Simple Things

I don’t like to have to think too much most of the time. That’s probably why I like my paintball simple. I play with a pump. A Phantom most of the time. It’s about as simple as a paintball marker can be. I have in the past and do still own semis and I have even owned electros. Well just one electro back in the day when I toyed with competitive paintball. But it was too complicated for me. It had a regulator and a dwell and buttons I needed to press to make sure the eyes worked. It shot great when everything was working right, but when they weren’t I just found it frustrating.
The whole competitive paintball scene was much too stressful as well. I have a lot of respect for those that play competitively and play well. It wasn’t for me though. Paintball, when I’m playing, is leisure time for me. I want nothing but fun and good times and I don’t think I’m alone. As a matter of fact I built a paintball business around the knowledge that there are lots of people who want to have nothing but simple fun and good times.
Paintball doesn’t need to be complicated. It can be, for people who like that, and over the years, with higher technology, the game definitely has become more complicated. And more stressful. But that is not necessarily what everyone wants. The marketers would certainly like us to think that we will be better off with more gadgets and gear. But let’s face it. In the end, paintball is just a game much like games such as Tag and Hide and Go Seek that we played as children. Simple games. Fun games.
The very first time I played paintball, it reminded me of games I played as a child. It brought me back to simpler times of my youth, when playing simple games was the most stressful thing we did. I fell in love with the game and to this day, almost a quarter century later, it still does that for me.