Gaming

I'll post something about not computers for a change. Its pretty close, but still, not about computers.

Any self-respecting nerd (such as me) loves video games. Doing first-person-shooter games IRL is always both fun and a lot more difficult than on a computer. 

We had a company activity and went to nearby Megazone for couple rounds of always fun laser tag. Since it was my first time ever doing that, it was like a slap in the face. I'm a 2nd lieutenant in FDF reserve, so I have basic understanding of tactics in a battle. Also I've played video games since early 80s and FPS games since first Wolfenstein. On top of that I've been paintballing enough to know that there is enough realism in video games and paintballing to match real military tactics. However, anything I knew about combat, tactics and fighting at that point was usless.

In the game there were three teams and you, so pretty much everybody you see is an enemy. Megazone is mostly about movement and speedy tags of any visible opponents. The worst thing that can happen to you there is that you're unable to fire your weapon for 8 seconds. During a 25 minute round that's not too dangrous. In paintball or war you're out on the first "tag", here you aren't, it's just a game of accumulating points.

Here are my stats from first round:

I sucked!

My handle in the game was Macro (in the Red team), so being 8th out of 14 wasn't that good. Tactically the maze was a nightmare! In the original Wolfenstein it was possible to be hit only from front, back or sides. In Megazone there were 2 floors, but it was a metal grid walkway making it possible to shoot trough. That made it 5th direction where getting hit was possible. At best I found couple locations where it was possible to get some cover and get hit only from two directions. The only even semi-functional tactic I found was to ignore any defence, cover and cautiousness. Just going recklessly forward and out-gunning everybody on a reaction seemed to work good. Also sniping people long-range was a really good tactic, sometimes I could do 4-5 people from a single position. They never saw me. I also did try attacking enemy bases and defending own base, but they were totally pointless exercises in futility, I spent too much time trying to figure out the value of those.

Here is my second round:

Quite an improvement in points and ranking. I was best in our team and 3rd in total!

Megazone was great fun, but with my background, it'll never be my favorite thing. I want to see my opponents suffering when I hit them, in laser tag that doesn't happen.