Friendly Fire from Every Direction

Adventure Park USA in Monrovia, MD was an interesting experience.

I met up with Travis there and we headed over to the laser tag arena entrance where it looked like we would be in a game with one other player, a young teenager who had indicated to us that he had been playing laser tag there all day long. OK, that was fine. Inside the briefing room we predictably were asked to watch a CyberBlast briefing video. Even though we could both recite the video from memory and the kid clearly had seen it several times already, we dutifully listened because we understand that showing the video is part of the process (and a good idea for any arena from a liability standpoint). So that also was fine and we were prepared for the game…until they let a dozen VERY little kids into the room and did NOT make them watch the video because honestly, they were too young to comprehend it and too exuberant to sit still long enough to watch it anyway. So, this went from a game to a tiny tot melee!

While the game master was busy wrangling the little ones to get them all vested up I used the time to check out the western themed multi-level arena.

I really loved the covered wagon on the lower level.

I headed towards the upper level to get an overview of the space that had a nice floorplan including ramps, corridors and maze to it.

Then the game started and we heard the excited squeals of little kids being let loose into the arena. They were a frenzy at three feet! I tried to keep my distance and just focus on the targets and bases scattered throughout the arena. While aiming at a target across the upper-level Travis steps into my path and I tag him instead. We were on the same team, so he shouts “Tivia, don’t shoot! There’s friendly fire on and you’ll lose points!” I realize that this game is about to become total insanity if all these kids are playing with friendly fire, so I smiled, tagged him again (this time on purpose for good measure) and said “It won’t matter with all these kids. This is going to be a madhouse, so what’s a little more?” Then I headed off to get in the middle of the craziness!

So, with friendly fire from every direction this was less of a game and more of a “let’s act like kids” experience and everyone had fun, regardless of score. I didn’t even look at the scores, but apparently Travis did and informed them of some irregularities he noticed. However, from my vantage point it was just a game where fun was the only thing that mattered in the end, so that will be my takeaway from Adventure Park USA.