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Meet Eric Thompson of Conflict Colorado in Lakewood

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Eric Thompson.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Eric. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
Where did we start and how did we get here?

We officially started five years ago, but since running my other business took precedent it was a slow burn. In 2018 we finally locked down not only a fixed position to host groups and now have the largest battlefield in the country. Having an amazing mountain area is both our greatest asset and our greatest liability. It’s far. There is no cell service, but it is also stunningly beautiful and offers an incredible array of terrain, which means as we grow; we can open new areas and create new maps, objectives, and stories. But even five years ago, how did we find ourselves deciding to start this idea where many people still say I am crazy, and it is doomed to fail?

Rewind a few more years. My daughter will be turning six soon. We just finished a trip to Glenwood Caverns, which is now as much of an amusement park as it is a cave tour. She played her very first game of laser tag. It was a tiny arena of cheesy techno music, darkness, and flimsy wood walls. The gun system was exactly what you expect if you have played any laser tag previously, an uncomfortable vest, wired to a futuristic looking weapon (ok, these weren’t even that. They looked like the hand scanners you’d find at a grocery store) that made a pew sound. But.. she still loved it, and she begged me to let her do that for her upcoming birthday. So, hey, we decided to look into it. Now you must keep in mind, that although I still had fun in this little arena, I considered laser tag to be a dead activity, and this place was a vintage remnant from the ’90s waiting to disappear into the annals of history. To further illustrate my negative thoughts on the activity (sport?), my other company does high-end audio video installations for homes and businesses. We had a client just a couple years previous, who wanted to build a large family fun center with bowling, video games, laser tag, etc. I had talked him out of the laser tag arena because it seemed to be a dying industry, where the revenue per square foot didn’t make that much sense anymore.

As we investigated the Denver area, we found a much different picture. Laser Quest was a 7000 square foot arena in Aurora. We visited on a Friday night to inspect their facilities… and it was CROWDED. REALLY crowded. The arena was full. There were kids running everywhere inside and out. The party rooms were full too. It was mostly older kids, so we didn’t think it was a good spot for our daughter’s birthday, but I will admit it made me start to think.

So, being the sort of “rabbit hole” person I am I decided to see what these systems could actually do these days. They had to have something better than grocery scanners, lol, right? Could you buy them for your house, and play with a few people? Well, largely it turned out no. They all needed central computers. They were all cheesy, but then I found one that caught my eye. Nerf had released a new laser tag gun for the home. You could put your iPod Touch (the original) in it, and fight up to 30 people, and they were only around $40 each. The iPod Touch would function as not only an “optic” for targeting your enemy, you could even do things like call in air strikes and such to them, so they would have to fight not only you but some computer generated enemies. As good as that sounded on paper, the reality was not so good. To have 30 people, you would need to play outside (unless you live in a huge mansion), and they were all but worthless in that environment. Still, it just made me more interested to dig deeper. And then I found IT! … a weapon system that looked close to the real thing. They didn’t need any computer. They could supposedly hit targets up to 1200 feet away. They had “real” optics on them and all of a sudden I had an even bigger flashback…

Rewind another decade, where I actually had the time to play video games. Since I was a kid, I loved them. I grew up in the golden age of Atari and Nintendo, Sega and PlayStation. I had tinkered with computers and programming for as long as I can remember. I remember sitting at a bar, talking with friends… the wouldn’t it be great if… conversation. Of course, it was just that a conversation. There was no way we could do THAT. To create a live version of a game like Call of Duty? To create an action movie where everybody gets to be a star, but only together as a team. No individual hotshots like multi-player video games had… and ruined the experience.
I had always been a big fan of everything military. From GI Joe as a kid to playing any and every strategy, tactics or simulation I could find, to reading books on the subject as I got older. I nearly went into ROTC during college, but I knew my personality type wouldn’t fit that environment very well. As I got older, I started noticing how our endless wars were affecting our soldiers. The out of control suicide rates and most people’s desire to ignore it made had always made me want to do something, but I could never quite figure out what. Many end up homeless or have a very hard time figuring out how to re-integrate into normal society. Wouldn’t it be great if… we had actual military veterans running these games? Giving them an opportunity to come back home and find a place they could belong to? To share their stories? A place where they could make a difference and feel a part of something? And with that… the concept was born, even though I didn’t realize it at the time.

So, fast forward back to five years ago. I managed to secure a few sample weapons. I took them to a wealthy friend and client, hoping maybe he may want to throw some money at it to get started. He wasn’t interested. I couldn’t blame him. Although I have always been entrepreneurial, and this wouldn’t be my first business, I knew nothing about the hospitality industry, but I wouldn’t be deterred. And let’s face it, building it yourself is that much more satisfying, at least to me. I’m rarely one to ask for help even if I need it.

That was by far the first problem I faced. The United States has been rapidly trying to transform itself into an anti-gun culture. Even the appearance of the most innocuous item, like the grocery scanners, is starting to become negative, not to mention these black boxes that actually had a fairly accurate “weapon shape.” Gasp and we were many people’s reactions. You can’t do that. It’s not appropriate. It’s as if people painting one pink or orange somehow magically makes it safe now, but black ones? Whoa! What are you thinking?

They are laser guns. They don’t even emit a laser, though. The tech is more like a DVD remote molded into the shape of a rifle. They aren’t paintball or airsoft guns. There is no projectile. We could do this anywhere I thought, and we would be responsible. Sure they weren’t real, but we would make sure our people trained people as if they were. We wanted to have several semi-public locations as the thing that grew oldest among gamers was the maps themselves, but not the gameplay. It would be environmentally sound because we wouldn’t have traffic trampling over the same terrain all the time. We knocked on a lot of doors, but we also had a lot of roadblocks. It made me realize just how fake and worthless politicians really were, as both Colorado reps and US reps would say one thing to your face, and then sabotage efforts on the backside. It demonstrated the intentional bureaucracy of our government is in part designed to lead people into a labyrinth and do everything in their power to make you fail. In the end and through a lot of furies, I scorched a lot of earth but to no avail. The dreams of live-action gaming with some great veterans seemed dashed, but I still would not be deterred. For the next couple of years, we did some mobile events here and there, but it just wasn’t close to what we wanted. No matter where we tried to play, we ran into walls or lies, or both. But that finally changed in 2017, partly due to the success of my other company bringing much-needed revenue and partly because of an amazing place called Wellington Lake.

So, where are we now? We are still in upstart mode, going through lots of changes to find the correct path. I am still told it won’t work, but this year I am proud to say we have an amazing group of people working toward the vision – creating the most immersive, live-action battlefield experience in the world, featuring many combat veterans, who have told me that this “immersive therapy” is good for them. It helps them get behind something and have fun while doing it. It allows them to share their stories with those who would choose to listen. It allows them to share their experiences. We have a 28 year veteran of the Marines, ex-SWAT, among other high-end qualifications. We have another 13-year combat veteran from the Army. We have an ex-Ranger who is one of only two that survived a roadside bomb killing everyone else in the Humvee. We have Marines, Army, Navy. We also hired a couple of theater people this year, because we do straddle the line between realism and theater. People sometimes ask why I need such highly qualified combat instructors for a “game.” Are we teaching people to become murderers? Are we training the next mass shooter? All I can say is come and play for yourself, and you can decide. I don’t think so. We are attempting to offer the most realistic experience available anywhere, while still making sure everyone has an absolute blast. Anyone who knows me knows that I never do anything halfway. Really, that’s not accurate. I never even do things 100% of the way, because once I get there, I almost always find that’s not good enough. It is a defect of the Perfection trait, but on the good side, it continues to drive me to push the limits of what is possible to try to create the most immersive, fun, and educational experience possible. So far we are succeeding in that part.
So, where are we now?

This season we are working on creating a fully immersive SAM (Surface to Air Missile) System. Part puzzle and part function, it will serve to move the narrative of the game. We’ve started to expand the narrative of our four factions, and all the stories that will come as a result will be dynamic based on whether a team wins or loses various “chapters” throughout the day.

We have an amazing staff of Army and Marines, summing more than 50 years of combat experience. We also have some theater and film staff to help with promotion, marketing, and acting. They also help our military guys play the part even better.

We are doing our best to get our name out there. That is always the hardest part of a new business, and what we do isn’t just laser tag, and it takes someone seeing it in person to really get it, but one read over our reviews section, and you can see how great it is.

Has it been a smooth road?
This was covered in the first section, but the biggest struggles have been the following:

anti-mentality is #1
Having a physical place to play #2. This is connected to #1, as it made it difficult to find one. Having mobile is good, but to really build what we want we needed a place we could be all the time or at least a steady schedule.

#3 is financial – this is always the trick in any business – maintaining enough cash flow to keep everything moving, afford the gear, the place to play, the staff to run it, and the marketing to get it moving.

So, as you know, we’re impressed with Conflict Colorado – tell our readers more, for example, what you’re most proud of and what sets you apart from others.
We specialize in bringing groups together for team building or bonding events, playing an advanced form of laser tag. They can learn basic tactics or more advanced tactics from our actual combat veterans. Most places just hire kids. We use the most realistic weapons in the world to achieve it, and we do this through story and objectives which give players a little more buy-in into the game. Pretty much everyone uses nothing even close. We are working on having the most advanced props as well to help with narrative and give a little thinking into what is generally known as a strictly physical and adrenaline game. We have the largest battlefield in the country, with multiple maps, meaning we can continue to make the game fresh for a long time. Our tagline is Live Combat…Evolved. We chose this because it isn’t like what you have played in the past for laser tag, paintball, or airsoft.

Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and the least?
Not sure I understand this question. Do you mean where we play? Well, Wellington Lake is our greatest asset and our greatest liability. It is amazing, differential terrain that is beautiful and adds lots of challenges and character. On the other hand, it is far away from Metro Denver making it a challenge to get to for many. And unlike a ski resort, there isn’t much else there to attract you.

Pricing:

  • Standard Deployment (Half Day) is $100pp
  • Quick Deployment (90m) is $40pp
  • We have add-ons such as providing players unlimited water if they don’t want to bring theirs. $5pp

Contact Info:

Getting in touch: VoyageDenver is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.

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