Editor’s note: This is an editorial piece. An editorial, like a news article, is based on fact but also shares opinions. The opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and are not associated with our newsroom.
SALT LAKE CITY — If we don’t want our kids to be couch potato video game zombies, we have to be careful not to scare them away from games like “The Assassin’s Game.”
You might know this game as “The Assassin’s Game,” “Senior Assassin” or “Water Wars” since it’s been around for more than 30 years—at least since I was in high school. It’s a ton of fun and it can get dangerous.
To oversimplify it—and to ignore the 50 iterations of this game—it’s like tag with water guns.
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The game starts with a participation fee. You get a neon-colored bracelet, and once the game begins you hunt down other participants. When you find them, you squirt them with a water gun. If you tag them—get video evidence of it—you get their bracelet. The last man standing is the one with all the bracelets and winner of a cash prize from the participation fees.
If my description is not enough, you can even watch an entire episode of “Gossip Girl” dedicated to the game.
Why is this news? The Lehi City Police Department posted an advisory on their Facebook stating, “The Assassin’s Game is starting once again … we urge you to speak to your students about the game and make sure they understand that they might be playing just a ‘game’ but the consequences of reckless driving or committing other crimes while playing are very real, should someone get hurt.”
Lehi Police Corporal Jake Smith warned of the potential dangers.
“It sounds fun. It’s for sure something I would have played … but we are seeing reckless things. The other day I had kids in the back of a truck bed going about 50 mph going down a hill chasing each other,” Smith said. “Luckily, there were no accidents, but we had to have some serious conversations with their parents.”
Smith said that they’ve gotten calls from citizens who aren’t aware of the game. They’re worried when they see kids chasing each other, carrying (water) guns and trespassing as they try to tag each other.
This is where the competitive juices and teenage immaturity trump good decision making. Over the years and across the nation it’s led to crashes and shootings—with real bullets.
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Is this “kids being kids,” or is this a legitimate safety concern? Probably a little bit of both. Kids love playing this game and it largely goes off without any serious injury, but it also has the potential to be dangerous.
One father, Walt from St. George, called into the Dave & Dujanovic program on Monday and said he had some first-hand experience with “water wars.”
“It’s kind of fun,” Walt said. “They put a bounty on my daughter, so you can earn an extra $15. They boxed my daughter in with their cars and she couldn’t get out of her car and they were surrounding her.”
Walt, in playing the heroic father role, grabbed the hose and started soaking the would-be assassins.
“I was there with the water bazooka defending my daughter’s honor,” he said with a laugh. She made into her house without being tagged.
In conclusion, if we don’t want our kids locking themselves away in the basement playing video games, we can’t scare them away from community games. Play and be safe.
Lehi police just want kids and parents to remember, “Senior Assassin” is legal; trespassing and reckless driving is not.
A couple of notes and rules on the game:
- It’s not typically sanctioned by the school.
- Can’t happen on school campus.
- Can’t happen during school hours.
- Can’t break the law.
- Can’t trespass.
- Can’t tag while driving.
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