The Future of Water Warfare

[isoaker]

Firstly, this thread is for positive dreams and ambitious goals. Those who consider water warfare a dying art form only help bring about such fate. I prefer to dream of brighter futures for water wars and do what I can to help make that future a reality. What sort of things would you wish to see occur in the realm of water warfare? Do you yearn for more general acceptance? Do you hope for things like accessible rules you can easily implement in local games or perhaps more ways to attract others to participate in games? Would a Water Warfare League entice you to do more? Would you want to see a water warfare-based TV reality show?

On the other side of the equation, what are the present difficulties you experience regarding water warfare? Can you think of any solutions or have ideas on things that might be useful in getting more interested in taking up the sport? Is it just a matter of participation or limited access to "good" equipment or do other things also get in the way of holding epic water fights?

While I don't expect to find perfect solutions right away, perhaps as a group we can brainstorm over a bunch of ideas that may give us better tools and means to get more people interested. And please avoid falling into statements like "Bring back the CPS2000" or something along those lines. Fact is, the CPS2000 came and went, but while there may seem to have been a few more water fights back then, there was no water warfare revolution. While increased activity would be nice to see again, I'm still wondering if we can do something even more.

Thoughts desired!

[mr. dude]

I would love to see a hardcore water war on television one day. It would be difficult if the war is in the woods, but if they find a way around it, it would be amazing to see.
Another thing I hope for is the spread of soakerdom, to the point where specialized soaker stores are opened.

I don't know which one is more lkely to happen, but they would both be awesome (and probably lead to one another).

[Adrian]

I think that had SoakerTag been properly implemented, it could've been an incredible boon to the soaking community. For one time in my life I saw college students running around with waterguns, and it being accepted in the national media. Combined with typical irresponsible college student behavior in sponsored events, it could've gone far.

Combined with the underground "assassination" style games that crop up every few months in major cities (but still fly under the national radar for the most part), it could've been huge.

Just think about it: A HUGE SoakerTag assassination game taking place in LA or NY over the course of a day or a week, with the winners getting a cash prize. Heck, hold it over Spring Break at Daytona beach and provide free beer, it'd be bigger than volleyball.

All the pieces ARE in place for this. The assassination games are already going on, college students are getting drunk by the beach, and Hasbro has invented a primitive score-keeping system. The pieces go together, and the picture on the cover of the box is awesome.

Without this, we're still just running around in our yards, squirting the neighbor kid. Harsh but true.

Adrian

[HBWW]

For one thing, I'd like a water war in the park (or any other public place for that matter) to look as normal as people simply running, taking a walk, etc. Overall, there's kind of a lack of variety of places we can actually host wars. (most of the parks are too open)

And yes, I'll mention weapons and equiptment. Sights, stocks, etc. would be nice features, and, needless to say, actual use of the CPS systems. Then theres the holsters, clip-ons, slings (some of which we have), quick-load systems, etc. If anyone's seen my CPS 1337 contest submission which I did a few months ago, you know exactly what I'm talking about.

With that said, I'm going to be continuing water warfare this summer with the same goals in mind as last year: attendance, battlefields, and equiptment/weapons. How far I can get depends on time, how willing people are to continue, etc...

[isoaker]

There be some really good thoughts and ideas above.

Now, apart from the available equipment, what do you think are the main reasons for others reluctance to enjoy a good water fight are? Is it a PR problem of water fights usually being associated with small kids running around with squirt pistols or is it from a lack of an easily implementable objective scoring system? While teen-to-young adult oriented water blaster designs and power levels would help to some degree, do you feel that the water warfare system for older audiences needs to be more militarized in theme in order to make it more appealing or do you have ideas on how to keep water warfare retain its own identity, still, of course, drawing from aspects of military war without needing to go the route of full-on ghille suits and camo to enjoy a good "hard core" game?

[Adrian]

Yes, it is a PR problem, but that's being overcome. The college kids didn't listen to the PR when they participated in sponsored SoakerTag contests over spring break 2 years ago. The people running and gunning in NY and LA assassination games aren't listening to the PR, and they're playing WITH squirt pistols.

In each of these cases, it's not about the waterfight anymore. In the first case it's about the contest and the companionship/company, in the second it's about the contest and the MONEY. Waterwarfare as a sport will never get anywhere if people are expected to participate in it for sportsmanship's sake. It's not about the medium - when you step to a nice comfortable distance, airsoft and paintball are equally "ridiculous" games for people to participate in outside of actual combat training.

SoakerTag was a wonderful starting place, but it didn't evolve. It didn't go anywhere. There were what, 12 tournaments total, and then the next year they yanked the tags and that was the last we heard about it. For something to take off, it needs support. SoakerTag needs to make a reappearance, or Buzz Bee needs to carry the banner.

Even better than disintigrating bullseyes, go with some sort of color-change paper - I'm fairly certain there are substances that change color with water and then change back again. Instead of taping or pinning them to your clothing (pinning esp. sucks in this day when UnderArmor rules the world), put them on lanyards that you wear around your neck. Or rubber-band them over a hat or bandana.

Buzz Bee's in the perfect position to carry this forward, because they've ALMOST got the blaster power to make this interesting. They just need to step up to a few bigger sizes, something to make the big kids take a step back and go "WOW!" I realize that's not an economic step they want to take, but it's not something they have to jump into all at once. Start making soakers that have actually separate uses (the shotgun style was a great example of this BTW), that have real advantages AND limitations over others in their class, instead of just putting the same "one-size-fits-all" internals in a different chassis year after year after year after year. What really is the point of me buying more waterguns when a CPS 1200 arguably fills every conceivable role? Specialization is key here. Make people think about their loadout choice.

So specialize. Then Buzz Bee takes a bunch of their own patented BuzzBeeTags down to Jamica or the Virgin Islands or Daytona Beach. Find a beach populated with a bunch of buzzed, athletic, good-looking twenty-somethings, and give them a choice of one or two guns each from this wide variety of specialized weaponry. Find them a nice battlefield (any public park will do), set up a few video cameras, and tell everybody the last man standing gets a thousand bucks and a keg. T-shirts for everybody. Then give the film of the whole thing to MTV. Dumber things get airtime, trust me. This could get as much as half an hour. Repeat ad infinitum.

Or sponsor an assassination game. Everybody uses tags and Buzz Bee guns, and Buzz Bee fronts the prize. Lots of combinations here.

Adrian

[WaterWolf]

I'll try to keep mine modest:

I have a dream.
My dream is to oversee the growth of a strong network of water-warriors in New-England. Starting with Vermont, then expanding into New-Hampshire, Main and Massachusetts.
This is not so much a "Hope" for the future, but my plan for it.
It may seem like a big task, but I'm going to start small and expand as I go.

It started with my forming of the Maple-Mountain-Marines late in 06.
Last year, as I was working on strengthening the M.M.M's numbers, I found someone else in Vermont who was interested in starting a team of his own. I agreed to take him under my wing on the M.M.M to give him some experience, after which he would branch off to start a group of his own.

He's already found several people who are willing to join his team when he starts it and I believe that by the middle of 08, he will by ready for the challenge.

After this, I will continue to seek out more people to interest in water-warfare, hopefully finding more who are willing to take the responsibility of leading their own team.

As I work on recruiting for my team, I will also direct potential troops to the other fledgling forces in our state.

If all goes well, the result should be several teams up and running within a year or two. After this, it is only a matter of expanding and encouraging the growth of our community to see it continue flourishing.

[isoaker]

Adrian's envisioning of a possible future in water warfare is awesome and one possibility that'd be great to see become reality. As for WaterWolf's current direction and goals, those are particularly encouraging as it shows that not only can we dream, we can also make our little steps towards making a difference.

For me, while I definitely don't wish to lose the casual, carefree aspect of general free-for-all games, the problem is that FFA games is pretty much all that the majority of water fights end up being. While there are some bastions of organized water war teams and groups that have a working rule set that allows them to hold organized games, it has been a challenge to translate such rule sets into ones that even the uninitiated can use without the fear of some players cheating.

For things to get better, per se, there probably needs to be a variety of complimentary developments to make things go forward. Older audience-targetted equipment + an objective hit system + a little more advertising showcasing older individuals playing the organized games. Holding tournaments with real prizes would undoubtedly help, too. That's where some forms of corporate sponsorship would come in.

What do you guys think of water warfare safety equipment? Would you guys still want to participate in a water fight if eye goggles became mandatory (or at least highly recommended) or is it still better to keep things in the zone wherein additional protection is not necessary?

[WaterWolf]

I'd be fine with the eye-goggles mandate, especially if it would allow for more powerful weaponry to be fielded in tournaments.
Just like paint-ball has helmets, the eyes are the most vulnerable to damage from water.

Another, grander piece of my plan, is that once a society of water warriors is up and running in New-England, to ban together all the teams in my state into the V.A.S.T (Vermont, Alliance of Soaker, Teams) organization and challenge other states to do the same.
Most of the time, the teams within V.A.S.T remain separate, frequently battling with each other.
But once a year, a massive interstate gathering is held, during which these smaller forces of Vermont ban together in a united front and move to war against other states.

The biggest problem with this plan would normally be supplying such numbers of people with food and shelter.
I have been thinking about this for several months and decided that if the few days of gathering is run on an understanding that you are to supply all your own equipment, tent, food ect, that it will be fairly easy for everyone.

Next concern would be finding a battlefield which can support this.
But I figure that if we have dozens of people in each state, somebody will know of a trek of land or a public park which can be used.

A solid set of rules would have to be nailed down.
Something simple, easy to remember and doesn't leave room for misinterpretation. A good possible set of rules would be a CTF-OHK game, since trying to keep score of kills in such a big battlefield would be near impossible. Flags, which can be placed as each army sees fit, would make for a scoring objective which is easy to keep a count of.

This is all fairly far fetched, but I figure that if I keep up constant recruiting, encourage other teams to form and hold regular meetings, that my dream may someday become a reality. Perhaps I'll be too old to participate much when it happens, but I can still help to organize it and keep the water-warfare community moving forwards.