I'm starting this post for people to have a place to post their review of the TagFest weekend. Please feel free to be honest with your evaluations...but not insulting to any individuals.

Remember, the main goal of Tag Fest is to have fun, the second goal is to try out new gear and ideas so that we can learn from the experience. And experience is what you get when you don't neccissarily get what you want.

The Steridian gear was jaw-dropping cool, but unless I go into the business of hosting LazerTag campouts, I'm not shelling out $600 for one unit.

I had a really great time whenever I was playing, although it got a little frustrating with the preptime for the second LARP (perhaps having a team responsible for setup and rules would help) and the LTTO games where it was taking upwards of 20 minutes for the guns to talk to each other.

Why so long for "talking" on the LTTO?

The prep time for games is one of the issues that will need to be resolved for next year. There is a discussion on this under "Things we learned" (or something like that).

One of the things I wanted to have for this year, but ran out of time, is a table which mounts all 24 LTTO guns for joining a hosted game, the table would make it to where alot of the difficulties encountered at settup time for a hosted game would be resolved - will definately have one ready for next year.

We are already forming a group which will be lead by Peter Montgomery for next year's LARP games, which will ensure an avoidance in the delays that were so irritating in this year's LARP events.

Unfortunately, we tried to form LARP games at the last minute this year. I unfairly dumped the project on David's shoulder a couple weeks before the event. Considering the lack of time for preparation, lack of people to help him set up the event, the constant interrupt of some of our younger players, and a triage of last minute changes and flukes, I think David did a really great job. I've been in his shoes before, and trust me...it could have gone alot worse! So here is a thumbs up to David SW!

"and the LTTO games where it was taking upwards of 20 minutes for the guns to talk to each other."

Not to sound defensive, but which games were those? I hosted several LTTO games on both days and I don't think any one of them took more than 2 or 3 minutes to get rolling (there was a minor bit of trouble when the sun started getting low on the horizon Friday evening, but moving into the shadow of the cabins fixed that immediately). There was also one game where Doug's Tagger (gun) decided to quit communicating with the Host part-way through debriefing -- a situation I have never seen before, so I don't know whether to suspect a defective unit (it was brand new out of the box as I recall) or weak batteries or what -- but it was the only one doing this, so we sidelined it and I don't think there were any problems after that.

There were a couple games that took several minutes to debrief because people did not show up with their Taggers right away after the games ended, and in some cases turned their Taggers off after being tagged out, which delays the process. But as long as people know what to do, and do what they are supposed to do when they are supposed to do it, the entire Host/Join process tkaes less than 2 minutes for a 24-player game and the debrief time is limitted only by how fast people show up to be debriefed -- it was designed to happen in under 60 seconds.

LTTO definitely has a learning curve, and in the future we will try to make sure there are several people available for each game who know the gear really well and can help people who are new to the gear get through the joining and debriefing phases quickly. Unfortunately, there just wasn't much time available for instruction this year so most of the people in most of the games were encountering LTTO for the first time. Even so, I noticed many people who I KNOW had never held an LTTO until 20 minutes earlier helping new players through the process and keeping things going smoothly.

Also for next year I think I will require all new LTTO players to start off with an LTAG game, then move on to a CUST game and then a 2TMS game before jumping into the more advanced games like OWNZ, RESP, etc -- slowly exposing people to the ever-increasing capabilities of the gear. The games in LTTO are designed to build on the concepts of earlier games, just like the missions in a video game build on the skills and scenarios of earlier missions.

While I really did appreciate the way the Steradian gear can be set up for a game in literally just a few seconds, I also note that it was NOT being set up in a scored mode as the LTTO gear was. In the equivalent mode ("LTAG"), the LTTO gear sets up in 1.5 seconds (literally just two trigger pulls) and there is zero post-game time. We never had a chance to play a scored Steradian game (where every unit receives a unique ID, and scores of who tagged who and how many times are kept and all of the players and tems are ranked at the end of the game) so I have no reference for how long that process takes on the professional gear.

I am thinking also of adding a programming mode to future LTTO items that will be similar to that used by the Steradian gear -- sort of a "God Gun" mode that puts targetted guns into a teams-oriented version of LTAG (unlimitted time, no score kept, no hosting/debriefing) so you can have teams with or without friendly fire, and give different guns different numbers of hits, shields, reloads, and have an infinite number of players. But that mode would NOT be backwards-compatible with the existing gear. At best it would start with the Master Blaster and move forward, but it is doubtful even for the Master Blaster to have such a mode -- if at all, it would only happen several months into production as a running change.

I asked the question because I have had no problems setting up 24 Drones in a few minutes, granted I did have racks so everything was ideal. 20 minutes sounded way too long!

There was a game where we tried to get around 18 players going. It hung up on number 14 or 15 for a very long time. Wayne could tell you more about it as he was the one who hosted it.

John's got it with the game I was thinking of, and 20 minutes may have been an exaggeration anyway. IIRC, there was another game just before or after (19 players to the other games 18) where the initial startup time took quite awhile.

My apologies if that came off as a criticism of the gear. The explanation at the time (not from the hasbro guys, but from others) was something to the effect of "Well, there are a lot of guns, so it takes a long time." I didn't hear otherwise (for example, that as we were nearing dusk things would get a bit wiggy), so my assumption was that this was expected behavior with that many guns.

Once things got rolling, it went super great.

Once again I would like to thank everyone who helped put on Tagfest.

Last year’s event was the most fun I’ve ever had in a 24 hour period! Sadly, I found this year’s tagfest a bit of a let down. So, I am glad that David set up a place for us to talk about our ideas for improving Tagfest.

I hope no one will take my comments personally. I think there were actually a few different things that contributed to a less focused event.

Here are a few things that I think contributed to making Tagfest a bit less focused on fun:
-Having the boy scouts at the event. There were a few times when we wanted to play but the scouts were earning badges or doing other Scout activities. The kids were also a bit of a handful during the games.
-Larp Games. I like the idea of larp games but we spent way too much time setting up these games. When we did finally get around to playing them, I was just too frustrated to enjoy them (sorry guys)
-A lack of structure / guidance / leadership. I think a lot of use knew things were getting off track this year but no one was comfortable taking charge and shifting gears.
-The Lazertag give away. I really like the idea of having prizes and merchandise to win (who doesn’t?) but the way we did it this year took too long and wasn’t that satisfying.

Here are my humble suggestions for next year:
-We should invite the scouts for the Friday event or the Sunday event and leave Saturday for Tag enthusiasts and their friends. I really want to have a day when it is just the real taggers playing their favorite games with their favorite gear. That is what we had last year and it rocked!
-I still want to play Larp games but we need to get more organized. Larp games should be set up while the rest of the people are playing. There needs to be a limit on the time spent on explanation (5-10 minutes tops). We shouldn’t play larp games when the scouts are there. And finally, we need to progress from simple games to more complex games, one step at a time. Peter did a great job doing this last year.
-Who should run the games? This is a tough one and it is very subjective. I personally would vote for the people who have the most experience running games and using the gear. I would vote for: Peter, Gabrial, David R, Doug or any of the more experienced players.
-It also be a good idea to put up a loose schedule at the event. The schedule might outline what types of games and what gear will be used at different times. With good event coordinators you wouldn’t need a written schedule but it still might help.

I hope no one takes offense to my comments. I’m only being so direct with my wants because I really look forward to Tagfest and I want it to be the best event it can be.

What do you all think?

All in all I agree with your assesment -- I wasn't there last year so I have no reference to judge against, but there was definitely some room for improvement.

For my part, I failed in several areas:
(1) I underestimated the time it would take to set up all the LTTO barricades, gear, etc. There were some unexpected "hiccups" (no water hose at the playing field, etc.) but I should have planned in advance for that.
(2) I grossly underestimated the time it would take to drive up to the Portland airport and back to pick up Wayne. I was under the impression it was about 25 minutes away -- an hour and fifteen minutes each way was closer to the truth given the traffic and such. I lost about two hours of set-up and LTTO game-hosting duties on Friday to this miscalculation.
(3) I should have prepared a "things that need doing" list so I could have made better use of the people who were willing to help me set up on Friday (which was most of the people who were there). I had a buch of "to do" items in my head but nothing down on paper where people could just see what needed doing and pitch in.
(4) I should have made sure I had enough helpers who were already intimately familiar with hosting LTYTO games so that if I was not available for one reason or another, there would still be at least two people available who could assist the new players in hosting, joining, and debriefing. I tend to forget the LTTO learning curve since I and everyone I play with are already so familiar with the gear.

I also heard a lot of frustration over the time it took to set up the LARP games (more accurately, "scenario" games) and agree that I would have preferred a lot more play time and a lot less setup time. I applaud Dave Rimple for taking it on himself to write, develop, host, and score these games especially on such short notice -- I know it would have taken even longer if I was doing them. I also know he had to make a switch at the last moment from LTTO gear to Steradian gear, as he was unaware of certain limitations of LTTO gear that prevented it from being used in the games as he had originally planned. But in the future, we need to make sure the games are far more defined and that all setup is prepared for the games IN ADVANCE so that there will not be any long delays. I suggest a sign-up sheet be posted on the web at least a week before TagFest, so that we can fill each of the needed roles for each of the games (team captains, respawn people, observers, NPC's, etc.) and if people have not stepped up to the plate and filled all of the needed slots before the game is started, then the game is cancelled and we just have several skirmishes instead. I would not be opposed to having the LARP games be adults-only, but I don't think the kids were the major determining factor in the time it took to set things up -- it was more a matter of far too many little things all going wrong (nobody knowing how the safe worked, people joining the game half-way through the instructions, items missing or moved, people not knowing what the game-start signal was, etc.) and each one adding it's own little 2-minute delay to the process until it took a half hour to start up a twenty minute game.


Another item to think about -- if Dave doesn't manage to hire a cook for next year, we should have a sign-up sheet for 1 hour tours of duty in the kitchen . I don't think Dave got to play in more than one or two games the whole weekend, he was so busy keeping everyone fed. We can't let this happen again!

Just my 2 cents worth (I'm sure I'll have more later)...

Here's looking forward to an awesome TagFest 2006!

I felt that this year was more of a family reunion.
also Tag Fest is a place where we can play and lean lazer tag and meet new friends.
I do hope that no one feels hurt and will come back and join us next year.
David did play last year...although this year he hurt his back unloading the traler used in halling up the item used and was scared to play for fear of hurting his back worse. He was in pain and not one to show it.
He is looking foward to next year.
I was very thankful to John BSA for helping in the kitchen.

Well I got more out of tag fest this year than last. I did not play as much but I met a lot of really cool people and learned a lot about the tag and Hasbro and all sorts of things I would have never known before. I went home with a big smile on my face. I think it was the only part of me that did not hurt.

Seeing how Wilsonville is somewhat local we could have a secong event later in the year that would be an adult only theme. Or maybe more like older teens and up? I spoke with Tom Baker and he told me of some new thingy he made that sounds just like what we need for LARPS. Maybe we could get ahold of Tom and Alex and plan for them to come out later this year?

Just an idea and I am not going to push it. I know it takes a lot to set up events even on a small scale.