This weekend marked the second time I've played Paintball. The coolest part was playing with a bunch of GameSpot staff; mainly from GameSpot Live and the Data team. I think the Editorial team chickened out because they didn't go. The first time I played paintball was in 2001 with some people who worked for Activision, Pandemic Studios, GameSpy (who I worked for at the time). I didn't take any pictures because I was so nervous playing Paintball for my first time. The war wound I had at the time were 14 bruises, 8 welts and muscle strain on my legs. I couldn't walk for three days from crouching so much, and the bruises and welts didn't hurt anything like my legs.
On Saturday, the first time I played on the field was pretty exciting. I was one of the two last people standing and I got some headshots. However, I found out that 90% of the people that we played with were Paintball newbies.
It was like playing Quake with a bunch of newbies on the server. In those circumstances I loved that I had a high frag count but at the same time I knew I wouldn't be on the top any longer if a pro-gamer joined the server. Back in the day I also was told by some friends that I shouldn't hang out on a FFA server that had at lot of newbs because it ruins your aim. You can get sloppy with the splash damage of the rocket launcher too.
So.. after the second time playing in the field I was the last person standing and you know... I did get sloppy. Yes, I put my guard down thinking I was awesome from playing with a bunch of first time Paintball players. I stuck only my hand and gun out there and started shooting everywhere. Someone targeted my hand (I didn't have a glove on) and they hit my hand pretty hard in between my ring and middle finger. I looked down and saw blood spots. It was hurting pretty bad but all I could feel was it feeling like my hand was really cold so I didn't know how hurt I was. I thought I would sit out for a while. But ChrisW gave me some hand wrap and I went back in the field about 10 mins later.
The most exciting part of all was to see KimC in a Rambo action scene. On the drive to the Paintball place he had mentioned that he was new to Paintball and I scared him about how much the paintballs hurt when you get hit. I talked about the welts and bruises from the last time I played. His first time playing he loved it so I think he started realizing that the Paintball hurts but having so much fun makes up for it! In the third time we played in the field, about five of us were aiming at people in front of us. KimC comes from the side of us and he aims at my side. He hits me five times (NOT ONCE! FIVE shots in the same side, yes I have big bruise there now). Then he aims at my teammates. While I was walking off the field with my hands up in the air, I look over and notice that he represented the spirit Rambo; one of the people he shot down happened to be Ryan MacDonald. KimC showed me that a Newbie can be excellent; all they have to do is have the courage to be sly. After we all got off the field I told him that he was like the Spy in Team Fortress 2. I looked over and thought wait, he almost seems that he's on my team but wait...NO! He's shooting me!
I'd like to thank Dave Toister, a former GameSpot staff member, who organized the event.
