friends and I were slaughtered by a group that played every week and knew all the tricks. It rather spoiled our enjoyment that our fee didn’t buy us the same amount of time as the others. It’s like trying to learn how to play pool in a pub with ‘winner stays on’ rules. You don’t get a decent game because you’re not playing against people at your own level, you’re just sponsoring someone else at a turkey shoot.
Is the objective to win, or to have fun playing?
If you wander in off the street then you take what you get, but if you go as a group then surely you’re entitled to ensure that everyone gets an equal amount of play time?[/quote]
That’s a good point to keep in mind, Loretta. I agree that it might be more fun for beginners if they were not likely to get knocked out early.
The only part where I don’t think I agree with you is at the end where you talk about being “entitled” to more play time. Brian from LazerTreks has clearly described in advance what the offer is (“If you decide to participate, here is what you will get…”). From my perspective, as long as you are given an honest description of the product before you pay your money, then you’ve gotten fair treatment.
So while I agree that it might be a downer to get “pwned” by a bunch of hardcore lazergeeks in the first two matches and then get kicked out… I don’t think you can legitimately claim to be “entitled” to anything other than what you signed up for.
As any LazerTreks event, the point is to have fun. With that being said it still is a tournament and some teams will get to play more than others.
Now in terms of the few teams that get eliminated early…If you only play the minimum four games you would still be paying the same price as you would if you came into LazerTreks on a regular day, so in terms of pure dollar value I can say that everyone will definitely get what they pay for. I can also promise you that the few teams that get eliminated early will also be battling for a “special” prize…it even might turn out that some teams may like this prize more…
Simply put, everyone, from 1st place to 12th place, will have a great time…If any one is worried about not being prepared for the tournament, they are more than welcome to come down and do some practicing. Also, I’m willing to be talked into a giving you a “Preparing for the Forumosa Tournament Deal”…
I played yesterday. Today my quads, knees and hips are feeling their age. The DNS is a bloody ninja I was horrifed to discover. She topped out over 6000 points (coming 1 kill shy of 7000 in one game) which gave her the 2nd and 3rd best individual scores of the day. More to the point, in a match against the eventual winners (one in which I got dinged 43 times), she was not hit at all. She’s a Ninja I tells ya.
A word of warning…the adrenaline can getting pumping when playing this game. Some (local) lady kept blocking the “flag” so we couldn’t tag it. I’d move into the area to take aim, only to see her completely blocking the target with her ample but short frame. After 4 or 5 times of telling her she was cheating, I went in and nudged her outta the way and took my shot. You’d think she would have gotten the hint, but on our next advance, she was doing the same thing. So she got moved again. And again.
After the game, I went up to her and in true Ta Ke fashion, attempted to begin by being all “piesay”. She started screaming at me, so I called her a cheater and walked away.
Don’t cheat. There are many ways to circumvent the system. But it really detreks (sic) from the game.
Hopefully, JM and Cendryn will have enough staff on for you guys to have some judges watching the action. They figured this out the final few rounds and started deducting 1000 points for cheating.
Another thing they may want to consider is stocking the lounge with some brewskis. Especially for the Forumosan event. It’s hot sweaty work and nothing would have been more welcome than an ice cold Taiwan PeeJo between rounds.
All and all, I had a great afternoon. Jean Marc and Cedryn are fantastic people with a real zeal for hosting. The staff is friendly and helpful. The game is well organized and a complete blast.
Y’all’d better hope that my Ninja girlfriend doesn’t show up on the 29th.
Is it dark when the games are taking place? Are the laser guns heavy enough to do some damage to the back of someone’s head? I might be interested in playing this game.
The room is darkened, but not completely dark. The guns have a good amount of heft, but they are attached to your vest by a cord, which is useful, as you can use that for strangling your opponents.
The room is darkened, but not completely dark. The guns have a good amount of heft, but they are attached to your vest by a cord, which is useful, as you can use that for strangling your opponents.[/quote]
You’ll need to bring your own knife so you can perforate the lungs. This will keep the corpses from floating back up to the surface.
Brian again from LazerTreks. The Forumosa community has spoken and we will hold the tournament starting at 1pm on April 29th. Sorry, but we have to limit the amount of teams that can participate simply do to the amount of space we have at LazerTreks…so, register early! The registration website: lazertreks.com/event.php
We will definitely have LazerTreks employees inside the arena acting as referees, so cheating should not be an issue. Also, we will play a little differently than was played this last weekend which will cut down on the “standing in front of the home-base and not letting you hit my home-base” technique. We are getting better every time we put a tournament on. The team tournament will be organized like the NCAA basketball tournament brackets (for the Americans) in ours you will play at least 3 games. I will post the rules on Forumosa prior to the tournament.
Please make sure that you send us the “event fee money transfer receipt.” Thanks
Beer huh?..hmm…let me put some thought into that
Any questions please give me a call. my cell: 0933-862-384, LazerTreks2388-6565 or e-mail contact@lazertreks.com
Our registration process is probably a little unwieldy, because to date we’ve had ZERO registrations. We’re going to postpone this event until we can figure out if there’s actually any interest, and if so, how to better facilitate registration.
!! I have sooooo been bugging to open a laser-game place… and have discussed it with my wife many times, but we decided we didn’t have the cash to invest… and now I find out there’s one already in Taipei? Is there any in Taichung that I’m not aware of?
I have soooo gotta head there and check it out if I’m ever in Taipei
How’s business by the way? The other reason we didn’t open one is that my wife is convinced that it won’t be popular with Taiwanese…??
[quote=“x08”]!! I have sooooo been bugging to open a laser-game place… and have discussed it with my wife many times, but we decided we didn’t have the cash to invest… and now I find out there’s one already in Taipei? Is there any in Taichung that I’m not aware of?
I have soooo gotta head there and check it out if I’m ever in Taipei
How’s business by the way? The other reason we didn’t open one is that my wife is convinced that it won’t be popular with Taiwanese…??[/quote]
Listen to your wife… lasergames in Asia is a really tough proposition. Don’t expect crowds of teens, too busy studying, people here don’t like sweating either, high rent, etc.
Best and only viable angle we found is business crowd, team building, SIG, etc. That’s my 2c… been there done that 10yrs ago.
That said, I personally enjoy lasergames, and am sure I’ll whip all your asses if I am in town.
