Umm...well...

I’ve had many wonderful experiences along this most recent trip…unfortunately there was one stop that I felt a little less positive about. I’ll preface this by saying any place can have an off day or an isolated experience, but since this was my one and only exposure to Boondocks in Northglenn, CO this is simply my personal opinion and takeaway from what I observed during the single game I played.

I arrived and purchased my game pass for a game of Lasertron.

I was directed to wait in a line where there were already quite a few people, mostly kids, lined up waiting to be allowed in. They weren’t assigned to any particular game time, they just let in as many as could be accommodated each round. This made for a rather chaotic long line of really rambunctious kids, some who were LITERALLY bouncing themselves off the walls (now in fairness this is where parental supervision should have kicked in too), but this was a really impatient group. Bear in mind I say this from the vantage point of someone who has observed lots of groups of eager kids waiting to get into many different arenas over the years…this was a really rowdy bunch. My head hurt before even getting to the game.

After waiting out two games while standing in the line we were allowed into the combination briefing/vesting room. There were A LOT of really young players in this group. The game master turned on the video and then left the room, leaving the players to grab their own vest and completely ignore the briefing instructions. Kids often have trouble paying attention to the instructions anyway, but I can assure you that nobody in that room was watching the video at all and no staff member was in there to try to quiet them down and make them.

I put on my pack.

Then a child who (in my personal opinion) seemed way too small for this game walked up to me and asked for help with his vest. Although I am happy to help, I am also wary of being a stranger assisting with “hands on” vesting duties for unknown children, so I told him the staff member would be back to help him in a minute. However, when the game master came back into the room there was absolutely no check to see if anyone needed assistance, we were just sent right into the arena with a final warning not to run because he said someone had gotten hurt in the previous game and he didn’t want that to happen again.

So the game started. First round I was the only person who knew to go to a base…undoubtedly in part because nobody had paid any attention during the unsupervised briefing. So for this game I simply walked back and forth from the base. That was fine with me. I am not about playing hard in games with that many kids.

During the second round that tiny child I mentioned earlier was not looking where he was going and ran right into me and fell down. He started crying. This child was so little that he really only ran into my legs, so I know he didn’t hit my equipment which could have been painful. He was probably more surprised and scared than anything else. Nonetheless, there was a crying child and I am the only adult standing right there. So I immediately checked on him and started shouting for the game master while identifying the location where we were in the arena. I know what to do in that situation. However, the game master was nowhere to be found. I continued to call for him. What felt like a couple of minutes later he returned to the arena and escorted the child out. I’ll repeat…he was NOT even in the arena. In my opinion monitoring the game is really the most important thing he should be doing.

So he took the child out of the room and I didn’t sweat the lost game time. However, I was totally unimpressed with the entire experience. I realize that things happen, especially with kids there are bound to be occasional accidents, but when I left the room I made eye contact with that game master and I’m pretty sure my look said it all. If not, let me leave it here. This is my “not impressed” face.