It seems society has moved on from simpler times when people played Monopoly and Connect Four to be entertained. Nowadays we need a more realistic approach, where we run, chase and shoot. STEPHANIE ZEVENBERGEN learns more about present-day adrenaline-seeking games.
YOU would be forgiven for driving past the old ‘Hard Yakka’ building, hidden in a quiet residential pocket of Broadmeadows, and thinking nothing of it.
But dare to go inside and you’ll be introduced to a world of real-life zombies who seek to annihilate anyone who gets in their way. And it’s your job to destroy them.
Residing in the building is the genius creation of Patient 0: a real-life, multiplayer, first-person shooter, role-playing game.
The warehouse rooms are “gored up” with blood-spattered walls and prosthetic bodies, waiting for eager ‘shooters’ to have some fun.
The concept was dreamed up over after-work beers and pizzas by three friends last March.
By October 31 their dream had become a reality, and so had their company IRL Shooter (In Real Life).
One of the creators, David Leadbetter, says the game of ‘glorified laser tag’ has people from across Melbourne, Australia and even overseas, intrigued.
It’s a simple concept.
You’re in a team of six shooters and have a mission to complete in just over an hour.
The obstacle is the zombies who will get in the way as players progress through three massive warehouse-style rooms.
The shooters need to do just that: shoot the zombies with their laser guns to eradicate them.
More than 100 professional actors have been hired in these flesh-eating zombie roles, to scare, obstruct and thrill whoever comes into contact with them.
“The players take a very definite path and then there’s all these hidden doors for our zombie cast to move through,” Leadbetter says.
“A lot of the actors are physically trained and theatre-trained or they are circus performers.
“One of them does this incredible ‘crab walk’, very exorcist like, so that’s really creepy.
“They’re very physical. They absolutely destroy their costumes.”
While it sounds scary and confronting, the whole operation is extremely safe.
The entire warehouse is covered with CCTV cameras, so staff can watch the moves of all players, ensuring safe and sensible conduct throughout the course of the game.
“We can follow the teams as they progress through the course, so we can see what they’re doing, so that’s for their safety and security and also for our cast, ” Leadbetter says.
“Because of the cameras we can play with them a little bit. If a team is going too fast we’ll probably throw more zombies at them to slow them down, or if they’re too slow we’ll make it easier for them to go through.”
With zombies in costume and painted in dramatic make-up, there’s bound to be a few scares along the way. Leadbetter says some players even ask to be taken out of the game because the scare factor is too high.
“When it’s filled with smoke and the cast are hiding behind the curtains or the rubber doors, the players come in and then somebody will burst out behind them. We get some good scares.
“The first game we play with ‘babies’ is ‘peek-a-boo’. They get that shock and then they laugh.
“It’s natural and it’s inherent for us as humans to have controlled scares, because we scream and then we laugh.
“Really that’s what we’re providing, a grown-up version of that.”
Leadbetter says players vary in age and sex and are not just the stereotypical ‘nerd’.
But over in Ballan, Daniel Cumming, the owner of Paintball Games, admits 80 per cent of his customers are nerds.
“When we started operation in 1993 we were constantly fighting the perception that we were ‘right-wing military nuts’ wanting to overthrow the government,” he says.
“We’re running around the bush dressed in camouflage, playing military-style games. In actual fact, we’re a pack of nerds running around playing games, shooting at each other with round little balls that break paint on us.”
At the 36-hectare property, with a backdrop of beautiful bush, paintballers have a range of scenarios to choose from for their game.
Like shooting zombies, it’s a similar concept when it comes to paintballing: attack and defend.
Groups can range from four players to 150 and paintballers are split into two groups, with the main aim of the game to capture the flag of the other team.
The other aim is not to get shot. Once you’re shot, you’re out of that game and are escorted to a waiting area until the next games starts.
Each game goes for about 15 minutes and a session will last up to three hours.
A referee watches all games closely to ensure fairness and safety.
Cumming says the game definitely attracts the thrill-seekers and adrenalin junkies.
“This, to be quite honest, is as close to cowboys and indians as you’ll get. And it’s as simple as that.
“By nature we’re hunters and gatherers. We can’t just switch off 100 generations of hunting skills. We need to get out and have that little bit of thrill.
“It’s the same thing when people ask ‘what’s the mystique about all these first person shooting games?’ It’s that fantasy.
“Here they can come out and hunt and nobody gets hurt, no animals get killed and they have the opportunity to just have fun.”
One of the biggest concerns players have, according to Cumming, is fear of the pain that will be caused by the tiny paintball when it hits.
“The minimum shooting distance is six to eight metres. If you shoot within that distance it will sting. But what happens is, people find it doesn’t hurt as much as everybody says, so they become more confident and daring.
“Bucks parties are the worst. By the end of the day half of them have lost their fear of the gun, so all they want to do is shoot each other from one to two metres away and that’s like hitting each other with sticks.
“From that close you’re going to hurt each other.”
And while there haven’t been any major injuries in the time that Cumming has operated the site, he says a certain amount of confidence grows in players as they progress through a day of paintballing.
“They’ll start feeling more adventurous, so we’ll give them the option of playing ‘attack and defend’. So one team has to protect their fort, the others eliminate opponents and take the flag.
“Some people get more aggressive as they go on because they find out it doesn’t hurt as much as everyone says, so they want to get closer and play tighter.”
GAMES PEOPLE PLAY
Paintball Games: Book online: paintballgames.com.au
Patient 0: Book online: irlshooter.com/patient-0
