Paintball: An Introduction

What is Paintball?
It is a competitive game wherein you get to shoot other people and get shot at. More like playing war games in your early childhood without the use of a real gun. Paintball is more like a sport that uses compressed air guns (which is called “markers”) that shoots “paintballs”. The bullets are marble sized gelatin capsules that are filled with colored polyethylene glycol paint, hence, the name paintball. The game is usually played outdoors but sometimes indoors (depends on the objective of the game).

History of Paintball
Markers or paintball guns were used in the earlier times by the farming and forestry industries to mark cattle and trees. Early paintball guns are very similar to the paintball guns of today. Early markers are powered by carbon dioxide cartridges but they had poor range and run of the mill accuracy. The first name to this sort of sport was “The National Survival Game”. The nature of paintball was first played “every man for himself” and it was sometimes played as teams who play each other. The game became more sophisticated because more individuals were playing. A lot of playing variations came up. The most widely played variation is the “capture the flag”.

Variations of Paintball Games
Capture the Flag
Capture the flag is like the classic schoolyard game with the use of a paintball gun. Opposing teams make an attempt to capture or acquire the opponent’s flag at the same time protecting their own flag. The team who gets to hang the opposing team’s flag in a designated location (sometimes at their own base camp) gets to achieve victory. Eliminating all the opposing team’s player also means victory.

Center Flag
Center flag is played similarly to “capture the flag”; however the game begins with a single flag instead of one on each team. The team who brings the flag to the opponent’s base is declared the winner.

Elimination
The team that eliminates all of the opposing team’s players wins.
Resurrection
Just like “Elimination” but the players who were hit can enter the game as a live player by returning to the team’s base camp.

Just Plain Crazy
“Just plain crazy” can either be played as a team or individually. The game begins with the players opening on opposing sides and congregates in the middle of the field. The objective of this game variation is to be “the last man standing”. Players in this kind of game do not get eliminated; however players get to run-out of carbon dioxide supply, paintballs, or most of the time, because of pain. Being hit by a paintball isn’t a pleasurable. This is the most seldom played game variation due to its violent nature.
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Corrie Duana writes for SportsArticles.com, a site full of helpful insight about Archery and Auto Racing.