It Was a Nexus Kind of Night

tiviachick
17 hours ago
3 min read

When I decided to make a road trip to Connecticut I had a few locations in mind to stop, but it all began with a recommendation I received in March that I ought to check out the new Gel Blaster Nexus Laser Tag arena at RPM Raceway in Stamford, CT. So, off I went!

As soon as I arrived I asked to get into a game, specifying that I was interested in playing the laser tag version. My timing was perfect, as there was a group suiting up for laser tag right then, so I joined them and we split up into teams, blue vs green.

I was handed my phaser, connecting by touch tapping it to my vest and was suited up and ready.

We watched the briefing video featuring a familiar face…hi Steve!

And we were ready to play. I had snuck a peek at the arena through the observation window in the briefing room.

But when I went inside I found something completely unexpected…full-out branding was going on in this arena, leaving no question as to what system you are playing.

This may not catch everyone’s attention, but it caught mine because I am hard pressed to think of ANY other arena I have played that dedicated this much space to promoting their system. Honestly, to most people laser tag is laser tag and it’s mostly the truly dedicated and competitive players who even know the difference. Nonetheless, I can’t remember another arena where I have seen the marketing done right there on the walls and it got my gears turning!

So many questions…did RPM design it this way with marketing in mind? Is this a Gel Blaster Nexus design? Will other Gel Blastet Nexus arenas be doing similar styling? What do the arena designers think of this? It really got me thinking…for all of 15 seconds until the game started. Then I shifted my attention back and became “all about that base” (or target or portal, if you prefer).

We played hard during the course of that game.

By the end I was exhilarated and ready to see if my name was at the top of the leaderboard…except…I had forgotten to sign into the Gel Blaster app on my phone before starting the game! (Facepalm)

So what’s a girl to do, go home without having credit for driving all the way to Connecticut? Not likely! Of course I jumped into the next possible game of laser tag. It followed a gellet game, but I got to play with a new group who had just finished having the gellet experience and this time I was promptly signed in with this awesome group without missing a beat.

Once again, taking note of all the system branding behind us. I think this is very smart for building brand familiarity.

Our next game was awesome and I feel like I had reacclimated to the gear, as this was only my third time playing it “out in the wild”.

This time I saw my name on the scoreboard.

I also saw my stats show up on the app, for which I have a new-found appreciation.

I only have two laser tag apps currently on my phone for signing in at various locations. Most of the systems I play require me to carry a member card, which I usually have in my wallet (unless I’m given a new one that inadvertently sets off store security alarms…true story!), but it’s a bit more hit or miss as to whether I remember to take every member card with me on a trip. However, I’ll never leave without my phone! :)

So this was a successful way to finish out both the day and a multi-arena tag trip through Connecticut with a Nexus kind of night.

Before heading home I stopped over to the food and bar area at RPM Raceway and ordered the BEST chicken quesadillas for the road. Kudos on those!

Then I called it a night and started the road trip back home while listening to an audiobook by my favorite author, Joshilyn Jackson (who dropped one tiny reference to laser tag in her last book) and I considered this a very worthwhile tag trip!