--- "David Roman" wrote:
> So has there been any games lately with this group? I havn't
heard any news comming from this quadrant in a while. How are things
going?
>
> .....Dave @ www.1SLT.com

Hi Dave,

Thanks for the post.

VE *has* been much quieter than usual for more than two years now. We
have been running some table top role playing games, but our Lazer
Tag games have not been happening at all.

:-(

I'm quite sad about this myself as I miss running around and shooting
at people. More than that I miss the LARP element. For me a 100%
mecanical game like Quasar or Laser Quest doesn't give me the same
buzz. I love the fact that I am playing something like a Merc medic
and am crawling through a bush trying to rescue an injured comrad. (I
shall have to pop over to 1SLT and see what else is going on in the
UK.)

:-)

Some other UK Lazer Tag groups also seem to be quieter than usual at
the moment, so I don't think this is a problem exclusive to VE.

What is the situation like in the USA? Are all the groups as strong
as they used to be?

As it has been a while since our last game, I think VE would need a
equipment checking/repairing session, before we could run another
game. Apart from that issue, I think we could easily be ready to run
a game within a few months.

I think part of the problem (with VE) is that some of our most active
members have started families and there is a bit less free time
available for the club. I know that a lot of our members are still
finding time for re-enactment and other hobbies, so I think we need a
bit of a push to get things restarted. (I'm not acually part of the
VE organising committee, myself, but I will be doing my best to
support the people on the committee when they do start work on a new
game. I've got a dead PC at the moment, so have been doing less for
VE than usual.)

I think part of the problem with 'Tagging' as a whole in the UK is
that it is *very* tied to the original Worlds of Wonder system. WoW
seems to be the only company that could build anything that would
work reliably in sunlight. Most UK groups seem to have started with
WoW and ignored the systems that have followed in its wake. Reliance
on stuff that hasn't been sold for years is a bit of a bar to new
players. If a group doesn't have spares it can't bring in new players
and if a group can't bring in new players it will eventually loose
its energy.

Do you know what tag systems are most popular in the USA?

The new Lazer Tag Team Ops *could* come to the rescue of the hobby.
Their people certainly seem to be very willing to make the system
compatible with the old signal (which will help groups transfer
across to the new system when individual players can afford to).

However, as LTTO is marketed to children, they can't fully cater to
the smaller LARP market. Last I heard they still had the gun and
sensor tied together. This is something that makes the system much
less usable for LARP (where we might have unarmed players) but is
probably essential to get the toy past the marketing boys at Hasbro.

It is a real shame that the equipment must be aimed at children as
this forces the manufactures to produce low cost items that are not
as strong as taggers would like. For example most tagging systems I
have seen make no attempt to waterproof equipment. Tagging groups
seem fairly able to make this sort of improvment.

The equipment situation at VE is that we pull starsensor circuit
boards out of their packaging, mount them into military style
helmets, then do our best to waterproof them. If LTTO start making a
stand alone sensor (especially with their heads up display option)
I'm sure that we would be very interested. People (over here) are not
so hungry for guns as a lot of gun circuits are already available on
the internet, and guns are not in short supply.

For me the perfect situation would be if Hazbro did have separate gun
and sensor circuits and was able to give tagging groups discounts
and/or sell us bare circut boards. I would also like Hazbro and other
groups to agree on licencing their tag-signals to each other so that
every tagging system could be used together. At the moment the lack
of compatibility makes groups and individuals resistant to using new
kit when it comes onto the market.

This stops groups feeding money back to the manufacturers and
probably makes them think that we are not a market worth targeting.
So far every tagging system manufacturer seems to have protected
their signal, like Betamax video recorders. Nobody seems willing to
use a common signal, like VHS video recorders did very successfully.

I have a feeling that the current political situation in the UK is
also going to affect Lazer Tag games in a bad way. There is
increasing political demand to ban replica guns and this may well
make tagging (and possibly BB-guns and paintball) illegal in the
future. Hopefully the attacks on London, will not make the government
shove though a lot of knee-jerk reaction laws that interfere with
hobbies that are not a threat to anyone.

That is the unofficial news from me. If I hear anything useful from
our committee, I'll make sure you are the first to know.

Yours taglessly,

David 'Big Mac' Shepheard
Webmaster
Virtual Eclipse
http://virtualeclipse.aboho.com/
http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/virtualeclipselrp/