Weekend Warriors

foreign the name of the company is the Great Canadian Adventure game and we've been in business for exactly one year on our own field which is kleinberg which is the company feel we can get up to as many as 250 to play during the day the idea behind the game is the first team to arrive back at their team's flag station with the opposing team's flag will win the game predominantly our customers range from doctors lawyers dentists women's groups the majority of the group would be blue collar workers the age group would be between the ages of 17 up to 55. um every Walk of Life Has Come and played a game no matter which color it goes with no write the smeared all over his face a marker is what we call the gun we like to keep it okay so keep your marker you got to keep your marker in your holster don't pull it out for any reason don't look at it don't open it you'll have lots of time to play with it today okay the goggles must be worn at all times during the day the only time I want to see anybody not with the goggles on is when they're back at the main base because they've been marked or between games or at lunch time if you are nailed in the eye without your goggles I guarantee you'll lose your eye do you understand that it's the only part of your body that needs to be protected and anybody that's played this game before will be the first ones to belt and the sound of a whistle or the sound of a Foghorn the game starts the object of the game is whatever team arrives first back at their flying station with the opposing team's flag wins the game uh players can stay in the bush up in the tree and Mark people all during the game but as I said the first person to arrive with the other team's flag wins the game yeah get out of there two of them largely there's a a group of young males who are involved in business industry maybe some of the professions who hunger for some sort of Adventure and Macho type of activity and this is a very safe way of engaging in that without risking very much it looks like they're also living out a lot of childish type of fantasies uh the old Cowboys and Indians games that they played when they were kids and probably never really resolved that got beyond that stage they're still playing Cowboys and Indians it's it's a fantasy world it seems to me there are clear similarities between the survival games and and other sports is a lot of competition involved there's a clear winner there's a clear loser people really have to work as a team to achieve the ends of the survival games like in any other sport there's a real clear difference though between the two two exercises in the a regular sport what's happening is people are really striving for an end goal and that's the primary objective with the survival games it really changes people have an end goal but the capturing of the flag is only one part and the process seems to be more important than the end goal of simulating the hurting of other people and that starts asking us the questions of whether the moral issue the ethics that people are learning in playing a sport like Survival Games is really something that we in our society want to encourage and it's dramatically different than what people learn when they play a regular sport like baseball or any other sports such as that I know it's got teamwork good just like football you know not quite as rough but so what brings you out camaraderie the adventure of it but others watch the white plate I play hockey uh skate uh it's summer time the game it's a wintertime game right no there's a it's good listen this is real good it's great it's exciting it's an adrenaline rush you get to run around kill or get killed it's exciting [Music] oh sure I've heard of the survival games I think they're damn good training aid uh especially for in the militia and a regular Force because we can use that that stuff it's the same as ammunition and when a guy's hit he's hit and we don't need umpires around to say you're hit the survival game is usually a bunch of guys running around in total chaos trying to kill as many other people with paint pellets as possible it is not an actual prediction of what war is like War people die what we do is we are training for war we have a set procedure and we are organized I've had to the survival games but I don't think they're going to be as good as they seemed to be not for the Army anyway they might be okay for civvies but I've never actually played it and a regiment has taken a bunch of guys out and we're going to run it the way we run army training not like a group of sevens just running around doing whatever they feel like I'm shooting at everybody oh I think the major reason why they're coming up to play The Great Canadian Adventure game is the challenge it's a challenge themselves and it's the challenge themselves with the team I came out today because I played before and I got really interested in the game it's got a lot of excitement to it and you just get out there and it's just another world you're concentrating on yourself and the game and wanting to win you're not female you're not male you're just out there shooting trying to win the game trying to do your best it's a lot of fun people play the survival games for a very different reasons there are some people who who play because of the competition it's outdoors it's an opportunity to to dress up and battle fatigue and to wear makeup and they aren't usually allowed to do these kinds of things but there are enough people out there um who seem to be playing the game because they enjoy the simulation of killing people and and that seems to be giving pleasure shooting people psychologists talk about it in terms of catharsis the term here means that people are having the opportunity to act out their aggressive behaviors in a safe secluded environment just think about all those times when you play a game when you get so intensely involved but when you talk about your relationship with your spouse or your lover and all of a sudden you don't find that that same sort of passion coming out of you because it's risky and so people are finding a real opportunity to let out all this emotional aggression in a very safe environment guys come here where'd you get ahead yeah you got hit there get out of the story for a second diminishes of it I heard they were having a game at zero all the guys from Xerox we're getting the game together and I thought oh why not it seems like fun I've seen it's all rubbish we're out to kill yeah sure sure played the game before no never good different uh a little exciting a little nerve-wracking at times you know to see a few guys around you you don't know where the rest are and uh you shoot at one all of a sudden someone else blasts yeah I was shooting at I was getting ready to shoot at one guy and all of a sudden I saw him turn I look around I see the other guy there I just see this red dot ball coming at me and just it was just a shock and I felt it hit it was just a little quick sting sensation playing War Games as a kid doesn't compare you're gonna come back again yeah I'd like to what would you tell your friends first bring lots of money yeah a little that I know looks like the survival games will probably survive they'll probably continue to flourish the game has tremendous support as it appears right now unfortunately I think the the future of the survival game is probably quite good I think there's a big Market out there right now for that kind of thing I think there are a lot of individuals who are yearning to be able to get out and um play these very sanitized uh simple types of games and get out some of their aggressive instincts without really looking at them adequately I don't feel that it's a fad maybe the players that are playing now in three and four years will not be playing the game but they're brothers and sisters which are too young to play the game will be trying to game not too I cannot see it dying off 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