|
Fifteen Minutes Is All It Takes
by Elske Muijs and Collette Venturas
As part of our
Year 10 curriculum at Baobab College, we were sent to the Lowdown to
do our work experience.
As you know
the Lowdown consists of advertisements and articles, some of which
tell you what’s happening that month. So we were asked to write an
article on Adrenalaze (the only place where you can play laser wars
in Zambia at the moment).
If it is your
first time at Adrenalaze, then this is what you will have to expect.
First of all
you will obviously have to pay for your game. Adults are charged K
20,000 and children, K 15,000. After you have paid, you enter a
room, where the rules and the object of the game are explained. The
rules are no running, no physical contact, no jumping and no
swearing .If a rule is broken once then a warning is given but if
the rule is broken again, you are disqualified from the game (though
this policy hasn’t had to be applied yet). You are also told that
you have to hold the gun with two hands, one on the censor and one
on the trigger. Points are gained when the individual shoots certain
parts of the opponents vest. Shooting the front of the opponent
gains you 200 points while they lose 50, shooting the shoulder gains
you 50 points while they loose 12, s shot in the back gains you 100
points and they lose 25. Lastly, shooting the opponent’s gun gains
you 50 points and they lose 12. You are also told about the mine,
which is there to disrupt the game. It can be recognized as a
drawing of an octopus on a wall with two lights above it. If the
lights are green it is a free zone, if the lights are orange it is
about to attack and if the lights are red then you had better move
your butt because it’s shooting lasers which can de-energize you for
seventeen seconds (being unable to shoot). If you’ve been shot by
someone, you are also de-energized for three to five seconds.
After being
given all this information you will enter a room where you can
choose which colour vest you want. There are three different
coloured vests available, each colour having 10 vests, which means a
maximum of 30 players can play at once. The 3 different colours
represent the 3 different teams. There is the blue team, which is
called X-Men and contains vests with the names Magneto, Sabretooth,
Wolverine, Mystic, Rogue, Gambit, Toad, Storm, Cyclops and Professor
Xavier. Then there is the yellow team which is called Matrix which
has vests by the names of Morpheus, Neo, Niobe, Sparks, Trinity,
Seraph, Switch, Agent Smith, Ghost and Tank. Lastly there is the red
team, Marvel which has vests named Dare Devil, Torch, Green Goblin,
King Pun, Spiderman, Ice Man, Bulls Eye, Captain America, Silver
Surfer and Iron Man. While choosing your vests and making up your
teams you will start to feel nervous but after your vests have been
activated and the sirens go off, the nerves turn into excitement.
Everyone runs into the dark after being told you have only a few
seconds to hide.
Once you’re
in, it’s very dark and the music is blaring. At first you feel
confused and you don’t know where to go. There is a clearing with
drums (oil barrels), which isn’t a very clever place to go because
it makes you an easy target for the opposition. If it is your first
time, do what we did and just run mindlessly through the maze. If
you bump into anyone try to shoot them before they have a chance to
shoot you, but don’t get to carried away because you might shoot
your own team mate. This, of course, is just one tactic of playing
the game, but take it from us, it is not the most effective one
because more often than not you get caught up in the moment and end
up shooting one of your own team mates. You also tend to stumble a
lot and not know where you are going. This means you might end up
walking into the opposition’s base where you are in danger of being
ambushed.
Another
possible tactic is to go up the ramps and stay there, in hiding,
shooting anyone who you can see from above or who is trying to come
up. As they explain to you, you’ll have to try and find the
opposition’s bases and blow them up. You can, if you wish, protect
your own base but not many people do this. It is also explained that
you should shoot on certain parts of the opposition’s vest to gain a
certain amount of points but if you are in the same state of mind as
we were, you shoot aimlessly not caring where you hit them, just as
long as you do.
Obviously
those who play more often and take the game more seriously do
actually aim and don’t just run through the maze like headless
chickens (as we did), but we are writing for all the first timers
who just want to have fun. When you are playing, it’s weird, but
something inside you head clicks and you get a sudden urge to shoot,
oblivious of who it is when you see a flashing vest. During the game
we started to laugh at each other and ourselves because we caught
each other
doing moves which looked like they belonged in a Rambo movie.
Although we
are far from Sylvester Stalone’s standards of skillful combat and
his usage of fire arms, when it comes to playing laser wars we still
had fun and maybe one day practice will make perfect.
A warning of
caution, if you play at night, about ten minutes into the game a
thick smoke is released into the room, which caused, not naming any
names (Collette), someone to walk into a wall head first after being
blinded by the smoke.
You might
think that it’s just 15 minutes, but believe us, it does last and it
is really worth it! When your time is up a siren goes off and you
will have to make your way back to the entrance where your vest will
be scanned and taken off and you’ll be allowed back into the world
of normal people.
After this,
you can go to a screen to see how well you did, or as in our case,
to see to what extent your score is going to embarrass you. If it
was your first time, and unless you had really good beginners luck,
don’t bother looking at how everyone else did because it will only
depress you and diminish the little pride that you had left after
seeing your own results.
It only takes
fifteen minutes of your time to have loads of fun so why don’t you
go and just experience it for yourself. Even grownups can have their
inner child come to life. |
August 2004