[ Response | Lazer Tactical Action Game Message Board ]
Posted by John Serrato Link: http://www.johnnyserrato.com
on December 31, 2008, 4:23 pm
Happy New Year everyone!
So i've been a long time lurker, and sometimes I post here and there. I'm bored here at work, so i'm going to jettison some thoughts about lazer tag, from the perspective of a college film student.
I'm from the Bay Area, CA in Walnut Creek. I recently just moved here from San Ramon (which is nextdoor to Pleasanton, where Tagferret and STM is located)
I've been interested in Lazer Tag for 10 years now. I first got interested when Tiger released the BLAST and Stinger when I was a teenager, but was disappointed with the system. I went on to LCV2, and then took a break from the hobby after getting my first car and bouncing around from a few different hobbies (cars, paintball, bicycling).
A couple years ago I got back into the hobby with LTTO after the paintball obsession started getting into the $3000 investment range. I acquired 10 TMBs and 12 IRT-2Xs, about 80% of which are still brand new in box. I couldn't get anyone else interested in my hobby, so the equipment sat in boxes in the corner of my room.
Flash foward to a month ago, where I was on set of a short film I was producing/DP'ing for at the Academy of Art College in SF. The set we shot at was coincidently in Pleasanton. After we wrapped, the conversation of LAZER TAG came up, and I mentioned that I had 20 or so BNIB lazer tag guns sitting at home. The cast and crew got extremely pumped about the idea of a playing 10 on 10 game!
So there we were, 20 or so college kids discussing why Lazer Tag over some beer. The general notion was that we all were baffled that Lazer Tag never blew up with the college crowd. With the amount of college kids that play HALO and other FPS, it just doesn't make sense why LT hasn't become huge on college campuses. I'm telling you, everyone was REALLY excited about lazer tag.
A few of them had been avid paintballers and a few of them were into airsoft, but money and lack of playing spaces hindered a lot of their fun. They all agreed that Lazer Tag seemed like a great/suprerior alternative, and they got really excited when I talked about the range of the LTTO TMBs, the scoring systems and the custom games. I also talked about the new LTX system and that they were available in stores, and they got excited about the reload-system and the shot-blast etc.
So now, to date, there are about 15 of us that plan to regularly play during the Spring semester, with the LTX + TMB guns. We're not using the IRT-2Xs or Deluxes because they don't come with a hit-light stock, but I do plan to conver my dozen IRT-2Xs with party-tagger's hit-light mod.
I am really confident that once word gets out that a group of us are playing Lazer Tag at the Academy of Art, our numbers will exponentially grow over the Spring Semester. And being that all 15 of us are film majors, my hope is that we'll do some extensive documenting of our games and hopefully spread the word.
Unfortunately everyone is on break and has gone back home to various places in the world, and we don't start school until the end of January. The few of us that do live here in the Bay Area however, have been getting together for some night games at the closed college campuses. Cops have shown up and asked us what we have been doing, and so far haven't had a problem with us playing on the campus after-hours 
.
So .. in closing .. I guess i'd like to open up a discussion about why Lazer Tag hasn't blown up the way it should. Here is my two cents:
Hasbro isn't marketing to the right crowd. A lot of you feel this way, that they should be marketing toward the teens/college/paintball crowd and market their product as a more "pro" system. They need viral marketing and they need to get the "cool kids" (high school and college students) to take interest.
They need to market it as a sport and less of a toy. Paintball and airsoft have huge followings despite being 1) way more expensive and 2) being limited in where they can play. They should be marketing to the halo/call of duty/FPS crowds.
They should step up their campaign of hosting tournaments/events and be showing off the gear more. They need to get high school and college kids to talk about their gear, write blogs about them or include them in their school newspapers.
Lazer tag, especially the LTTO system, is very similar to playing real-life HALO and FPS. Those crowds are huge, and Hasbro needs to find a way to tap into that.
Being a film student and a fan of Lazer Tag, I see this as a huge opportunity for someone to do a documentary on the sport. It has a pretty decent-sized underground/sub-culture, and there are a lot of big names in the community that would be great to interview. Someone could visit all the big clubs and visit Tagfest.
I personally have little interest in doc filmmaking, but I think this sport/community has the ingredients to make a great doc.
- Johnny Serrato
And if anyone in the Bay Area wants to play, hit me up!
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