Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.

Streetwars

Olulabelle

11:17 / 22.07.06

Streetwars is coming to London and I am very jealous. It's a game whereby you have to 'assassinate' other players by tracking them down and shooting them with a water pistol. You're given minimal information about your target and you have to find them and 'kill' them. The second video clip in the link explains it all and shows someone being taken out.

It's happening already in New York, Vienna, Vacouver, San Fransisco and Los Angeles and I wondered if anyone here has played?

It looks like a right laugh to me and I wish it was happening in the city I live.

paranoidwriter waves hello

11:18 / 22.07.06

It was on CSI New York as the background to a couple of murders. Put me right off.

Quantum

12:03 / 22.07.06

We used to play that at university around campus, except we called it gang wars and had teams, or assassin's circle where when you kill a target you get their target. Great fun, except we told campus security to get the ok, and this was before the police started shooting people in the head. I wouldn't do it in a city meself, too much chance of panicked 999 calls.

Quantum

12:07 / 22.07.06

Oh, it is Assassin's Circle.

Phex: Dorset Doom

12:28 / 22.07.06

It was on my campus too. I was... disturbingly good at it.

Olulabelle

12:31 / 22.07.06

I don't see why there would be a chance of panicked calls since all the people playing have signed up to play. And if I saw anyone shooting someone else with a water pistol I don't think I would start ringing 999.

Kali, Queen of Kitteh

13:04 / 22.07.06

I so want this to happen here in Atlanta. I would fucking rule at it.

Quantum

13:13 / 22.07.06

I could easily drench the lot of you.

Olulabelle, I'd worry more about the bit before the soaking where you are sneaking around someone's house or workplace (neighbours and colleagues get twitchy). I don't mind looking like a burglar so much but when carrying something even a bit like a gun, all it takes is one mistake to get an armed response team standing on your neck.

Triplets

14:24 / 22.07.06

And suddenly a hundred people googling for a piss party find us.

Sneaking could be a problem depending where you are but it's not that hard to suss "bright green gun might not shoot actual bullets". The people at the link above don't seem to be getting British Transport Police'd in the face, eh?

I know how pw feels though. I saw someone get killed inside a house on CSI and now I don't go into buildings. I don't eat food or breathe air either. Those things can kill you too. Gil says so, right before he cocks his head to make the credits come up.

Kali, Queen of Kitteh

14:31 / 22.07.06

Anything Gil Grissom says is gospel.

Quantum

14:46 / 22.07.06

it's not that hard to suss "bright green gun might not shoot actual bullets".

One year ago I would have thought it wasn't that hard to suss whether someone was a terrorist suspect or just a Brazilian electrician who lived in the same block of flats. Now I just don't know.
People have called the police on us when we were using fleuoro backpack soakers, and at night time (the best time to assassinate like a ninja) someone might not be able to see that it's a bright green Saturator.
Not to be a killjoy, I'm sure it will be fine, I just worry about these things as I get old and paranoid.

ibis the being

21:02 / 22.07.06

Add me to the skeptics. When I was in high school a bunch of kids got in HUGE trouble with the police for shooting their friends with Super Soakers in a drive by squirting. And a friend of mine (also in HS) had cops draw their guns on him just for sporting a flashlight in the wrong place at the wrong time. In theory a game like "Streetwars" sounds fun but in practice - what a crappy way to get arrested or worse. And I have sympathy for the police end of things... this kind of game could make their job quite annoying at best and dangerous at worst.

Char Aina

21:10 / 22.07.06

totally.
if i was a hitman i would be painting my gun bright green right now, and planting several ordinary waterpistols all over town in case i need to hand one over to authorities for examination.

all you kids playing this?
you are all dead.

paranoidwriter waves hello

21:28 / 22.07.06

Er...You know I was kidding earlier, right?

Mind you, I agree with Quantum and Ibis. It looks fun and no doubt would be, but there's a lot of potential for misinterpretation and tragic accident.

e.g. let's not forget Harry Stanley with his table leg.

Sorry if I'm being a killjoy.

Mistoffelees

21:28 / 22.07.06

In Berlin, we have this stuff for many years now. People from the districts Friedrichshain and Kreuzberg regularly fight each other for control over the Oberbaumbrücke (a beautiful new bridge connecting the two districts and west and east Berlin). When these fights happen, the police knows about it beforehand, because the bridge is full with these people and normal use of the bridge by train or car is impossible.

Icky: People use these guns at the Love Parade. Of course, the guns run out of water very fast and people reload in the little lakes and rivers in the park surrounding the parade. Now with 500.000 people there, that water is not 100% H2O...

paranoidwriter waves hello

22:20 / 22.07.06

Threadrot: this thread reminded me of "Gotcha!" earlier, and I just realised I still say Wiergin instead of Virgin because of Linda Fiorentino.

Twice

22:38 / 22.07.06

When I was little, my best friend and I used to sit on his garage with a bicycle pump and a pile of guinea pig shit. We shot shit at people and it was fun. Does that count?

bacon

23:13 / 22.07.06

gotcha!, yes, i was reading the thread thinking "movie from the 80's i saw as a kid" good call

The Falcon

23:41 / 22.07.06

And a friend of mine (also in HS) had cops draw their guns on him just for sporting a flashlight in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Holy fuck! I'm never carrying a torch again. Especially not to pretend it's a laserbeam.

Add Your Reply