(A disclaimer to all who read this: these observations are generally true in my and my team’s experience. These are not necessarily facts or laws set in stone.)
Let’s say you’re new to a field or new to paintball in general. How do you know who to ask for help? How do you know who is in charge or knows what they’re talking about? You look around and notice and everyone seems to look pretty experienced. There is a group of guys around one table talking and laughing about something that is not related to paintball in any way and a few players at other tables getting their things together, alone. Before you make a decision on whom to ask for help, think! The people standing around laughing are most likely on the same team. The others preparing alone are probably not on a team. This means they will be little help with your technical problems, and are probably just as new to the game as you are.
Upon further investigation of the “pariah players”, you discover that every single piece of gear they own is from the same company and is the same color. I’m not saying that matching your clothes is bad, but these guys look like they just walked out of that company’s catalog!
You finally fix the problem with your gun and people start making their way onto the field. You notice that they group of guys standing together all want to practice together because they are on the same team. So you are on a rag-tag team consisting of you and the other lone rangers. The game starts, and immediately one of your teammate’s guns is down. One hangs in the back, firing his gun as fast as he can, but he doesn’t say much the entire game. The other….wait, he’s right next to you! You both went to the same bunker and your team looks doomed. What went wrong here? Who are these people?
My friend, I’m afraid your team consisted mainly of the fabled posers. Let’s recap so we can figure out how to identify these players.
- They stay away from big groups and most likely do not have a team of their own.
- Posers tend to dress and equip themselves with one company’s apparel.
- Before the game, there is no communication on where they are going to go.
- During the game they display only a fraction of the skills needed to excel at paintball. (For example: shooting fast but not communicating.)
- Or during the game, their gun goes down and they spend the whole game behind their bunker trying to fix it.
These are a few basic guidelines on how to spot a poser. As I stated before, there are countless exceptions, and remember Clocktapus says “Posers are people too.”
4 comments:
It seems as though you are labeling everyone that doesn't have a team a "poser" player of paintball. Maybe you mean people who don't play together in groups and communicate well and use team effort. But it comes off like you are saying those that don't join a team or have a team or at least play with groups of people they know aren't true paintballers.
what if you had a bachelor party or a group of buddies from a sports team that are hanging out together paintballing, surely they are going to have assorted rental and owned gear, talk about other things, laugh and communicate well, as well as play as a team, even if they aren't true paintballers that play the game well, or often.
What happens if say my friend and I are playing at an indoor field, we start on opposite ends of the same side, shared a few words with each other and other assorted lone rangers and then the refs start the match. Since he is running one way, me the other, clearly communication will be hazy, as well as a coordinated assault. If there happens to be a malfunction too, surely you can't just dismiss someone as a poser for taking cover and attempting to repair the issue. Unless you're saying that you must have a sidearm or back up marker (which clearly being on a team makes you have). Let alone a team being perfect, I'm sure teams have issues like this and they make similar mistakes and, yes they are probably less often, but still happen.
All in all I feel like you are criticizing the average person who wants to play or occasionally does, as well as generalizing the perfection of teams more than is necessary and true.
Alright, first of all, the term poser (and I am sure you and others will agree with this) does NOT apply to people at a bachelor party or just a group of average people playing. These people are refered to as rec players. They play for recreation and fun and all players know that.
Secondly, as I have said before, communication before the game is critical. This is where each side sets up a general game plan. Although some people may be playing with people they do not know, each one could at least have the courtesy of letting others know where they will go off the break. The poser will assume he or she knows where people are going and try to take an important bunker that the other players may have already delegated to a different player.
Third, whether you are playing with friends or people you do not know, if you are not versed in the lingo of paintball, communication will probably be lacking. And the comments made in my original post about communcation had to do with a poser playing in the back concentrating on shooting at his targets instead of communicating to his team where he is shooting.
Fourth, equipment malfunctions on the field are usually attributed to careless habits or insufficient preparation. I'm not saying this has not happened to me. In fact, my team has become notorious for equipment breaking down in critical situations, but we always somehow pull something together. But the poser will spend the ENTIRE game trying to fix a gun that has gone down. An experienced player will know exactly what is wrong with his or her marker after a few seconds of investigation and will know whether or not he or she can fix it on the field.
And remember Clocktapus says "No one carries a sidearm, dude."
Clocktapus, thanks for the clarifications!
A few guys from here usually go and keep to ourselves. We don't play on a team. We don't mind fixing other peoples guns or giving advise, the issue for us is when we start, people don't stop asking us for stuff.
I do agree 80% of the time dressing in one brand name is a little lame, however people have to start somewhere. I would say comment on more of the "teams" out there. these teams wont talk to anyone else, act arrogant, tell people there "sponsored", then suck on the field and don't know how to operate or fix there $1k, and of course that 15 year old has been "playing" for 10 years.
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