Corporate GIs Shed Aggression on Make-Believe Killing Field

Matt Epstein, the owner of a Sherman Oaks office supply company, shot his partner, two employees and two friends Saturday.

He was delighted.

“They never knew what hit them,” he announced afterward while drinking a victory beer. “I shot my partner point-blank. This is great. I love it.”

Epstein was one of 26 participants in a series of “friendly war games” fought with guns that fire paint pellets.

‘Yuppie’ Warfare

The weekend games, run by a former restaurant manager from Woodland Hills, are a local version of a survival-game craze that has gained national attention. Sometimes described as a “Yuppie” version of warfare, the games pit teams of make-believe commandos against their friends and business associates in a cross between a gunfight and a masquerade party.

At a rural site near Westlake Village, the games are staged by 34-year-old Ross Alexander on a four-acre tract of land he leases. In return for a fee of $25 per participant, teams are equipped with modified cattle-marking guns loaded with pellets.

Typically dressed in military-style clothing--and, just as typically, covered with loads of camouflage paint--the opposing armies are then set loose for a four-hour shift of make-believe warfare played in a variety of forms.

Skill, Experience Vary

“It’s a great morale-builder,” said Alexander, who runs the games out of the back of a van loaded with paint pellets, carbon dioxide cartridges and a box of first-aid supplies. “We get a lot of corporate types. . . . It’s good for relieving tension.”

Whatever it does for people, the business has kept Alexander busy. In the three months since the Westlake Village tract was declared a “war zone,” Alexander said his clients have grown to include a range of enthusiastic players who make up teams that vary greatly in skill and experience.

Staff members from two Los Angeles hospitals are said to fight regularly at the site, while a local freight company pits its Burbank and Glendale branches against each other. The traffic division of the Culver City Police Department has fought interoffice wars and a group of regulars from a nearby shooting range has formed a team called the “Storm Troopers.”

Capture the Flag

The rules, for the most part, are simple. In most games, each team guards a flag that the other team tries to capture. Enemies are shot at and removed from the game when hit. Referees equipped with bright orange vests run back and forth blowing whistles and talking to each other on radio headsets.

Head and crotch shots are discouraged, since the paint pellets can raise welts at close range. Players are warned to stay out of trees and away from poison ivy. Goggles are required at all times. Faking death is illegal.

Alexander said his games have never caused a serious injury, but he noted that he is equipped with $500,000 worth of insurance per player. He admits, however, that the contests are rarely civil. One team once “executed” a player for making too many mistakes, while a player on another team once shot a teammate in the back.

“I think it was his boss,” Alexander said. “It was his only hit all day.”

Healthy Ration of Beer

Saturday’s games appeared to be a more or less typical contest. At Epstein’s suggestion, a loose group of friends from the Los Angeles area began arriving at the site at 8 a.m., equipped with fat wallets and a healthy supply of beer.

Divided into red and blue squadrons, they soon were set loose in the countryside, where they snuck around in bushes and yelled insults at their foes. Some spent the afternoon crawling on their bellies, while others stood in clearings and tried to look forbidding.

In the end, the blue team defeated its opponents with a combination of sniper fire and headlong charges.