Guys,I think that a standardized protocol is a fine idea and all, but companies like BFS and others with gear already out there, have too much invested to just phase it all out and start anew. What about all their customers with the "old Protocol gear"? It's hard enough to start up and harder still to support more than one completely different set of electronics.
And I know first hand that it's very hard to get anyone who has spent all their hard earned money and precious free time to abandon some or all of their "fruits of labor" and reinvent a newer Tag Gear line incorporating new electronics and added programming. The amount of extra work that it involves when you are ready to market what you already have just doesn't make sense for them.
To start this whole Laser Tag League thing off, I think we should stick with rules of play, rules of conduct,rules regulating the play area for games that warrant standardization such as league points standing games(number of people to a team and the number of obstaces per 100 square feet, etc.). . . . .
I think it will still be great to have a TagCon where different manufacturers bring different gear types to be used at the games.Players will have to develope different strategies to deal with a particular gears strengths and weaknesses. This will give games a variety of challenges to work out.
Equipment developers will see their gear in action (and the other gear)and see where they need to develope more. Ideas will be passed back and forth and new ideas will be realized, and then eventually we will all see eye to eye and arrive at the same point.
Let's not narrow the vision of the developers who have brought us this far into the Laser Tag realm.
Just my two cents worth,
Anthony
