Paintball’s history dates back to 1980 or so when a few guys decided it would be a hoot to stalk each other and pick each other off with guns borrowed from the forestry industry. From the beginning, paintball has been nothing more than a bunch of guys (and a few gals) playing GI Joe, or Cowboys and Indians.

The object of the game is simple: take out opponents from the playing field by using a paintball gun to mark them. Based on this simple concept, paintball games have almost unlimited variations. Usually the participants are divided into two teams. Paintball play is timed, just like most other sports, and the playing field is marked so the players don’t go out of bounds. Usually the paintball teams will work to reach a certain goal, like capturing a flag. Many paintball games take place at commercial paintball parks.

Paintball is very technical, especially paintball guns. A paintball gun is also called a marker because it’s used to mark an opposing player. Paintball markers fire paint-filled gelatin capsules. In the early days of the sport, paint balls were filled with oil based paint that left permanent stains. Now that the game has become mainstream, water-based paintball capsules are the norm, filled with paint that washes off with soap and water.

Paintball guns are powered with compressed nonflammable gas, usually carbon dioxide. They range from the very simple and inexpensive, to costly models with bells and whistles. The first markers were pistols that would fire only a single round, held only a small number of balls, and had to be cocked by hand. Nowadays, a paintball gun will hold more than 200 balls and has electronic controls. Many models are fully automatic and require only a light touch on the trigger to bombard your opponent with volleys of paint. In recent years, marker technology has come full circle with a return to stock class paintball, also known as pump paintball. This is a minimalist form of play where the emphasis is on single-shot accuracy with low-powered, low-tech equipment.

Paintball safety is a very important issue for everyone involved with the industry. By far the most overriding concern is protecting your eyes, because a shot that goes the wrong way can blind a player. That’s why paintball masks are required equipment at commercial parks, and the same should be true whenever the game is played. There’s no two ways about it—playing the game without face and eye protection is asking to lose an eye sooner or later, and the more often you play, the sooner it’s likely to happen. Don’t worry about not looking cool in paintball goggles—the Mad Max look is cooler than you think.

Because the majority of players recognize the need for face protection and are pretty savvy with firearms, paintball has an amazingly good track record for safety. The insurance industry, which keeps close track of such things, shows that the game is safer than driving, flying, hunting, and even slower-paced activities like golf and fishing. Think about it: fishing takes you out on the water, where you can drown, and golfers are mostly older people who can pull muscles or have heart attacks on the course. In the twenty years since the game was first played, reports of death have been rare to nonexistent. If anyone has ever died playing paintball, they were probably ready to go anyway.

There’s a good reason that the paintball industry has worked to keep the game safe: the game isn’t exactly politically correct. The last thing the industry and players want is for the government to step in and start licensing and regulating play. That’s why participants and manufacturers have worked so hard to police themselves. Commercial facilities rent out equipment on-site so new players won’t be tempted to skip over safety practices because they’re not ready to commit to the game and buy equipment.

The most common severe injuries incurred while playing paintball are eye loss due to not wearing masks or goggles, and accidental discharge of a gun while off the field because somebody wasn’t paying attention. So injuries do occur, but it’s hard to call them accidents when the cause was someone’s stupidity.

What about pain? A lot of potential players have refrained from getting involved in the sport because they’ve heard that it hurts to get marked. Well, a shot from a paintball gun doesn’t pack a huge punch. First of all, 300 feet per second is the maximum allowed standard in the paintball marker industry. For you math geeks, paintball standard caliber is .68, so the impact is about 9 foot-pounds at close range. Remember, too, that you aren’t going to let someone on the field get within close range before he shoots you, so the real impact will be much less.

What does it feel like to get hit? It can vary depending on what you’re wearing, which part of your body gets hit, how close the shot was fired from, and even your state of mind. Some people describe it as feeling like a bugsplat while riding in a convertible, while others say it feels like being hit with a rubber ball thrown from fifty feet away. Sometimes you might get a bruise, while other days you won’t feel a thing. Remember that you’ll be wearing protective clothing on most parts of your body, which will break the impact somewhat.

The best place to play, especially just starting out, is at a commercial paintball park. The park will rent you all the equipment you need, so you don’t have to go out and spend a fortune and then find out you wasted your money if the game isn’t to your liking. The staff people at commercial facilities can help you get suited up, show you how to use your paintball gun, and answer any questions you may have. Even if you have to drive a long way, going to a commercial park for your first few games can help make your first paintball game experience a good one.

After you gain some experience, you’ll be able to move up to playing renegade paintball, which is a game that takes place on private property by invitation only. You won’t be able to do this on your own unless you buy your own equipment, or if you have friends who are willing to set you up with borrowed equipment. If someone is willing to help you out, renegade play can be a great way to start.

Outlaw paintball means playing on property without authorization from the owner, or on public land. People do it, but you do so at your own risk. If you play on public land, then there might be other people in your way, and playing on private land is asking to get sued. You don’t want to have to sell all of your paintball equipment to pay for a lawyer.

When you go to play your first game of paintball, you need the right attitude. Don’t expect everything to go perfectly. As a new player, you’ll need to be willing to take your lumps and make some mistakes when you get out there against more experienced players. There’s a lot of tribal knowledge to this game that you can only learn by doing, but if you remember that it’s only a game and you’re out there to have fun, you have a ball. At the end of the day, you’ll already have learned a lot more than you knew when you started.
Your First Game
Remember that Murphy’s law applies in paintball: anything that can go wrong will go wrong. You might have trouble with your paintball gun, or some other player might be obnoxious to you, or you might get picked off right away before you get a chance to fire a shot. The real question is whether you enjoy the game, not how the game is going on that particular day.

Paintball play has come under a lot of fire from people who are turned off by the idea of shooting at other people in simulated combat conditions. Without going into the political end of it, the whole point of the sport is that it’s a game and therefore it’s not real. Is it really any different from playing Nintendo or some elaborate game online? Either way, nobody gets hurt. Any sane person who has participated in a paintball game will tell you that it’s nothing like real combat, because in real combat, bullets can and will kill you. Most paintball players have no desire to go to war, either—although most of them would go if they thought it was necessary.

Most players like the game because they like paintball guns and they like the competitive aspect. Many of them like scenario paintball because they like to use their imagination. They like fooling around with the markers and trying out new technological innovations in the sport. They like the friends they make while playing, and they like to win using their reflexes and their brains.

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