Mercenaries on target

RHA is sponsoring the game with help of Facebook.

By Jess Camp

Published April 6, 2007

The Residence Halls Association is sponsoring Mizzou Mercenaries, a game in which participants run around campus trying to tag targets who are also playing the game.

A list of the participants is posted on Facebook so instead of tagging random people on the street, participants will know who to look for. Unlike true mercenaries who would stop at nothing to get their targets, these taggers have some rules they must follow.

First, there is to be no tagging in the classrooms, residence halls or dining hall facilities. Targets are also off limits if they are at work or in a meeting. The hunters must limit their victims to two tags a day.

Senior Dennis White said he feels that these restrictions make game play difficult for those who do not live in a busy part of campus, and they might have to drop out of the game.

RHA advertised and offered prizes to try and entice people to join the fun.

"It is my understanding that the game Mizzou Mercenaries was marketed to students living in the residence hall system," White said. "Fliers were distributed and RHA reps. were supposed to tell their constituencies about the upcoming game."

Freshman Stephen Lindauer received one of these fliers, and he said he was intrigued.

"I saw the flier in my mailbox and wondered what it was," Lindauer stated in an e-mail. "So my friend and I got online to check it out and decided to join. The game is fun. I just wish more people were playing. That would make it a lot more interesting."

Lindauer has devised a strategy to be the last one standing in this game.

"I try to look to see who is playing and who is still in the game," Lindauer said. "Then if I know any of them, I try to find a place where our paths may cross, and I wait to go in for the kill."

Lindauer said some of his best tags were when people weren't paying attention.

"I was at the rock wall at the rec center, and right before I went up to climb, my friend walked in," Lindauer said. "So I chalked my hands up and walked over to her and hit her on the arm and said 'tag.' At first she didn't get it, and then I said it again, and then it hit her and she was like, 'Damn.'"