Come Out & Play 2009 Report

Didn't get a chance to check out the 2009 Come Out & Play Festival? Don't worry, NYCGI was there on Saturday to get the low-down on one of the city's most exciting and original events!

The Come Out & Play Festival has been around since 2006. During that time the organizers have developed an event that consistently draws people from all over the globe to New York for a weekend of fun, energetic, and eclectic games that simply can't be experienced anywhere else. The three day festival runs throughout the city with organizers and volunteers situated in Times Square, Pier 84, Central Park, and various parts of Brooklyn eager to get participants involved in any number of the 34 individual games being run.

We're here!

We didn't have time to catch the festival in its entirety, however we spent all day Saturday scoping it out and we're happy to report that it was a resounding success! While there we participated in two games, "Paparazzi" and "Live Action Pitfall". We also hung around afterwards to chat with the organizers and meet with various players during the after party.

When we arrived in Times Square at 2:30 we were itching to get our game on, and fast. Lucky for us, the organizers had a variety of different games running concurrently so there was a ton of options to choose from. We decided to fulfill our inner TMZ fantasies and kicked things off with the tabloid inspired Paparazzi. A game that can best be described as a sensational paranoia inducing game of cat and mouse.

Getting ready for some games.

The game got started by breaking up into teams of three. Teams were then randomly assigned the status of either “Celebrity” or “Paparazzi”. If you were a celebrity, one member of your team was required to wear a bright red hat, bola, or wig while the other two members became the accompanying entourage. It was their job to protect their celebrity friend from the snap happy paparazzi; all while traversing a five block radius in an attempt to get to the various, randomly generated party spots (represented quite nicely by festival volunteers in yellow and green hats).

Learning the rules...

While this was happening, the remaining teams became the Paparazzi and were tasked with hunting down and photographing the celebrities without being spotted by their entourage. This was made easier thanks to the wonders of technology. Party spots and celebrity locations were tracked via a combination of mobile GPS and a continuous stream of updates sent through text messages. If the paparazzi were able to get a picture without being spotted, the teams switched places and the roles were reversed. Teams scored points by either snapping a photo of a celebrity, or in the case of the celebs, making it successfully to a party spot with their entourage.
 
The game got off to a slow start (the fact that it was raining didn't help much either) and it proved difficult to snap decent photos from a distance. It quickly became apparent that as paparazzi you were going to have to run as fast as you could and hope your target didn't turn around and spot you, or channel some serious ninja stealth maneuvers to get the picture you needed.
 
I learned this lesson very quickly as I sprinted down 48th street after my first celebrity target. Camera in hand, I was ready to take a photo when a member of the other team spotted me right as I was screaming “Paparazzi!” at the top of my lungs. Onlookers didn’t quite know what to make of it, however they all made a point of surveying the surrounding area to see if Angelina Jolie was in town. After that initial brush with embarrassment it was decided that our team should split up lest I continue to draw too much attention to us for the remaining hour. Our overall strategy was to keep each other in view but pretend like we didn’t know each other. That way we could gain the upper hand on our prey by blending in with the regular foot traffic.

Going to a party?

One of the really great things about Paparazzi was the sheer sense of paranoia that accompanied it. You didn't want to let on that you were playing the game because that could blow your cover. There were a couple of times where I was about to take the perfect photo and an opposing team of paparazzi would hightail it past me in an attempt to get the picture first. Members of our team also remarked that they experienced a heightened awareness for the color red and I personally noticed that I became far more attuned to groups traveling in threes.
 
When we finally got the chance to be a celebrity, no paparazzi (or average citizen for that matter) was safe from our entourage enhanced eagle eyes. We'd literally scream, "No Pictures!" (the only way to  truly stop a paparazzi in their tracks) at any random stranger that got within half a block. However, despite our best intentions, the other teams did an excellent job tracking us down and we were soon ambushed a few seconds after turning our first corner.
 
After the game ended we decided to get some dinner and throughout the entire meal we debated the pros and cons of the game. We chatted about what resonated with us and what might have made the game more balanced and entertaining. It was this shared experience and the stories and perspectives each of us had that made this game so much fun. We had a great time and commend the organizers for doing such an exceptional job with designing and running Paparazzi.
 
The second game we played was non-other than Indoor Pitfall. This had to be one of the most whimsical and smile-inducing games of the entire festival. Seriously, when’s the last time you swung from a rope? Yeah, I don’t remember either and I have the blisters to prove it!
 
The way they designed it was pretty creative. The whole game was surprisingly low-tech and could be easily recreated in high school gymnasiums across the country. They projected a giant replica of the original Pitfall on to the back wall of the theater and projected a second set of enemies and hazards directly on to the floor. The score was kept manually by one of the organizers, although it appeared fully automated.

Teams of four were formed, one representing each of the four available lives, and we took turns swinging, jumping, or running to get to the other side of the stage. Once there, you’d just loop around again to try and score more points. There was a five minute time limit and if a member of your team touched a hazard they were out and you’d have to continue on without them.

Like Tarzan on Broadway, only not really.

Just like the old Atari classic, teams were attempting to get the highest score. The competition was rough, but the teams did a great job and they all snagged some impressive scores. Also, whoever was managing the audio did an amazing job selecting music to fit the team’s name. It was actually one of the more talked about and enjoyable elements of the game.

So after a long day of big gaming we can safely say that the Come Out & Play Festival is well worth the time and energy required to participate. Everyone in our group had a blast and we look forward to attending next years event. The actual games themselves provided players with an incredible framework in which to explore the city and gave participants another great reason to engage with the environment around them. That, along with the ridiculousness of the games, was what we most enjoyed about the festival. And that’s what it’s really all about anyway.