London Gamers Shoot It Out In The Streets

ChocLinux writes "Gamers that take part in the Streetwars watergun assassination tournament in London could face arrest if they stalk their target in the tube. CNET has spoken to one gamer who has taken part in the tournament and disagreed that waterguns could be mistaken for firearms, as all contestants are using brightly-coloured super-soakers. He admitted that he narrowly missed being eliminated. 'Some guy tried to get me outside work, but he missed and fell off his bike,' he said. If the game isn't over by midnight on August 15, the remaining contestants will take part in a one week sudden death tournament." From the article: "You can hunt your target down any way you see fit; you can pose as a delivery person and jack them when they open the door, disguise yourself and take them out on the street, etc. If you are successful in your assassination attempt, the person you killed will give you their envelope and the person they were supposed to kill becomes your new target."

Comments

Seen it.

[tygerstripes]

Cambridge Uni. Assassins Guild. One enterprising guy dropped a massive polystyrene block on his target's head from a balcony (it was a safe, basically).

The tube?

[neonprimetime]

For those non-englanders, here is what the tube is. I had to look it up myself.

the tube ... could face punishment for acting suspiciously or inciting panic in Underground stations, which last year were the targeted by suicide bombers.

Re:The tube?

[CrazyJim1]

Thanks for the explaination. I thought the tube was slang for the internet.

Re:The tube?

[drinkypoo]

Umm, we brits don't spell it like that. (Here's a hint, there's no u in beyond ;) )

Well, you put an extra i into aluminum, how can the rest of us be expected to understand where you will insert spurious vowels?

Dude

[BHearsum]

That is really, really, cool.

Gotcha!

[Mursk]

Anybody see the movie 'Gotcha!'?

Oh, um... me neither.

We did something similar...

[akross]

In High School, we played this game mostly amongst us marching band geeks. We used plastic sporks as weapons because water guns were a no-no in the building. Fun times getting killed at the Burger King Drive Thru...

Sorry, but...

[Evro]

This is going to make me sound like quite the old curmudgeon, but...

Playing games with water pistols in a public place, with other people around (who more than likely don't want to be wet by you), is childish and rude. If you want to play with water guns, do it in your back yard or in a field somewhere.

Re:Sorry, but...

[SatanicPuppy]

Great, now yell, "You damn kids get off my lawn!" and your journey to Curmudgeonhood will be complete.

Our society has enough points of suckitude, and enough ridiculous rules. Sure, sometimes it's annoying, sure, sometimes we take an ill-aimed blast of water in the ear canal, but that's life, and most of us already take ourselves too seriously. Hell, there are people in the US that'd probably sue for getting squirted.

Wasn't there a movie like this?

[PFI_Optix]

Called "Tag" or something like that. They used suction darts fired from real guns (not sure how that works) but it was pretty much the same concept. Hunt someone down, kill them, get their target. Play on until you're the last man standing.

(of course in the movie one guy started actually killing everyone else, and much stupidity ensued)

Re:Timing?

[Rob T Firefly]

What better possible way is there to fight "terror" than to openly have fun and enjoy life? If playing with brightly colored toy water squirters in Summer has become a punishable offense, all is finally lost.

sock assassination

[AcidLacedPenguiN]

some of the residences at my university hold sock assassinations, basically the same thing except with bundled up pairs of socks. You're only safe in class and your own room (if you locked the door). It's a fun orientation activity, it is sad that you can't have fun like that in today's world of terrorisim and all that bollocks.

though from the blurb I thought they were talking about not being allowed to take someone out on the internet!

Rain.

[EnsilZah]

I wonder, if it rains, is that the equivalent of being nuked?

I've done that

[steveo777]

Actually did this back in college. Had a lot of fun, too. We printed off color photos on "Hit" cards. If you got the hit you would take that person's assignment. We used hand squirtguns. Unfortunately, we had an incedent in the States not long after that. The Columbine school shootings which pretty much put a distaste in everyone's mouths for that kind of activity for a while.

One of the unique rules we had was that after 5 hits we could upgrade from the hand squirter to any means necessary. Super Soaker, Water Ballons, Hose, Buckets. It was pretty interesting for a while and about 300 students were initially signed up.

As a player in the London Streetwars...

[Nursie]

I'd like to comment once again how behind the news slasdot is. We've been playing for two weeks and it's moving into its final phase now!

It's been great fun, have done my fair share of stalking. My teammate managed to get inside our first target's apartment block and flush him out onto the street, right into my range of fire. Great fun. We did put in about 7 hours of stakeout over the course of a week to get him though!

Alas we haven't made a second kill inside two weeks and will be disqualified at midnight tonight unless we can pull something out of the bag in the next few hours. Haven't seen hide nor hair of anyone hunting us though, which has been a bit of a disappointment.

So far I don't think the cops have shot or even arrested anyone either, which is good.

Re:As a player in the London Streetwars...

[djdead]

So what happens if you knock off someone and your name in in their envelope? It doesn't necessarily mean that your the last man standing.

Re:As a player in the London Streetwars...

[Nursie]

It should mean exactly that. It's set up so that the 100-150 players are in a ring, each has the next as a target, so by the time you get to someone that has you, you really should be the last man standing.

Knock, knock

[Jtheletter]

Who's there?

Landshark!

Sounds like T.A.G. (The Assassination Game).

[Richard Steiner]

We played it in the mid-80's in college. Lots of fun!

Re:Not sure this is a good idea.

[Bogtha]

The table leg was wrapped in a bag and police had been told he had a shotgun. If you're suspected of being a terrorist, having a flourescent water gun isn't going to make the slightest bit of difference. And you fail to mention that the guy "armed with a lighter" was holding a lighter that was an imitation gun. It's a bit dishonest not to mention this crucial fact and fail to link the article properly so most Slashdotters won't bother reading the article, don't you think?

Yes, all of these were regrettable mistakes. But brightly-coloured water guns aren't going to make the slightest bit of difference, you're just scaremongering.

Don't you understand?

[Erastus]

If we can't sneak around pretending to kill each other - the Terrorists have won!

You make the fear.

[Lave]

I'm replying to the first post to get this near the top of the page (which is a dastardly thing to do, and I apologise).

But to those that are about to read this thread, please remember that people below this post who think that with the "current political climate" this will get you shot are wrong. I live in London, I was hung over and woke up late missing the tube on the first bombings. and then got stuck at work the second time. And these are my experiences.

Firstly, I suspect it is mainly Americans posting - or at least I hope so - and I truly do not want to be mean, but Britain's culture is quiet different to yours. Our parents grew up in the blitz. And I grew up with the IRA bombings. Attacks on Civilians aren't new. They are a consequence of getting to live free. Just because people die - does not mean you give up your life and your freedoms.

The point I'm trying to make is that after the bombing attempt I had to walk across london to get home. Before I left we flipped from the (relatively) informative and calm BBC 24 news to CNN - and watched the presenters talk of the ""chaos" and "panic" as "millions of londoners" have "no possible way to get home".

As I crossed most of central london through most of the effected areas what did I see? I saw a roaring Taxi trade, and I saw hundreds of people standing around every pub I walkied past - drinking, laughing, talking.

CNN, by it's comments created fear across the country and the globe. But where it happened - there was no such thing. And the tubes were full the next day.

This is people playing with water pistols in one of the hottest summers London's ever had for fucks sake. It's more important than ever they play this stupid little game - rather than sit around in fear listening to the News as it lies to them.

Dislcaimer - I'm not talking about the Blitz spirit - or any of that crap, nor am I suggesting London would have handled 11/9 better. What I am saying is ignore the fear filled retoric spewing from the news. As I know first hand how accurate that is.

Re:You make the fear.

[Grab]

Firearms is a major screw-up. Basically it was trying to get away from the "suicide-by-cop" thing that's so popular in the US, where you shoot up a place (and as many innocent people as possible) until the cops shoot you. The sad thing is that this law was badly thought out, so it crapped on the target-shooting fans and didn't really help much to prevent criminals getting guns. But for everyone else in the country, it really made no difference. Unlike the US, the UK has never had widespread public ownership of firearms, so "rolling over" wasn't really in it - I'd say that 90+% Brits have never seen a handgun except on the armed policemen in airports.

Pocket knives too. I don't know about the US, but people in the UK don't generally go around armed to the teeth with machetes. And it's a misunderstanding to say that you're not allowed to carry pocket knives - unless you've got the knife out and you're threatening someone with it, there's nothing the police can do about your Swiss Army knife or Leatherman. Except for at airports, of course, and that's a global thing these days.

And video monitoring generally isn't seen as a privacy issue, because the places where the video cameras are are all very public places. It's a technological alternative to having a policeman on every street corner.

Grab.

Re:You make the fear.

[Shaper_pmp]

Here. Fucking. Here!

As a fellow Brit, thank you beyond words.

USAians and paranoiacs, please take note - this is not an isolated incident, we are not living in denial, Brits who refuse to be traumatised into acting differently by 7/7 are not isolated freaks, and (despite both our governments' and your media's best efforts) we are not the kind of people to fearmonger, lock ourselves in our cellars and let the terrorists win.

You would not believe how many times I've been accused of any or all of the above by (mostly American) /. readers, simply for stating that most British people took 7/7 on the chin and got on with their lives.

It's just a difference in culture, dig? We've been shot at, bombed, hijacked and had full passenger aircraft brought down on villages more or less ever since the end of the second world war (if not longer).

You're still more likely to get hit by lightning than even injured in a terrorist attack, so we're not even blasé about it. We're simply reacting in proportion.

(Lest anyone get the wrong idea, this post is not intended to be anti-American - just anti-hysteria.)

Re:You make the fear.

[Shaper_pmp]

So what happened to all your firearms, privacy (video monitoring), and pocket knives then? Couple people get hurt and suddenly you all roll over on your back as easily and enthusiastically as the family pet.

Actually, most people are uncomfortable or opposed to increased CCTV monitoring, firearms were never commonly available[1] and you can still carry a knife[2]. Oh, and most of the important legislation that actually restricts our freedoms was pushed through my Tony Blair (et al) in defiance of the public's wishes, and often even the wishes of their own party members, and he's now copping all hell for it in the public opinion stakes.

Just look at the kerfuffle around ID cards and I think you'll find the Blitz-inspired backbone is hale and hearty as ever - the government's trying to frighten people into accepting Id cards, but people just aren't scared.

I've been living in Suffolk for about a month and a half now, but it seems to me any back bone left over from the Blitz departed the scene years ago. There are posters and giant metal collection bins here and there. They are scaring people to turn in their cooking knives because they might be used in a crime someday.

Erm, that's a knife amnesty. It's kind of a voluntary request you turn in any pointed knives you might have to reduce the number in general circulation. It's not a heavy-handed pressure tactic from the government, just a polite request. The big secure box was to make sure nobody nicked the tens or hundreds of knives that other people handed in.

Oh, and the knife amnesty didn't go very well - most people flatly ignored it because it's blatantly ineffectual and stupid.

What was your point again?

(P.S. I grew up in Suffolk - nice area of the country, if a bit rural).

Footnotes:

[1] They're still legal, IIRC, but must be left at a gun-club or kept in a locked gun cabinet. They're also legal for farmers or anyone else with a sensible reason for needing one.

[2] As long as it's not a flick-knife, has a fold-away blade that doesn't exceed 3 inches in lenghth.

Re:You make the fear.

[Charcharodon]

I stand corrected. The beer buddy lawyers (aka the yahoos I work with) don't have their facts straight. Now that I poke around a bit more online I see what you are talking about.

Suffolk is very nice so far. I'm enjoying scaring the locals with my truck and my dyslexic (right side bad, left side good) American driving skills. Luckily everything is nice and close together so I don't endanger the public for more than 10-15min at a time, and it doesn't hurt that all the local pubs are within a few minute walk from my door.

Something to think about.

[Anonymous Coward]

I had a conversation once with a policeman. He told me something I never thought about. He told me that gangs would paint REAL guns with colors to make them look like toys. He also said some gans would attack a plastic bright orange(or paint) bracket on the muzzle of the gun to make it look like a toy gun as well. I am not suggesting that they should ban water gun games, but do understand the situation the police is in. Imagine you are in the "tube" (subway) and all of a sudden some guy runs with the gun as he chases down his target. I would imagine it wouldnt be a pleasant thoughts. I am sorry, but that would be just irresponsible.

  Play in the park. And respect homeless' housing ;p.

Kudos

[mjwx]

Nice to hear someone not advocating fear.

Londeners still ride the tube, Bali is still one of Australia's most visited holiday destination. I cant speak for everyone but I am quiet happy not living my life in fear.

In case anyone hasnt caught on to this already, its called terrorism for a reason. The point of it is to make you afraid. Live in fear and hand them a victory.