Bitcoin Forum

Two words:  Bitcoin Lasertag.

Imagine it.  Whether playing as an individual or as part of a team, the whole premise is exactly the same as regular laser tag, but with much higher stakes. 

Shooting someone with your laser would initiate a Bitcoin transfer from the tagged to the tagger or the tagger's team (depending on whether it's a solo or team game). 

For example:
.1 BTC for shots in the stomach or back
.3 BTC for shots on the shoulders
.5 BTC for a barrel shot

How fucking cool would this be?  Obviously there'd need to be some regulations to make sure people can't tag others before or after the game starts.  But, I would totally own all of you   ;D

The thread title was meant to allude to the profundity of my idea.

Edit:  I backup my wallet on the john, too.

Woot, you never know when the best great idea comes into bitcoin  :D

http://lustratusrepama.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/The-thinker.jpg

Did you send the Spanish Police a complaint about Bitcoinica on the toilet as well?

Still butthurt, are you, Charlie?

I disagree with his actions too, but is it beneficial to bring this up in wholly unrelated threads?

Guess where I was sitting the whole time I penned this: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=64692.0

The idea was conceived a couple days earlier on the same seat. Guess where I am as I type this post. Now, only if Bill Zucker hadn't stole my TP, I would be in good shape.

~Bruno~ (not Bruno Waterfield)

nope, I left that one "float" around  :)


@OP how would you interface with bitcoin ?

This? http://www.rifttag.com/rift-laser-tag-software

LOL touche, you've won this time hahah

nicee, so rift could learn json-rpc somehow and talk directly to the bitcoin daemon or you escrow the coins before the game starts. That way you make all the coin movements internally and keep the interfacing with bitcoind to a minimum.

No such modification needed. The vests hook up to scoretracking software, so you'd just make a plugin to that software to payout btc based on the score at the end of the game.

But if we did this, only nerds would play laser tag.... oh wait.

i work from home a lot so have a dedicated room set up as an office, so your 'reading room' is what's known in my house as 'the small office' to distinguish it from the main one.

i like the OP's idea by the way... i've never got into laser tag because there's not enough feedback for me... meaning i much prefer the sting of a paintball than the 'oh gosh darn you tagged me with a beam of light'.

This is awesome.  

Edit:  Actually, come to think of it, wouldn't places like laser-tag arenas and Chuck E' Cheeses be the perfect place for a Bitcoin business?

Imagine if you walked into a Chuck E' Cheese-like venue and all the games required tokens to play (including laser tag).  What kind of tokens?  Bitcoins!  This would be a perfect place for a Bitcoin card -- just swipe it at all the games to play and the game automatically subtracts the Bitcoins from the card.  The kids can still win lousy tickets  ;D

Business venture, anyone?

Maybe Chucky Busters needs some competition.

I mean I'd make my own.

No, its skillgame.

This is an awesome idea.

If I could get the equipment cheap enough, I'd purchase a set and start organizing some parties.

I couldn't find any prices on rifttag.com, so they're probably too expensive.  Plus its not clear that their software would allow for the customization needed to play for bitcoin.

I'd look for cheaper lasertag equipment.  It'd be cool to see the btc transactions broadcasted at every laser hit.

This could be a great arduino project.  If someone with the skill had the time and interest to crowdfund the project, I'd be willing to pledge 20BTC or so towards the effort.

EDIT:  I've always been interested in paintball, but a paintball party is quite expensive (cost of paint adds up).  I bet the geekery of lasertag plus bitcoin would get plenty of players at something like a comic-con and it would be a lot more fun than an FPS LAN party.  Of course, the organizer could exchange bitcoin for the players on-the-spot.

I freaking love this idea!  I mean seriously, lets get this goin... who would like to collaborate and setup a decent proposal for kickstarter or something?  catch me on skype: chsados

i dont think it would really require any intense modding of existing software.  all it would really require is a simple conversion of points to bitcoins at the end of each round.  or at the end of the day players just convert their total accumulated points into btc.

i used to play counter strike a lot and there were ways to gamble on how you felt you would do each round.  

you could even make the game more realistic by using your points/bitcoins to upgrade your guns/armor/weapon etc  at the beginning of each round

this could be so fun!

I really really like this idea! Sadly, I don't expect anything like that to exist for at least a few years, since you would need both Laser Tag places, and a large mass of local nerds, to know about Bitcoin, and it's still too unknown at this point (still early adopter stage ;D)

DIY Laser Tag System (http://www.lasertagparts.com/mtdesign.htm)

I also think this is a seriously good idea.  Imagine having a bitcoin laser tag room setup at something like CES, ComicCon, or a MLG tournament

What about those who don't play laser tag but would love to bet on the outcome? I could be sitting at home watching all the movements of the players in the field, thus allowing me the ability on whether I want to bet on that team the next time.

Two teams compete against each other once a critical mass of bitcoins has been wagered. The losing team gets nothing, whereas the winning team splits the winnings with the betters.

It won't take long for this to become a reality show, enjoyed by the masses.

Without me clicking any links from this https://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=laser+tag+reality+show I can easily see that there's a huge market, some untapped.

Final score, 276-135, with Jamaican Hopscoth Mafia stomping The Mighty Morphin Flower Arrangers.

Stay tuned! Next week's match-up will be between Spider Pigs vs The Mighty Midgets.

What's a good name for a Laser Tag championship title?

Lol.

I think this deserves another PM.

I would like to see wars fought this way. Only money would be lost and the most skilled team wins no matter how much money you throw into it.

i already imagine that... a poor guy comes up and pays the entry fee, he only has 5 satoshi left and be able to play in the tournament. Any hit could leave him out for good so no one pays more attention to him. Curiously he "survives" 3 rounds in a row without sweat and wining a great deal of coins already. The final battle is right around the corner and the favorite is getting bets from all over the world but this guy keeps strong. He seems to have a purpose in this life, wining... you can imagine the rest ;)

@OP: Actually, you reminded me of an idea myself and Maagus Iverson had a few years back for webcam-paintball-tank wars. The only thing we hadn't figured out at the time was how to make it pay for itself (It's prohibitively expensive to maintain much less set up). Seems like your "earn-BTC-for-shots" twist just answered that question. Thanks.

I'll bring this up again later when I have the time but I think it's one of those super-fun-matthew-projects that everyone might want to get involved in and I wouldn't keep it from you guys for anything.

Within 6 months I'll be transitioning from grad school to making some nice $$$.  Nice $$$ = investment $$$.

In my area, I could easily see this catching on.  It seems that if BTC are legally defined as commodities rather than money, then it wouldn't have to be 'gambling.'  But I can think of a ton of people that wouldn't mind throwing down $5 (turned into BTC) to play some laser tag with a chance of winning their money back and then some.

Then, you could have an online kiosk linked to pre-selected BTC businesses.  Imagine someone on a laser-tag winning streak using their BTC winnings to purchase some Coinabul gold.

I like the idea of capitalizing on Bitcoins as "tokens" to help grow the BTC economy.  Anybody want to start a Bitcoin airline to give frequent flyer Bitcoins?

But seriously, I think these kinds of Bitcoin-token models have serious potential.

The more I think about this, the more I might actually want to make this a reality.  I just called a buddy of mine to share the idea.  He's not directly involved with Bitcoins and has never used them, but he's exceptionally bright and is currently working on his MBA and is always thinking of potential business ideas.

Hm...

Lol. This is turning into a $300k endeavor and on its way to being a Bitcoin theme park.

My idea begins at laser-tag and ends at Chuck E' Cheese.

I already imagined the Six Flags idea, but I admit I have little interest in a Bitcoin rollercoaster.

No offense, but now we're on our way to reinventing the wheel with this.

That said, Coinopexpress.com would probably sell you all the devices and parts you need to do any arcade center and for good discounts. I have worked with them for a while on DoogiDoogi drum and Pump it Up machines.

I really don't think people are going to pay money to go to a place just to pay more money to play games though, especially not just for the novelty of using an internet currency. Gotta be something more than that going on. Championship games maybe? Maybe like the movie "The Wizard"? Giant NES pads on giant projector screens, 10 minutes of Mario to see who gets the highest score and give them 100 BTC or something?

I actually participated in the Suwon Olympiad Game Competition in Korea and placed in the drumming competition. I would have loved that to be a Bitcoin prize instead of the $2,500 cardboard check.

Playing laser tag against robots that look like anthropomorphic animals, who once in a while stop to play a round of bluegrass or some funky rock, sounds, um, interesting.

I lolled.

That band creeps me the fuck out. I'd pay BTC to shoot them in the face with lasers, but only if OP was giving out Spyder III Pro Arctics as the laser gun.

None taken.  I like the simplicity of the laser-tag idea more than a Chuck 'E Cheese, especially with the modifications necessary to turn all those games into BTC-accepting machines.  

And I was thinking that Bitcoin wouldn't be the promoting factor, it would simply be used as a token like any other token.  There is this place nearby called Enchanted Castle where I used to have all my birthday parties as a kid.  You needed tokens to play the games, and never once did I question "what's this token all about?"  I just accepted it as part of the routine, and so did everyone else -- no tokens, no games.

But with laser-tag, the tokens/Bitcoins would just be used at the arena to play laser tag, buy food/drinks, and purchase shit with your winnings.

My 5-second model:
1)  Customer walks in, hands $15 to employee at the door.
2)  In exchange for the $15, they get a $15 pre-loaded Bitcoin card.
3)  Bitcoin card can be used to play laser tag ($5 per game), buy food/drinks, or be used to purchase BTC products (like gold as I mentioned above) at an online kiosk.
4)  When a customer wants to play a laser tag game, $5 is deducted from each card and goes into a game-winnings pool.
5)  There are BTC payouts for ranking players (e.g. 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place).  At the end of the game, BTC-winnings are distributed to each ranking player.  The pay-per-shot idea could also work with a house-fee taken out before the game starts.
6)  At the end of the game, ranking players spend their new BTC on more laser-tag games, buying food/drinks, or buying BTC products at the online kiosk.
7)  Profit.

Oh come on. You know better than to say something like that without defining a country/state.

Yes, as far as I know.  And those tokens have a manufacturing cost.  That was why I considered the Chuck 'E Cheese idea plausible.  It seems that using Bitcoins instead of tokens could be more profitable in the long run because of the costs associated with tokens. The difference between money and Bitcoins is not as great.  At least it might mitigate the cost of having to upgrade an entire venue to be Bitcoin interactive.

Yep, that's where I used to go   :D

But I don't live in Lombard.

Yep, I agree.  That could potentially make room for a lot of extra profit if there was a rule such as, "All pre-loaded Bitcoin cards must be returned upon exiting the building.  You agree to forfeit all unspent balances on the card upon exiting the building."

Edit:  For a small fee, customers could create a permanent account at the building where they could have their BTC balances stored.  If they ever want to come back, they can access their unspent BTCs.  A rule for this might be "any account holdings that have been stored but unused for greater than a period of 6 months will be forfeited."

See my edit above.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYW6C44zo24

That is all.

Sarcasm, or do you really think that's a reasonable solution?

OP, it seems you're simply talking about opening an arcade/family fun center that merely utilizes Bitcoin as an internal storage medium. It's honestly more trouble than it's worth and it would be the least of your troubles imo. The more this thread goes on, the more it is starting to look like logansryche's theatre where all he needs to run it is popcorn and an oven!

EDIT: Coin/credit systems exist http://www.coinopexpress.com/products/parts/smart_card_system.html and you want to drag the blockchain into it? -_-;

If the set up involves just buying tokens to use at the place, it would be much simpler just to use your own centralized digital tokens of your own server, that you exchange for Bitcoin or fiat. The Bitcoin idea would mainly be useful if people came in and wanted to set up their own wages, paying their own choice of entry fees. That way the laser tag place can claim they have nothing to do with any gambling or whatever. They just provide the guns and the software.

I'm really more focused on the laser-tag thing.  I agree the arcade/family fun center seems to be more trouble than it's worth.

I'm thinking more 16+, 18+, or 21+ crowd.

Edit:  To me, the two hooks are 1) a gambling laser-tag model that isn't legally seen as gambling and 2) the ability to use Bitcoins/winnings to purchase better shit than a stuffed animal.

54M hits, and I bet that big A-A women didn't even monetize it, thus still living on welfare. But, it would create a new catch phrase: You couldn't laser tag a big A-A woman sitting on a toilet.

That's just it though, I don't see (as a 12 year old brained 27 year old) any interest in doing things just because of Bitcoin more than once, and I don't seen any benefits to using bitcoin to patrons at this point in Bitcoin, but I do see the simplicity that bitcoin can bring to internal and external accounting (as can OTS!) but that stops at the POS for the time being.

The laser tag is also a wild idea in itself and might be better if merged with interactive online experiences. Not a computer game, but a real life controllable game (webcam robot arms anyone?)

Read my post about the paintball tanks that are controlled through wifi and have their own sensors and webcams and even screens on all sides to show the player's mugshot at different angles to simulate them driving, then go look at these photos and you'll see that things can be cool AND accessible when the internet is involved and not just a brick and mortar establishment.

http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/showthread.php?24983-RC-tank-paintball

http://hackedgadgets.com/2009/01/04/m1a2-abrams-rc-battle-tank/

I think you're misunderstanding my point.  This wouldn't be advertised with Bitcoin as a selling point.  The selling point is a gambling-based laser-tag model which, to my knowledge, doesn't exist yet.  The other selling point is the ability to purchase valuable items with the winnings.

You're right, I don't know many people who, on a Friday night, suddenly decide to say to their friends, "Hey!  Let's go play laser-tag at this new place, I hear they're using...Bitcoins?"  But, I know dozens of people that would say, "Hey!  Let's go play laser-tag and try to win some money!  If we lose, so what?  Everyone pays for laser-tag anyway and they don't get anything in return."

It's simply a model that would add an extra incentive to play laser-tag.  If you win a laser-tag game these days, you get a lousy scorecard that says you won.  Well, now you can brag about the new 1 oz. silver American Eagle that you won playing laser-tag.  And, if you come in 4th place and barely miss out on the winnings, at least it was still fun, and at least you can still go grab a drink at the bar and have a pizza with your friends.  Thus, emphasis IS on the brick-and-mortar establishment, and not on Bitcoin.

Oh. Then why is this in bitcoin discussion? Pff.. lol

That said, count me in for a game.

I'd recommend demoing it at the next convention, or making it slowly and debuting it at our DCAO sponsored expo.

All I know is we need kids gambling more. Kids today are way too conservative with their finances.

On the other hand, converting lasts to Bitcoin is just a software change, while paintball tanks is a rather expensive capital investment. Puts the Bitcoin laser tag can be advertised as a secretive underground gambling thing, despite it not actually being that, really.

Oh, also, if the score is tracked in actual Bitcoin, your final payout could be a permanent blockchain record of your ass kickery. Add the ability for people to provide their own public address, and you have global score tracking

Because one successful brick-and-mortar establishment like this could improve the sales of many other Bitcoin businesses, especially if everybody converts their BTC winnings into prizes they purchase at the online kiosk.

Won 20 BTC playing laser-tag?  Admire some new silver while drinking some Bit-Brew coffee.  Local places like this that utilize Bitcoin could have huge impacts on the Bitcoin economy if they were linked together.

Casascius Bitcoins comes to mind.


Not necessarily. The last place finisher(s) would win a bitcent, where someday it'll be more valuable than what first place received. Everybody wins!

It wouldn't really be a "gambling-based laser-tag" more like skill based
whoever has the most skill wins

LOL. Yea, let's rip one of those off and scan in the code each time we want to "insert coin".

I stand corrected.