Information Design Analysis of a Sport Complex.
- PAINTBALL -
I recently was invited to a paintball tournament and decided that finding out more about this sport, from a local point of view, would be an excellent way to analyze the acquisition of the knowledge about this sport, since I am essentially in a position of not knowing anything about it.
My first step was to hit Google, which provided the following results:
I chose to click into the link for the closest address which happens to be a short ways from where I presently live. The web link gave this:
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Another click or two and I had an idea of what the inside of the local paintball shop looks like:
I then decided to go for a visit and see if I could talk to someone about the sport. I called the number on the Google listing but got no answer the first time around. I tried again about 10 minutes later and someone picked up. He said yes we're open. So I got in the car and went down there after confirming the exact location, the Google map wasn't entirely accurate.
After my arrival, and after discussing with the store proprietor, a Mr. Heverly, about the sport I inquired about whether they would be having an event anytime soon and he replied that yes there will be one this coming Sunday.
I drove out to the location, which is a little ways out in the country from where I live in Corning. I was greeted with this sign at the entryway:
And then after another turn or two I found this compound:
And then I said "Howdy" to a couple of guys who were getting ready for the game:
And they said the area above was actually the "speedball" playing field, that the "woodsball" field was out here:
I walked out there and found this, a bunch of guys in camo suits running around in the woods shooting at each other with paintguns:
I got to know a fair amount about what it takes to become involved with this sport. You can "rent" your way into this particular tournament complex for 25 dollars and you receive a day's worth of play and all the gear needed, heavy duty clothing, face shield, goggles, paintball gun, propellant gas and paintballs. I didn't do this on this particular visit but decided it will be worth the money to have the experience and I plan on attending another event sometime and will ante up to enjoy a day of play.
In terms of information design this was really all about Cassini's waypointing, with Shedroff mixed in and to some degree as I went along so were the other major theorists. There was after all a time element, I started one day and then a few days later culminated with a visit to an actual event which resulted in the images above. I couldn't help thinking that Horn, Dervin and Cooley were kind of wrapped up in all of this because the entire game of paintball is built up from other invention out of the industrial revolution, and the process I used was to start with the Google interface and then go find more information by making physical visits to locales to gain knowledge. Which is human centrist in nature but it is not a human centrist interface. It is the act of a human following a trail that others had created and intuitively knowing they were saying, here, follow us and this is what you will find. Which I really enjoyed that. One has to kind of give up to the element of time and say to one's self I am going to get there regardless of how long it takes. Kind of like our case study where we had to travel from one place to another and the travel kiosk wasn't in our language. It is a little bit of a challenge, but that's what a Sunday afternoon is for.
There was signage and directions and maps available. Ultimately after a conversation at the local paintball store I had verbal directions that I could readily relate to: "Go out to Watson Homestead and it's the first left just passed it," which immediately told me where it was since I know that area.
While the complex is rustic in nature, for example, horse stalls converted to living space for people to kick their heels up:
...one is really left to find their own way. But everyone along the way provided enough info to get you there. Mr. Heverly told a couple of stories that engaged me, which eventually proved enough to convince me to make the trip to the complex.
As I was traveling out to the complex I started wondering if there might be any women playing the game as everyone I had met so far was male. And while hanging about watching, a guy and his daughter showed up and she was quite young, probably ten years old. She was not going to go play, but she did don a facemask and goggles and came out with us onto the playing field to watch the game in action. We stood behind a referee off to one side and I don't believe we were in any danger. The whole design of the sport is to prevent danger.
The overall design of the experience is what it is like to be in combat conditions. The people playing definitely got wound up and caught up in what they were doing and came off the field breathing heavily, while others were called off the field after being hit and the ref called them out. While not entirely realistic it does give one a small sense of what it might be like to be in a field combat situation.
I don't know how I could suggest any improvements unless it was to the website the paintball store provided that might give details about tournaments and directions to the playing field. It would be interesting to see if a GPS unit had the information available in it. My guess is that it probably is not so.
I did find that there was inconsistency from the web experience to the signage on the roads getting to the paintball complex. The available "linkage" was the "ABV paintball" which became the central semiotic to continually refresh to at each stage. The coloration and layout of the available road signs did not match the web page. And once at the building the complex is centralized around, at first there was no one there, only a stereo blaring with hard rock music. I had to take it upon myself to look over the grounds and discover the truck out in the field with people around it. Had I not made the assumption to go investigate that, anyone else may have thought the event might have been called off and no activity was to take place and leave.
It reminds me of surfing and surfers. Finding a particular break isn't a typical wayfinding experience. Often what you find is a trail of surfing stickers on local traffic signage and stuck to other upright posts along the way to a given break. The stickers are derived from all kinds of surfing products. What you are seeing is your waypoint system. It is not to follow any one logo in particular, it is to follow the trail of stickers. Typical surfer defiance of convention.
In my mind though, for the paintball complex, this is a kind of an exercise in getting back to an experience where one is relying on other instinctual ability and not so much a gimmicked up technology base. Having said that though, the location I have been invited to in Myrtle Beach apparently utilizes very high tech concepts from spies to helicopters and even LAWS rockets to exact a more appropriate combat oriented experience.
I'm sure it's nothing like the real thing. I have been pinned down once as a kid in a mountain cave when I engaged some people walking along that were armed with BB guns and pellet rifles and they shot profusely back at me for about 25 minutes. The shots came in over my head and ricocheted off the rock wall behind me and down into the ground around me where I was hunkered down. I yelled out "I give up" finally and was allowed to get up and walk out. The sting is quite remarkable.
I've enjoyed this class Neal. cya.
You sure did choose a large space, whole of outdoors :) to evaluate. The inside space looked a bit disshevelled, ddo you thing they had enough organiztion of their indoor space to help people find their way to the outdoor spaces without having to give verbal directions each time? Were there specific signs that you wished you had seen? Be careful out there!
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Charles another fine job so have you been there and played since you posted? I did quite enough of that thing for real in the seventies but I can see how other people may want to do that.It did look as if perhaps they could improve the signage though I believe that is a result of thier budget and that is another subject. Ed
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