Ian's View
We all met up at 8pm (Saturday night) at the Laser Quest place, climbed a
flight of stairs which nearly killed me (was carrying a LOT of booze!), and
entered in to the dark and forboding pit itself. After organising ourselves
in to a general area, remaining monies were paid and team lists reorganised.
The main 'crew' of the evening was Team 3 which was all MUSHers,
execept for one rather psycho self-appointing team leader nutter by the name
of Skull who rather marred the proceedings. It quickly became clear
to us that we were a little out of place at this event, as the majority of
the other people there were rather freaked-out hardened Laser Quest bods,
intent on winning at any price, and trying to force their will on us.
The first games of the evening were the heats - everyone played everyone
else in an effort to find the winning team. I was rather unimpressed by the
staff who swore at me repeatedly simply because I had not played before;
their attitude put me in a depressed state to begin with, never mind the
psychos on my team. We kit was donned, and the arena entered. The arena its
self is one of the largest I've been in, consisting of many boards ramps and
small rooms. The major target of the evening appeared to be the fabled
Hangar bay which I tended to avoid a all costs as thats where all the
psychos hung out. My first game resulted in a score of 125, which I was
fairly pleased with. After three games were played, the winning team was
announced - not us, unsuprisingly. We then sat around for what seemed an
absolute age, watching dodgy StarWars movies on a large screen projector TV,
drinking, talking and generally watching Vibes cuddling his pringles. Pizza
and chips was apparently delivered some time during the night but I
obviously missed this exciting culinary event. Further Laser Quest games
were played which included picking up little glowy rods, and chasing
'aliens' (Helen seemed rather pleased to be an alien for one game for some
reason). Folks wandered off home at various times during the night until
only the really mad ones among us were left (Ian, Mike, Heluerto, Simon and
Robin !) the last game finished around 7.30 am and we all wandered
McDonalds-wards for a Sunday breakfast.
At 7.15pm (Sunday night), the second event of the weekend took place,
the great Pizza Hut bash, organised by Paul. Most people had joined up at the
Clock Tower in the city centre by 7.30pm, including Alan, Fatheral, Joe
Splan and Sarge. We stood around in the rain for some time waiting for our
table to become free (they wouldnt accept a booking, then said we should
have booked - cheers Pizza Hut!) by around 7.45 we sat down - 15 of us in
all which made quite a good gathering. After pizza, various pubs were
endowed with our presence.
After judging the correspondence and feedback of many people on the mush-misc mailing list, it is the
general consensus that the evening was a little under-awing. The psychos
spoiled it a little, as did the sitting around for hours with nothing to do
between games. It seems like that if there is to be another event in a
similar ilk, that we may try to split off on our own if we get plenty of
people, or even just ensure there is more to do between games (Just don't
mention Super Bomber Man!). Overall: Glad to meet up together to do
things and meet other MUSHers we'd never seen, but not a really
amazing night.
Ian.
Helix's View
(Bear in mind that much of this was written at least a month
or so after the event, so apologies in advance for any
clouded memories. And remember that I'm a miserable,
cynical, misanthropic bastard most of the time, so this is
all written through a gloriously dark-tinted view of the
world.)
Ah, contrasts. I was one of the people who made it to the Laser
Quest all-nighter back in February (dragged from my garret by the
fearsome Splan Troopers when a place became free at the eleventh
hour), so I probably staggered up all those flights of stairs
carrying one or two expectations with me.
And since I was being very Helixish at the first one,
yet still enjoyed most of it, I was expecting May's attempt to be
far better. I'd know a few more people. I'd know my way around
the arena. I wouldn't have unwittingly got up at nine o'clock the
morning before. I'd actually know what all the bleeps and stuff
from the gun meant. I'd even - frighteningly - understand the
jargon when some tragic headcase ran past screaming about two
reds on the tower and four in the hangar. Bound to be more
enjoyable.
So in I went, preconceptions aplenty. Got the teams juggled
around a bit (most of our little cabal were on separate teams
entirely, which wasn't really the best situation), and sat around
for far too long, waiting for the games to begin.
And ominous inklings kicked in before long. When we were
introduced our other team member (seven of us were MUSHers, and
one was an outsider) - Skull - wary visages were very much the
vogue. The fellow wore dogtags around his neck, and opened his
conversation with serious discussion of tactics. (The familiarity
of Mr Skull became apparent later - he was the gent who was
punching the wall at the previous Laser Quest because his team
weren't backing him up.)
"Right." we said. "Yes." we said. And went back to ignoring
him. I think five of us had never, ever played the game before in
our lives, and the other two were just playing for the sheer
enjoyment of it. (Yes, kids, even Uncle Helix.) "Tactics" weren't
really something we were planning on using.
And we went in shortly after ten. Yao (Vibes), Melanie
(Daina) and Yvette (Harmony) had never really played before, so
we were just wandering around the arena together, getting the
hang of stuff. We stopped in (and I lack the tragic jargon for
it) "that small room place that lies a couple of right turns out
of the main entrance" for a while, guarding the exits and
explaining stuff.
Sitting ducks? Surely, I thought, the more experienced
players would recognise us as new players and politely refrain
from picking on us. Give us a sporting chance, let us get to
grips with the game, and pick on enemies of their own calibre to
make the game challenging and enjoyable for everyone.
Er, no. "Four green sitting ducks in the [tragic jargon]!"
shouts some kind soul, and we all die in a hail of red light,
again and again and again. Most entertaining.
I think the first few games probably tipped the balance, for
me, and I spent the rest of the "league" lot just being bloody
annoyed at all the expert players. Shooting people point blank
and having no effect began to lose its appeal before long,
particularly when they turned round and shot me without even
aiming, and homicidal apathy quickly set in.
As it turned out, our friends in Team A were apparently
cheating all night. By slightly unplugging the cables from their
guns, they gained the tiny advantage of complete and total
immortality. Some bloke - staff or player, I know not - went
around telling everyone this at about two-ish, and that probably
killed the last of my enthusiasm for the event. I'd already
walked some people home earlier (rather a lot of the out-of-
towners were staying at the Helix residence), and when a couple
more wanted to go back, I called it a night as well.
So that was that. Twelve and a half of your Earth pounds,
neatly folded and posted into the local sewerage system. The "sat
around talking" bit of the Laser Quest was generally more
enjoyable than the "being shot at" parts. We might as well have
stayed at home, and had someone occasionally run screaming
through the lounge firing the television remote control at us.
If the Laser Quest people are listening - a word of advice,
lads. Ditch the competitive angle; it only makes people take it
more seriously than they should, which isn't a lot of fun.
Newbies going up against a half-dozen immortal crack-shots is
generally very tedious. Of course, as one of the staff apparently
put it, "****ing virgins shouldn't be at a ****ing all-nighter,
you git". Fair point. Thanks for making that clear before taking
our money, then.
Personally I think they'd be better off if they organised it
so you'd only be up against people of your own ability and
fanaticism. Alright, so they originally organised the teams
"fairly" (equal spreads of newbies and veterans), but - er -
having all your friends on different teams, and watching your new
teammates abandon you to your fate because you're hopeless; not
the stuff of entertainment, in my book. Let people pick teams and
work out a fair system of opponents, perhaps. Shrug. Or just have
it veterans-only and the rest of us can go bowling or
something.
Mind you, some people enjoyed the Laser Quest, it seems, so
that was alright. If I was in a better mood, and if the games had
been a little more fairly balanced, I'd probably have stuck
around and enjoyed myself.
Never mind. Very nearly everyone went out for a pizza the
next night, and that was alright. And the rest of the week, since
quite a few MUSH people chose to stick around a bit and do stuff,
was fairly splendid. Just a shame that most of us threw twelve
fifty and a Saturday night into a rubbish bin, really.
Kev
Heluerto's View
Well, I have to admit the 'May 96 version of Laser Quest didn't seem to
be as entertaining as the previous 'February' one, Joe Splan, Fatheral,
Palpatine, Kliorg, Hawk and Brandy who were at the first Laser Quest
didn't make it this time, although all except Brandy and Hawk managed the
pizza's on the Sunday evening.
So what went wrong, I have to admit the 'Lazer Quest Spodders' were too
conserned about 'winning' the games, I aswell as most of the MUSHers who
attended was in it all for a laugh, it was quite nice to turn up and be
recognised by some of the members, although who they were, I am yet to
work out, first bit of entertainment was the polite 'Skull' beating up
the slightly less delicate Simon (not the one we all know and love) in
the middle of the room where everyone had to stay for the night!
Anyway, the teams were NOT very well mixed, there was one team made up of
all mushers except Skull, and then the rest of us were 2 to a team, I was
with Spyman, Our team did extremely well, we came second overall out of I
think it was 8 teams. Although we didn't share quite the same enthusiasm
as the Spodders, I was quite happy that I got a prize at the end of the
night.
Later in the evening, We played a game of 'Aliens' where Me and another
guy had just our backs and stomaches showing (guns and shoulders had been
covered by cardboard and sticky tape) we had to creep about the arena in
the dark, (I'd like to let you know how scarey it is in the arena alone
with none of the lights on, and smoke everywhere (well I was a bit on
edge anyway!)) I felt really important!!! Basically I had to touch
everyone I bumped into I had instructions not to get them for the first 5
minutes, but after the said time I found six people in a row, all just
standing there, and I got all bar one of them before they managed to
shoot me.
We played another game where we had to find luminous rods in the arena,
and shoot others who had them, once you were dead you had to hand over
your rods, the one with the most on time up won the game!
I managed to shoot someone who had a rod, and Tony, one of the organisers
(who didn't seem too popular with Ian OR Helix) who had taken a shine to
me, tried to hide me from the others in a corner of the arena, to my
dismay (relief more likely) I got shot before he hid me there!
It is a shame it wasn't enjoyed as much as last time but then as I was
the only Splan Trooper there, and out of uniform (God I miss those
blue helmets), what can be expected.
The pizza on Sunday evening, apart from a certain group of 4 seeming to
want to disown the rest of us for the evening, was great, although after
a bit of confusion, we split up when we started to find a pub to drink
in, but well, as Fatheral, Joe Splan and Sarge will understand "I wish I
was back home in Derry"
Helen (Heluerto)
