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Simon Willison’s Weblog

Quasar usability

I had my first ever Quasar (otherwise known as laser tag) experience last night with the Bath University Computer Science Society (BCSS). Due to various misunderstandings our booking failed to materialise, but Quasar were very nice and said we could play against another group at 7.30pm. They failed to mention that the other group had an average age of about 9. Suffice to say it was an entertaining match, which we won by a very small margin (little kids spend all day running about; lazy students don’t).

Although it was good fun, the first ten minutes of the match were marred by our complete confusion as to what we were meant to do and how we could do it. “Shoot people on the other team and try to shoot their command centre” is a clear enough objective, but the overall user experience left a lot to be desired. Seeing as 10% of the male population are red-green colour blind, red and green are questionable choices for team colours (one friend with this problem could only really tell the difference thanks to the enemy team being about half our height). The interface on the guns was very poor as well—important messages were conveyed by an electronic voice, which was practically inaudible in the loud environment of the game area, and the display on the back proved extremely confusing. The guns have a small digital readout which displays your number of lives and remaining ammo. When you are hit (making your gun inactive for 2-3 seconds) the display changes to a rapidly reducing counter to show that you are unable to shoot. Of course, this also means that while you are recovering you can’t tell how many lives you have left making it impossible to judge whether or not you should head back to base for a recharge.

The other features of the gun, such as the “special weapon” switch on the front (which appeared to change the noise the gun made) and the powerups hidden around the map were completely lost on me as I spent most of my time desperately trying to figure out if I was dead or not.

Despite the interface nightmare, it was great fun. We beat our half-sized oponents by an embaressingly small margin, and stumbled out after 20 minutes looking and feeling like we’d just been through a two hour intensive session in the gym. Hopefully next time we’ll be up against a team with a bit less of a height advantage :)

Posted 27th February 2003 at 11:52 pm

This is Quasar usability by Simon Willison, posted on 27th February 2003.

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10 comments

  1. Haha. My first experience at one of those places I was one of the small bastards.. er, people. I've never paid much attention to the interfaces of the thing in that regard, usually too busy occupied with the fact that whenever I play at least once my suit *will* stop working properly.

    Lach - 28th February 2003 00:28 - #

  2. I've had a few experiances of such places, mostly hell. Every Quasar (or alike) I've been to has different rules as to how to play, some have odd bases you have to shoot, some have places you have to go back to to "charge up" your laser. And then there was another place where there were a bunch of complete idiots who covered up their laser targets with their t-shirts, instantly winning. It is fun though :)

    Tom Gilder - 28th February 2003 01:15 - #

  3. Completely off point, but some of us "lazy students" do actually undertake some form of exercise, thanks Simon!

    Andrew Hayward - 28th February 2003 03:03 - #

  4. I live close to another Laser Tag facility known as Laser Quest. I've played both LQ and Quasar amd LQ is hands down better. The LQ I go to has all night functions where you rent the building for the entire night and play non-stop with 30+ more of your friends. The types of games we got to play were interesting (Aliens, D-Day, Predator, etc.). There also appears to be a UK based LQ so check them out!! Note: the two sites i listed were slow loading for me. hopefully you'll have better luck.

    MyDimension - 28th February 2003 03:32 - #

  5. I seem to recollect that I spent about 70% of my uni time playing sport. The other 30% was broken down into 10% drinking, 10% eating, and 10% sleep. :-D And you should try paintballing Simin, it can bring out a sadistic side you never knew you had.... Muwahahahah. ):-) Matt.

    Matt Southerden - 28th February 2003 11:55 - #

  6. If you enjoyed Quasar, you should go larping.

    Ian Hickson - 28th February 2003 14:11 - #

  7. I'm staying well clear of Larping - I live with two larpers and the house always ends up smelling of musty forest come Sunday evenings...

    My friend Richard has a better write up of our quasar adventures.

    Simon Willison - 28th February 2003 15:03 - #

  8. Last time I went to Lazer-Quest (few years ago when I was in college IIRC) one of those 9yr olds jumped off a walkway thing pack-first onto my shoulder. I took pleasure in shooting the little git as often as possible over the rest of the game :) Took my shoulder about 2 weeks to recover though!

    R.Livsey - 28th February 2003 15:22 - #

  9. Ahhh, lazer-quest, those were the days, unfortunately all the ones round here shut down so theres 1 branch of Quasar (which isnt nearly so good as has been noted). All thought I'll second the recommendation for paintballing, just make sure to wear something padding, some bits of body hurt more than others when they get hit (shoulder blade... why what were you thinking?), great fun tho (esp when the university is paying most of it :E).

    Gavin Dearden - 28th February 2003 20:20 - #

  10. IM A QUASAR GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !......seriously

    Dave - 19th July 2003 06:15 - #

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