TAG, YOU'RE IT

Never underestimate children in a battlefield. That's the conclusion I've come to after playing 11-year-olds in laser tag and losing. No, not just losing -- being completely annihilated.\nI would crouch to avoid getting hit. They would get lower and take me out. I would tag one and two would deactivate me. I'd try to get help from my roommate Rick Strohl, but he couldn't do anything either because they would follow him around, constantly deactivating him. Finally I ended up crouching down, aiming at whatever flashing lights I saw from the narrow view a cubby hole provided, and hoping no little buggers would sneak up behind me.\nIn the end it wasn't even close. The two teams of 11-year-olds beat us and two girls from Bloomington High School South by more than 31,000 points each to our pathetic total of 15,000.\n"The little kids just keep moving everywhere," says Molly Pate, a sophomore at Bloomington South. "You just can't beat them. It was fun trying, though."\nThis is a typical Friday night at LazerLite, 4505 East 3rd St. The owner, Susie Wolfgong, even warned us beforehand.\n"The little kids win because they're shorter and you don't see them," she says. "The big people get pretty mad sometimes."\nLazerLite is not new to Bloomington. It has been in the same location for more than four years, but Wolfgong still calls it "the best kept secret in Bloomington" since many people still don't know it exists.\nThe idea of LazerLite began with a simple question to Wolfgong's son when her family moved here from Virginia in 2000.\n"When we moved out here there wasn't a whole lot for my son Adam, the (then) 10-year-old, to do," she says. "The bowling alley was dirty and I didn't want him being a mallrat, so I asked him, 'What does Bloomington need?' And he said lazer tag."\nBefore opening, there were questions of how successful the business would be. The system used at LazerLite, composed of 21 vest and phaser combos, three bases and wall mines is just as ornate as lazer tag facilities in Indianapolis, but accommodating to a much smaller town. The system allows for more than 1,500 options when customizing a game.\nThat's not even mentioning the 3,300 square-foot jungle-themed playing field. Porous walls, boxes and pillars, all bathed in fluorescent light, provide plenty of opportunities for strategy. Blaring techno music and a subtle hazing effect add to the cool club atmosphere.\nThough the night I played it was against young, albeit very proficient, children, lazer tag is hardly a game only for kids.\n"The youngest birthday party we've had here was for a four-year-old, but the oldest birthday party we've had was for a 53-year-old," Wolfgong says. "There have been moms who have their kid's birthday party here then get a babysitter and come back here with their friends."\nLocal businesses have also begun holding stress-relief nights at the arena where the object is to tag the boss as many times as possible.\nWolfgong is actually trying to get more of the college crowd into the facility, most recently by reaching out to IU's Greek community.\n"I'd like to get the fraternities and sororities playing against each other, maybe even forming leagues," she says. "I think it would be a hoot to have them play against each other."\nThe important thing to realize about lazer tag is that it can be as simple or complex as the players want. For kids, there are the basic game types like trying to destroy the other team's base, or an every-man-for-himself-style free for all. For adults there's the popular and complicated VIP game where one player has a limited number of shots and bodyguards to protect him from opponents who keep having to reload at different stations.\nHowever, sometimes the simplest games are the most entertaining.\n"I usually like every-man-for-himself (style) because only you can control how many points you get," says longtime LazerLite employee Dan Hill. "No one else can drag you down or bring you up."\nAnd unlike other activities available on weekends in Bloomington, lazer tag is actually good for you.\n"We've had one regular, a big kid, who would come in every Monday since we opened and play six games and then play Dance Dance Revolution," Wolfgong says. "He's still a big kid, but now he's solid. You're always moving around in there. It's pretty healthy. We try to keep it cool at about 62 degrees but you can still come out of there dripping sweat"