This thread has been an interesting read. I've never had any encounters with Tim and co, I even play at YPC which is a good site. After reading this thread I downloaded the PDF for SOA myself to have a look at it. I got a few lines when I got to this and it struck me as ... odd.. and had to post, while reading it. Sorry this may be long.
"Whilst this is a paintball event, the paintball is not the ‘be all and end all’." From a Paintballers perpective, now I may be wrong, i've only being playing for about 4.5 years, but from my perspective at least surely a promoter of paintball should not be saying this? As a paintballer, marker collector, I love paintball. So why would I as the average punter want to go to an event when this is what the promoter is saying?
"Will the paintball games work? We have no idea!" Dafunk!? surely they will have tested them... actually does this mean will the games work in a prison? or will the game idea work? But after promoting so many games they should have at least a good idea of how to make a game exciting and work. And the specilise in unusual venues so... maybe they should have an idea.
"We hope that you enjoy your weekend at Son’s of Anarchy. Whatever
happens, it will be a weekend that you are never likely to forget for as long as
you live………which means we’ve already half done our job for your £75
ticket!"
Now this is just plain cheeky considering the extra £50 they are asking for.
Then this
"Before arriving for the event, all players need to Check-In online by visiting
the following link:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/15FP5JEUXQZaKrb8j-m3eBAT8YpNuNqpODkTq8Nnf9ug/viewform"
and a bit further
"The Prison gates will open at 9am on Saturday 10th October and will close
again at 9.15am."
"Access to the site is not controlled by Shoreline and providing
entry to late arrivals may not be within our control." - note it would be interesting to see if this is actually true if anyone fancies contacting the site owner.
This all sounds very stupid to me. As an average walkon/scenario punter this is such a convoluted set-up that it makes me glad i did not sign up to this event.
"Please be aware that no players will be permitted to leave the venue until the
end of the event on Sunday when all participants will be released at the same
time. This is to reduce the footprint on the local residential area and minimise
disruption to surrounding residents."
This is pretty ridiculous.
"All players will be issued with 1,000 rounds of specialist ammo for this event." - what's specialist ammo? from my average player view i'd say first strike is specilist ammo. Unless they mean clear paint which is.... just clear paint. I think this is just a hype machine.
"This is a limited ammo event and always has been advertised as thus. We are
not keen to allow players to purchase additional ammo because they are
incapable of managing their own ammo as this would be unfair to other
players." - what? how bloody insulting. If your advertising a limited paint game and i've played a lot of limited paint games if there is one thing I know about limited paint games, people are good at managing their own paint. And you know I think even though they use more walkon/cenario players using regular markers are probably pretty good at it too surely.
Then it says.
"The managing of your own ammo is your own responsibility." was he high when he wrote this?
"All players will be issued with a uniform (an all in one coverall). This must be
worn at all times during game play." Now i'm starting to understand all the Führer references on this thread..
"All players will be issued with XXL size. We recommend that you bring tape in
order to decrease the size of your uniform should it be too large." surely they could provide tape given the ticket price?
At this point in the pack "We have no idea how the games will play out." is sounding more like we have no idea what we are doing...
"If a game design doesn’t quite pan out,
just chill and get ready for the next game – no big deal." well kind of a big deal. See no testing mean no idea of how a game will work. This may be exciting if your paying £10 to play all day which I do at my usual spot and we try all sort of game ideas out, some don't work some do, and some get more and more refined. But for one day at the price they are charging and the fact they will probably never use the venue again... yeah not to promising.
"Please be aware that we have to clean the entire facility after the event. So
please do not fire inside unnecessary (i.e. to test fire your gun)." err... do we get to chrono, in fact this bit is all kinds of funny given the post regarding refs etc from earlier, though not for the venue owner i suppose.
"When playing outside, please ensure that your shots do not go over the
perimeter wall. The venue is surrounded by residential housing." Then maybe in the interest of not giving the sport a bad rep this may not be the best venue to use...
"Prison Tour – NOT TO BE MISSED! A really unique opportunity to go on a
tour of the historic and modern parts of the prison, conducted by former
prison guards who used to work at this venue. Its free of charge, although
they make have a collection bucket for a local charity for you to throw your
spare change in to. It’s a fantastic tour, full of humour, interesting stories and
really takes you behind the scenesat one of Britain’s most notorious prisons.
Oh….and its FREE OF CHARGE!!" - is it really free of charge given the price you've paid?
"This is not a paintball site. Therefore, players must not treat is like a normal
paintball site. If you like these unusual venues that Shoreline manage to
secure, then you have a responsibility to treat them in a manner that allow us
to return back to them.
Playing in these unusual venues requires a different mentality. The paintball is
only one part of the overall experience, it is not the be all and end all. It is
not a muddy field in a forest, you can not just leave a mess and walk away." I can't tell if this is just shifting blame to player prematurely or what? And given what has been said regarding the Sennybridge venue mentioned earlier in the thread and the number of times TB has really screwed folk... " you can not just leave a mess and walk away."
"But we do require players of the correct mentality to make this revolutionary
approach to paintball weekends to work. Players need to be relaxed, laid
back, willing to accept that not every game will work perfectly, happy to clear
up their own mess and understand that if a change is required mid-game –
then that’s cool, it’s the price of playing somewhere weird and nothing to get
angry about." - Sorry this is turning to a very long post but. I can't tell what this is trying to say. To me its saying don't complain or voice concerns, maybe thats just me, mr average player.
Now I don't have a personal issue with TB, I've even been to a Shorelibe game before and I had fun. Sennybridge 2012. I was lucky as I did not have paint problems like a lot of people, I enjoyed the 54hour scenario, I had fun at the campsite and overall a good time. It was only my second scenario game (first being Mayhem Pacific (the first one which was also awesome) but despite this I had issue at the time with the player pack back then. Little niggles and doubts due to the wording. Reading this player pack now has reminded me of those doubts I had and really shown me how much having control over everything is important to TB. The Shoreline machine has been refined over the years into a tool not for providing experiences but for extracting the maximum amount of dosh from his player base.
On another note regarding Sennybridge. We were due a turn in the Humvees. I was disappointed at first when we were told that the drivers needed a rest and we would not be using them. But then I read Warfighters comments regarding Sennybridge earlier in this thread. Just to clarify, i'm not at all annoyed at Warfighters, I think they were right in what they did, just annoyed we were lied to by Shoreline staff. But i'm glad I found out the truth of what happened there, its good to know this thread is here informing people if nothing more than to be on guard should you ever go to a shoreline event, of which i now definitely won't be attending again.
Apologies for the long post..
