Be Excellent To Each Other

Would anyone be interested in doing this next year, considering we can't go back to the National Videogame Arcade?

https://www.zlvr.co.uk/about-zl/

There's two zombie games, an engineering one and a sci-fi military game. It hasn't even opened yet, but I'm sure they'll have ironed out any bugs by March time.

We could do the activity, have a meal somewhere and then go out for some drinks before coming back to ours for more gaming/music/VR fun. We could put up four people with a spare bed and sofabed, and there's lots of reasonable hotels nearby. What does everyone think?

Massive props to Sal for finding this! I reckon it would be a lot of fun.

I could be up for this. Put me on the 'maybe' list.

It looks like the holodeck.

I'd be up for that.

In.

I'll bring your Frosties.

If you could please, that would be great. Also, I know exactly how many are in there so don't go sneaking any!

They fell over and some went on the floor so I put them in the bin, but I'm not sure how many. Single figures though, so adjust accordingly.

I'll update the spreadsheet now then. Thanks for letting me know.

I think an old friend of mine from the Savages days is involved in that.

Is that an In?

I'm in no position to do thinking today, man.

Probably.

Although I'll wait for date confirmation before booking a hotel this time.

This will be the 9th March! Who is in? I’d like to book it in the new year.

Not I, sadly. Stop booking things the weekend of my birthday.

Have you chosen your next form or will you decide on the day?

Need to firm up people’s interest in this as it’s max 8 players per game, and we have some off-Beex interest too.

Definite:
Me
Sal
Bamba

Probably:
Mr Dave

Maybe:
GazChap
Vision
Joans

Anyone else? Can we turn the maybes into deffos? I’d like to book sooner rather than later.

Jem and I are definites.

Awesome!

Actually, let me clarify - I'm a definite as far as the VR thing goes. Jem will be coming with me, but whether she's up for the VR thing I don't yet know - will find out in a bit when I get home

//edit: Or she may see this before I get a chance to mention it

That’s cool. We may or may not have others who are attending the weekend who aren’t ZLVR’ing too.

I spoke to the organ grinder as the monkey was useless at getting back to me.

Hah, yes - sorry, clean forgot.

I am booking this very shortly!

Currently we have:
Me
Sal
Gaz
Jem
Joans
Sat
Mr Dave
Bamba
Fun Matt (Sal's brother)
Fun Pat (Fun Matt's friend)
Fun Beth (Fun Matt's gf)

Max is 8 per game and we currently have 11. Would be good to get closer to 16 if we can and they'll do back-to-back games for us. Vision?

Fun Pat in Barbados, yesterday:

He runs in a circle as fast as a cat.

Spongebob Squarepat.

Cool, two more in. Thanks Z and G!

I'd love to do this but we're busy on that Saturday with some family stuff... Sorry!

Boo! Thanks for letting me know though.

Is it safe to assume it's all set in stone enough for me to book flights and whatnot? Also: fucking hell people. This looks like awesome fun and what the fuck else is anyone ever doing in March? It's a nonsense non-month, sign up for this and shoot some zombies in VR.

Hmmm, though I've just noticed this in the FAQ page which could be a problem for some of our party:

Yep, I can think of at least Sal who wouldn’t be able to see a thing without her glasses.

@gazchap isn’t this also a problem for you?

Well that’s me out then.

Were you wearing glasses when using myps VR that time I met you? Jesus Christ my memory is a shitshow.

I was. I don’t have any contacts either; can’t get on with them. Resting thin pieces of plastic on top of your retina? Fuckouttahere

Fair enough. And indeed the entire idea of contact lenses just sounds like the most batshit insane mentalness.

But! I've been wearing them every single day for about 25 years and to me they're like some kind of wizardry. They take my genuinely useless eyeballs (something like -11 prescription which is close to legally blind; certainly I'll guarantee its a lot worse than anything most people have experienced) and turns them into 20:20 perfect wonderfulness. It's genuinely incredible.

And! If they did all that while still making it obvious that I had bits of plastic in my eyes, I might still accept that deal. It turns out though that I don't even need to worry about that. Because for about 98% of my life I am literally unaware of them. Which makes no fucking sense! I have bits of plastic IN MY EYES! Why is that not miserable? Why!? No one knows!

So, yeah, it's genuinely inexplicable. But I've had 20:20 vision for the last 20-odd years despite how utterly awful my actual bio eyes are. I'll take it.

Clarification: I wasn't trying to disagree with Sat here or anything. Sticking bits of plastic in your eyes is a fucking weird thing to do; it totally just is. And anyone who thinks otherwise needs to look at their life very closely.

Fuck me, -11 is powerful short-sighted. I was -4 and could barely see my way around.

@bamba Don't you still have to wear glasses sometimes? My wife can't wear her contacts all the time or her eyes dry out.

I take them out whenever I'm home and not going back out again that day for sure.

Not as much as it would be for some others - I wear glasses, but since being lasered my prescription is only about -0.5/-0.75 so I could just about cope - I expect it'd give me a powerful headache though

I can't do contact lenses either.

Concur. I’m -6 and it’s a struggle if I lose my glasses.

I’m amazed they can fix -11 with contacts. Technology is fucking brilliant sometimes.

Actually it turns out I'm an idiot, I've just checked and my prescription is only -7.5. Which is still bad but obviously nowhere near as bad as -11. Fuck knows why I thought it was so much worse.

Did you read the prescription the first time without you glasses?

So are you still in or no?

Their FAQ says the lenses can be adjusted to accommodate my prescription, so yep - still in.