Covershot

Just to see if anyone's paying attention.

Tyger's Blog, 90% moved

Short, sweet, to the point.

SPLAT Magazine has offered me a blogspace over on their site, so I'm taking it. Things that are more controversial, they'll still be HERE. But most of the stuff, the stuff that you can show your grandma without getting your inheritance early, will be there.

http://www.splatmagazine.com/tygers-den-blog/

Will probably update weekly, roughly.

"Blood Red Paint" revisited

this post is mirrored from one I made on the Special Ops Paintball forum. The question was asked if red paint was considered ok. A lot of replies were, for lack of a better term, laissez-faire. "I don't care" Or that it made the game more "realistic" and was cool. This is my public response.

*turns on "Dead Kennedys" CD*

You know what? I've argued against this, I've written an article that was published in APG some time ago. And you know what? It dawns on me that, for the most part, nobody in paintball seems to give a rats tail about what anyone outside of the game thinks about it.

So I would like to make a proposal here. Let's just go all out. Pull out the stops and make paintball so close to the "real thing" that calling it a simulation would be doing it a disservice. Let's bring back the "Wolf's Lair" style of play where paintball is a completely immersive experience. Why not bring back the old catchphrase of calling paintball the "Friendly wargame", but let's put a 21st century turn on it. I mean it's no different than playing some of the more violent video games now, except this is realer than real.

First of all let's all use blood red paint. That'd be cool, right? Even better we can buy paint based on our owd blood type! "A" being like whitebox, "B" being like a low end rec-ball, "AB" is like your high end, and "O" being like your high-grade tourneyball. Let's embrace the whole "We're killing each other" mentality. Heck, let's even make a "paint knife" we can mount with a bayonet lug on the barrel too. It could even be removable for throat slashes when you get close to an enemy.

Next, we'll all use the same guns we have now. No need in making everyone buy a replica gun, right? But in 2-3 years we'll make it necessary to use an upgrade body kit to make your marker look more like an M-16, H&K of your choice, or any given machine gun. We'll still let you shoot all the paint you want, unlike real firearms which would MELT if they were shot as hard as a paintgun. I mean this is all "fantasy", right?

Everyone must wear BDU's. No jerseys allowed. You can wear replica WW1, WW2, Korean or Vietnam uniforms if you want, but no pullover, jerseys, jumpsuits (unless you're a pilot). There are exceptions. If you're chosen persona is a guerrilla fighter, you may wear jeans and a t-shirt. You can also wear specific clothing associated with other ethnicities of war-torn areas as long as you can prove it with a photograph from a major news source.

When you arrive, you will have a name card printed out with your chosen persona, and you will be expected to have dog-tags made within a month to replace it. If the field is on the ball, they'll have an embossing machine on site. Nobody will use barrel plugs or socks, as they don't look "realistic" in the staging area. So if a gun goes off and hits someone in the face, so be it. Stupid things happen in "basic" all the time. You may wear goggles and mask, but only if the mask has been modified to look like something militaristic. This is, naturally, a judgment call from the management. Otherwise, goggles only is preferred. Face paint optional, but recommended. Teams will be chosen based on what people are wearing. If you look "American" you go over there, if you look like (insert racial slur of the week) you go over there.

Then when you play, a few special rules apply. There is no point blank rule, instead your team gets bonus points for making an opponent surrender. Surrendered opponents will be disarmed, handcuffed with plastic strip-tape binders, and marched back to base. Once there, they can, at the discretion of the capturing team, be interrogated in any way that is deemed fit. a referee "adviser" will watch the interrogation to make sure it does not leave any long-lasting wounds or marks. Any player who permanently injures another during an interrogation will be thrown out for the day. And the waiver you sign hold the field harmless for any injuries through interrogation. Really, it does. Srsly. k thx bi.

If you are hit in the chest of head, you're dead. You can not move, and you have to have your body dragged back to a staging area. Once there, you will receive your death certificate and be escorted back to your vehicle as you are done for the day. If all your party is killed, you are given your exit papers and you must leave the premises. If you come back, you must have a different "character" in mind.

If you get hit in the arm or belly, you're wounded. You can heal yourself, or have a medic heal you. But you may not use that limb anymore. If you return to the field on later weekends, your wound will still be in effect until the "natural" heal time has taken effect. 2 months or so should be enough, I mean this is all just "for fun" right? Any gun hit disables the gun. You have to spend money (real money, not fake stuff) to get it "fixed" before you can play with it at the field ever again. The gunsmith will fix the damaged gun (wipe it off) and return it to you.

And cheaters? Well if you get caught cheating let's say that the punishment will be worse than any interrogation a player can come up with. And you will be gently persuaded to never cheat again, let alone come back to the field.

So let's do this, really. Let's make paintball more "realistic". Let's embrace the war-like ideals and the "we love combat" mentality. And when the press grills us, and the law-makers make the citizens terrified of us, and laws are passed to regulate paintball we can take the usual paintball stance of "WE have no idea why you hate us! We're just having fun! We're not doing anything wrong! You'd understand if you played once! Paintball isn't like war!" But it is when you intentionally blur the lines.

Perception is half the reason that paintball is still held in disdain by people with some governmental power. We learned this back in the 90's and worked to change the image of paintball. "We" because all the players did what we could. We stopped talking about "guns", calling them "markers". We didn't talk about "kills" and "bullets", we changed the field locations and toned down on the para-military look. And now, we've come full circle. ESPN airs players talking about "killing" the other players with their "gats", and the rec-ball world wants to make the game more "realistic", as if playing paintball wasn't "extreme" enough.

"Blood red paint" is a small thing, but it blurs that line. Paintball ceases to be a sport and becomes mock combat, if only in the eyes of a paranoid lawmaker. Seen it before, listening to the Wisconsin DNR "expert researcher" who lectured to a group of lawmakers about how paintball warriors would storm the woods using fully-automatic machine paintguns and shoot blood red paint at each other in order to kill opponents. Sobering moment for all us players, industry types and field owners in attendance, because he passed this off as absolute truth.

There's a reason that we tried to get rid of these perceptions back in the 90's. Yes, it's a pain in the tail. Yes, it's overly "PC". Yes, a lot of us didn't like changing the language to suit people who didn't even play paintball. But you know what? If it means that a person in political power doesn't get the wrong impression about paintball and decides to not throw paintball markers into a proposed ban or regulation of firearms, I'll inconvenience myself and call it an "elimination" instead of a "kill".

Oh, and before you say this is unrealistic, ask "AussieBloke" about his gun cabinet.

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© 2007 All Rights Reserved.

"Woods" and "Speedball" guns

I first heard the phrase used by Maggie Estep way back when on MTV's "Spoken Word" episode of unplugged. Her spoken-word piece was not only biting and satirical, but also bloody well hilarious. And it ended with her saying "I don't have anything against men, just stupid men."

I've modified that a little, and so has a lot of the western world. "I don't hate people. Just stupid people." Stupidity comes in many forms from outright lack of intelligence to willful ignorance of the way things are. Some people are willfully stupid, some people don't know better and appear stupid.

As a case in point, I would like to direct your attention to a video available online (see below). It's from a place called "Expert Village", and it features a professional paintball Orestes Guada, a player from Miami Rage professional paintball team, talking about paintball guns. And in it, he says that there are two kinds of paintball guns; Woods paintball guns and the "Airball" / "Speedball" guns.

Click here for more on "How to Play Paintball: Games, Guns & Gear"

And he points at a wall of guns, and declares after 30 seconds that "woods" guns are good for "range". And the Speedball guns are good for "speed".

Hmm.

A part of me knows I shouldn't really care. I mean this is basically this persons opinions being presented as fact, and that's really no skin off my back in the larger scheme of things. But on the other hand, it's the wanton ignorance that grates me. I mean this is a guy who's played for 6 years, according to his own biography. He plays professional paintball. He obviously has store connections. AND, the ultimate insult, he's a so-called "Expert" giving this lesson. So people will believe it.

Please, allow me to set something straight here about this subject.

There is no such thing as a "woods" or "speedball" paintgun. My e-mag, in the woods, is just as effective as a Tippmann. In fact, I know a lot of woods or scenario teams who use so-called "Speedball" guns in 24 hour games. On the other side of the coin, I've destroyed teams on the speedball field with my "woodsball" Tac-1 and A-5A2, running remote and wearing my digital cammies. I can also recall last winter a group of camo-wearing pump-toting "Wannabees" spanking the local experts at an indoor field.

It had to be the guns tho, I mean we all know pumps are more "accurate". At least that's the myth. Myth, in paintball, is more powerful than provable facts. So let's set some myths straight.

All paintball guns have the same effective range. This is because paintballs are regulated to a standard top speed on the field of play. Indoor is traditionally 250 FPS, outdoor 300 FPS. There are only a few ways to get more range from a paintball gun. #1 is to put spin on the ball, creating a version of the "Magnus" effect. #2 is to use a heavier paintball at the same velocity. The trade is it takes more energy to move a heavier ball to the same exit velocity, so you lose air efficiency. But the extra energy give the ball more range. #3 is to cheat, and crank your velocity up. But this is not only stupid and illegal, but around 350 you lose accuracy.

Or, simply put for those who don't want to read all that stuff, all paintguns shoot, effectively, the same range. So your electro-monster shoots the same distance as my pump gun when we're at the FPO field, unless you're a cheating bastard.

The argument that speedball guns have more "speed", well there's two ways to take that. #1 is the literal "FPS" translation, and if your gun shoots faster that way I have a problem with that. #2, and more than likely what he meant, is in balls per second. But here's where it falls flat on its face. I can take that gun into the woods, and play just as well or poorly as with a slower ROF paintgun. Just as I can take a pump gun into a speedball game, and play just as good / poorly as with a higher ROF paintgun.

Old timers say this many, many times. And new guys never believe it until they actually become old timers and get the point. The gun does not make the game, the player does. If someone sucks with a pump gun, they're going to suck just JUST as much with the highest ROF semi auto they can find. The difference is that the latter will cost them more money to suck than the former will. This is why a lot of old-timers will swap guns mid-day. It's cheaper to suck with a pump than suck with an electro gun, and your "windshield to bug" ratio really doesn't change.

However, I want to add something to the mix. There is no such thing as a "woodsball" or "speedball" gun. After playing a winter with my "woodsball" gear in the arenas local to me, I've come to the conclusion that you can play anywhere with anything. I can take an ION into the woods just as well as the arena, and play my game just as well. It's all about what you're comfortable with, and what you want to play with on any given moment.

The perception comes in the fact that "most" players in the woods play with Tippmanns, and "most" players in the arena fields play with high end electros. That has more to do with demographics than physical location. Most woods players are 1-3 times a summer players, or backyard enthusiasts who really don't want to monkey with their gear. The Tippmann is good for them. The "Speedball" players think they need screaming ROF guns, so they gravitate to those. In reality, they could play just as well with a Tippmann or a Spyder, but they want speed. So, they pay for it.

Reality is that the gun really doesn't give a damn where you shoot it. It doesn't know you're in the woods or on a field filled with colorful bags of air. It doesn't care if you're in camouflage or color-coordinated Grranimals gear. And it doesn't determine the accuracy of your shot. The only difference is where you're comfortable playing, and what you're comfortable wearing while you're there.

But I'd like to modify what I said earlier about "stupid people". I'm not saying that Mr. Guada is "stupid". On the contrary, you have to have some intelligence to play and maintain a "professional" career of any kind. But I will say that his commentary is ignorant, and less than truthful. In his mind, it may be 100% fact. However, I can easily point out the flaws with 30 seconds of internet searching and with some very basic common sense.

All I'm saying is that a lot of the myths in paintball are propagated by the "experts" from generation to generation of players. I would like to think that the buck has to stop somewhere on all the myths, and it stops when everyone realizes how ignorant we're all being. It may take one bastard to point it out, but it takes a community to end ignorance once and for all.

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