Paintball in "Video Game Mode"

Just an observation.

I was playing a game on my PS2 recently, and an old memory was jogged in my brain. See, it's one of those "adventure" games where your character builds up as the game progresses. The moves you have don't really change, but you can stock up on more powerful weapons as the game progresses. You can't beat the bad guy at the end unless you buy "more powerful" weapons than you start with.

And I remembered a comment a friend of mine said to me almost ten years ago at a speedball event. He hadn't played paintball, but he lived near the event and wanted to check it out. We sat in the audience and I told him about what was going on. He looked at the colorful arena, the colored jerseys and all that, and he said to me "So this is basically a real-life video game, isn't it?"

At the time, it was. But now, it's even more so. The game has geared itself to believing that you can simply buy an upgrade to your gun and you suddenly become better. As if you buy an upgrade, are bathed in an explosion of light, and your now a "level 5 paintball player". This is nothing new, I mean I can dive into the "magazine pile" and find ads from the early 90's promising that "our gun will make you a better player" or "our barrel will make you a more accurate shooter".

But it dawned on me that the game is geared at "selling you skill" rather than teaching you skills. Instead of selling you a gun because the construction is better, the thing is touted as "SHOOTS MORE PAINT! YOU NEED TO SHOOT MORE PAINT! MORE PAINT MAKES YOU A BETTER PLAYER!!!!" Look folks, I put down an E-Mag to shoot a Tippmann A-5, and there's very little difference in my play style or takedown numbers. Is it because the Tippmann is that good, or the E-mag is that bad? NO! It's because I took a lot of time to practice, learn, and hone the core skills of the game.

Paintball seems to be stuck in this mentality that you can buy your way to be the best. "You can buy a "powerful" gun and beat the other guys!" Sounds stupid, doesn't it? Now replace "powerful" with "faster" or "higher ROF" or "lighter", and you have a typical conversation at a field. And the players buy into this mentality. We want to go to the store, buy $1500 of paintball skill, and go "pwn people!" We want paintball to be as simple as a video game. We want the cheat code to win. We want to get to the "best level" without having to spend a lot of time getting there.

Let me hit you with what I see as the truth of things. The gun does not make the player. If you suck with a Spyder you're going to suck with a DM, except you'll have less money later in the week due to your paint bill. More paint in the air does not mean you're a better player, it means you're putting more paint in the air. Skill isn't something you can buy from a website or a local dealer. You have to get them the same way people have become skilled in sports for thousands of years. You need to practice. Do you think gladiators in Rome bought a cool sword and became great? Lemme answer that for you. No.

But can technology and ROF help enhance skills? Yes and no. If you have the skills to begin with, and you know how to use the technology effectively, then yes it can. If you guy a lighter gun, or something more ergonomic and comfortable, or you put on a mod to get more air efficiency, then it can help. If it's a new toy, and you don't know how to use it, then you need to relearn. And you do that through practice, not buying more "upgrades" for the "upgrade" you already bought. If you rely on technology and ROF too much, and you don't build your skills, you will get burned in the end when your technology runs dry.

Video games are a good fantasy world. They let us do things that, normally, we can't do. Last time I checked I'm not about to get into a spaceship and blast away at aliens or play golf with Tiger Woods. But paintball is reality. You want to get good here, you need to do something called "learning". It takes time, and no amount of money will accelerate that process. You can buy things to help your game, but you can't buy anything to play the game for you. You need to learn, and spending money isn't learning. Too many people buy a "gun of the month", keep on tinkering with it, and complain that "This gun sucks!" Well, of course it does. You're not having any kind of consistency with your gear. You keep modifying the stuff you're playing with and expect it to be working the same?

So what works? Buy a quality bit of gear, something you'll be using for 1-2 years. Play with it to find out what you want to change, change those things, then never, EVER, tweak it radically unless you have to. (like having a back bolt shatter on you or your barrel becomes so fouled up that strapped to a bench it's shooting a cone of paint 20 feet in diameter, that counts as a good reason to change those...) Then go play. Learn the game, learn how to move, learn how the mechanics work. Learn fieldcraft, learn communication, learn shooting techniques, learn effective shooting. After 1-2 years of working on your skills, then look at a new gun. You may be surprised that you're still happy with what you have. You don't need a "gun of the month" as a crutch when you have skill.

Just an observation.

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