Paintball

GWC Community Geek Hobbies
#1

Is paintball a geek hobby?

I say “YES”, not only because I’m a geek (and have the test results to prove it now) and I play paintball but also because Sheldon on Big Bang Theory enjoys it. If that guy plays paintball it is hands down a geek sport.

I’ve been told though that it is NOT a geek hobby on the grounds that:

  1. Paintball is generally played out-doors in fresh air and sunlight.
  2. Paintball requires coordinated lower body movement.
  3. No computers or hand-held gaming devices are required.
  4. No instant re-spawning. (this is actually not always true in paintball)

Phooey I say. What say you?
Yes, paintball is a Geek sport.
No, paintball is NOT a Geek sport.

This is me last Saturday raining pure HELL down upon mine enemies, smiting them with furious anger and great vengeance wherever they be.

Some would say we lost the day, others would say we simply didn’t win. Still others would say we tied for second place. :wink:

I would say I shot about fifteen people and that’s good enough for me!

Now let’s see if I can get this poll thing to work…

#2

Yes, it is a geek sport, for military geeks.

I am talking about people who spend all them pay check collecting US Armed forces issued helmets, vests, night vision goggles, and all kinds of equipment. They not only be able to tell you what era of US armed forces uses which kind of weapons, they can also recite the make and model number of the helmets, back packs, boots, even sun glasses of military equipments…

Those usually tend to be the biggest paint ball enthusiasts as well.

#3

I suspect that most paintballers would chafe at the suggestion, but yeah, there’s a healthy portion of geeks involved in this sport.

#4

I think that most people who have played just once in a while, wouldn’t consider it a geek hobby for the reasons mentioned above, although it is a very stereotypical description of a geek.

But when it comes to people who play on a regular basis, who are really into getting the right equipment, preparing strategies before each fight, goes online to share stories and discuss strategies, might even have a website for their team, then yes, absolutely it’s a geek hobby.

It depends on your definition of a geek. To me, pretty much any interest can be turned into a geek hobby if you spend enough time and energy on it.

#5

You’ve given me a different persective on this, which is cool. It’s not necessarily:

“I’m a geek and I like paintball therefore paintball is a geek hobby”

It’s really:

“I go really far with my paintball hobby therefore I’m a geek”.

Got it, that makes sense.

And considering I had an in-depth conversation with my brother earlier today on how we would conduct a Doctor Who paintball scenario event (Cybermen, Daleks, British Special Forces) I think I more than qualify. Moving on to how we would conduct a Stargate event is just gravy.

#6

Stargate paintball? Do tell.

#7

Here’s the conversation in it’s entirety, such as it is, and before you ask:

YES, my brother and I STILL ACT LIKE CHILDREN. I believe Shawn spoke about this kind of sibling behaviour on the last podcast, so here is further proof:

me: OK I got it. Doctor Who paintball scenario game. Oh HELL yeah.
Brian: yeah! cybermen! build a tank that looks like a dalek
me: Cybermen vs British special forces, Guy with a fuzzy trenchcoat and silly scarf is the general of the British special forces. Build a Dalek costume for the gereal of the Cybermen.
Brian: that would be so cool
me: We may be taking geek-osity to a whole. new. level.
Brian: build a Dalek and put a paint ball gun in the little blaster that they had
me: uh huh.
Brian: need to put it on some kind of off wheeled buggy though
me: cybermen have to capture the tardis but FIRST they must find the sonic screwdriver.
Brian: or have the scenario be in a paved parking lot, with no stairs
me: lol troo, troo
Brian: I like that… capturing the tardis hmmm
me: I wonder how to bring it’s interdimensionality into the game? is interdimensionality a word?
Brian: it is now
me: you know what I mean though, right?
Brian: how about this
rather than have the cybermen trying to capture the tardis, make it a rescue mission. the doctor has been captured, one of the battles is to rescue him. one is to get him to the tardis, once in the tardis, you time warp back to the past or to another planet. how many british marines can you fit in the tardis?
me: all of them, according to the laws of space/time broken by the BBC.
Brian: the best part about this is that even if the british team looses the battle, you can say the doctor “saved teh day” for you
me: But really? Four plus the doctor. maybe
Brian: what else… what do you do once you get to the other planet for more fighting.
me: well, I think one would be obligated to include some kind of carnivorous plant life
Brian: hmm… attacking the cybermen base. they should have tanks or something
me: especially one that spat out a big mean nasty.
Brian: or a shaggy 7 ft monster with a fish bowl on its head
me: EVEN BETTER!
Brian: make him some kind of death omen honor rule that he can’t be shot, but he can walk anywhere on the field andif he gets with in (x) feet of you, you die
so you can’t stay put, but it will be hard to break cover because he’s got the cybermen shoot at you too. I wouldn’t want to be the ref in the monster costume, he should be accompanied by 2 or 3 refs who call people out
me: lots of padding, won’t feel a thing. this all sounds like a good idea, actually, and if it sounds like a good idea chances are we won’t be able to find anyone to play. lol
Brian: ha!
ok… how about Stargate instead of Dr Who? More “realistic” SF
me: More people would play but that doesn’t excite me like Dr. Who. Significantly lower on the geek sheik scale.
Brian: oh, come on. I’d LOVE to build a stargate prop!
me: Not arguing that it wouldn’t be cool, just saying not as appealing to ME as Dr. Who.
Brian: Attacking team gets a point for every live player to make it though the gate. yeah
me: Can i dump giant bucket of water on people as they go through the gate? if so, I’m in.
Brian: I like that idea
me: Bugs me so much that people don’t get wet when they go through the gate. lol. You could have the gate be open for only three people at a time every three minutes or something. they have to defend and escape.
Brian: that’s the cool thing about the star gates… there’s so many of them. you could have a scenario where one team has to start at the gate, defend it. they then have to send some part of their force out into the field to captuer something and bring it back to the gate
could have a simple attack and capture scenario as well.
side missions could be a little more mundane, like capturing a defensive postion. but I like the limit on how many people can go through the gate at one time or how often.
me: OR have five gates set up all over the place, when a squad goes through one they get blind folded and led by the refs to another gate, now the players are disoriented.
Brian: maybe one every 30 seconds or something
tricky. blindfolding would be dangerous in most woodsball fields though
me: danger is my middle name.
Brian: nice
me: can we also have an ever-so-slightly fur covered barbarian chick running around? Please? thanks.
Brian: hmmmmm
me: Can’t remember her name, she was one of the Doctor’s companions. hell, can’t even remember which docotor.
Brian: with a british accent? fur bikini? I think we swing that
me: obviously she left an impression on me.
Brian: she was with Tom Baker. I can only come up with Romona. But she was after the barbarian, A much more refined companion
http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Leela
me: not quite the looker as Leela though. wink wink nudge nudge synomore. SAY NO MORE!
Brian: say NO MORE! is she a goer?
me: I bet she does I bet she does!

You asked for it Fenatic!

#8

What’s the gun in the first picture? A newer Tippman A#?

#9

B.T. TM-7, basically an Invert Mini all dressed up milsim. It cost me dearly but it is the best marker I have ever owned.

http://www.btpaintball.com/paintball-markers/tm-7/

#10

Damn dude they’re getting good at making them look like guns. A5 looked sora MP5 ish, that looks downright like the MP7

#11

I think it’s a geek sport…
,but you can’t deny Purple IS a fruit

#12

Love it! Stargate paintball definitely sounds like it would be a hit. One team would wear SGC style gear, which is not that different then regular paintball gear anyway. The other team could wear Jaffa gear, but that might not protect that well, although making a staff weapon fire paintballs would be sweet. Maybe the opposition could dress as the Kull Warriors:

How cool would it be watch that match at a Stargate convention or something like that?

#13

I’ve got to admit that my response is colored by the fact that the one time I went to play paintball, I absolutely hated it and was bruised for months. Ugh. This is just something that I can’t extricate my bad experience from my opinion of it for other people.

For whatever reason I don’t associate it with geeks, though. In my mind, it’s something practiced by adolescent boys and paramilitary wannabes, but that might also be a product of the people I’ve known who have been into it :stuck_out_tongue:

#14

Quite a bit of them fit this description.

#15

This conversation makes Paint Ball Geeky

but on the whole i would say it is NOT geeky.

Now i have been known to play paint ball. But just as often i will see non geeky people out there playing it. It think it is like any sport where you can get very “geeky” about it. Any sport can be “geeky” if you really get into it.

I think there are more geeky sports however. Fencing is really a geeky sport. In the gun categories Laser Tag would probably be more geeky. And if you really want to consider it a sport the “Society for Creative Anachronisms” folks are truly geeky.

Paintball is just a grown up version of Cops and Robbers/Army Men/Cow Boys and Indians that pretty much all children play at some point.

The Math just does not add up

You cant say

I am a Geek and I like Paintball thus All Paintball is Geeky.

#16

I completely understand, it’s definitely not for everybody. And I don’t mean that the way you may think, as in “it’s not for wussies”. I really don’t mean it that way. Some people are just not down with pain, bruises, or violence in general. I totally get that. I was quite shaken up the first time I played because I saw what it was like to be the hunted and was covered with paintful welts because I DIDN’T GET DOWN. It gave me a whole new perspective on what our families and friends go through in the military, and I was certainly never in any real danger.

And along with that I made my wife and stepson take a shot in the @$$ from twenty feet away to make sure they really wanted to go do this thing. I didn’t want tears or anger at the field, know what I mean? That sounds really sadistic doesn’t it? Except that I let them both shoot me from fifteen feet just so it would be fair. (I only put one paintball in the marker before I gave it to them, otherwise they might be tempted to really let me have it. Ah family…:D)

Was there something in particular you didn’t like about the people you were playing with or the place you played? Paintball is RIFE with cheating and immature sore losers. Those two can TOTALLY ruin your day. If the referees are not paying attention or if the field doesn’t enforce safety rules people can really get hurt. Only safe paintball is fun paintball, and there are certain fields I won’t go to any more because they are unsafe.

Anyway, I’m sorry you had a bad experience. With the right group of people at the right field it really can be a GREAT experience.

For whatever reason I don’t associate it with geeks, though. In my mind, it’s something practiced by adolescent boys and paramilitary wannabes, but that might also be a product of the people I’ve known who have been into it :stuck_out_tongue:

I agree 100%. I fall into the adolescent boys category. Last time I played there was a kid running around in shorts and a mask, no shirt. He was covered with bloody welts at the end of the day. Pretty gross, but he had a good time.

#17

Not a bad group of people, but no one knew what they were doing… always a bad idea, right? Plus I got shot less than 5 feet away, more than once. :frowning:

#18

Last time I played I got nailed in the collar bone from like 10-15 feet through a t-shirt. That killed.

#19

I had to vote no. The question you asked was if paintball was a geek sport. You can be a geek and be into paintball, but liking paintball by itself does not make one geeky.

Lazer tag tho, definitely geeky.

#20

Yup, that’s unsafe, and that’s the kind of crap that ruins the sport for people. There is supposed to be an enforced ten foot rule, some places make it fifteen feet.

And the referees should have been helping you if it was your first time. They should have pulled your group aside and run through a game or two with you, not just thrown you to the wolves. That’s the way it is at the field I go to.

I’ve heard horror stories of exploded lymph nodes from neck shots, shattered cough from groin shots, cracked hand bones, the list goes on. Not to mention you could just flat out trip and sprain something while running through the woods!

Safety is SO important.

Default Prophet - If you like the mil-sim look check out the Smart Parts SP-8. I believe it’s modeled after some British assault rifle? Too big for my tastes but it looks pretty cool.

Tippman is really good about creating mil-sim mods for their markers, the Tippman X7 can be made to look just like an MP5, I think they have AK47 add-ons as well. It gets really expensive though.