I'm not talking about the gun (though, I suppose, it could sometimes apply to the gun as well), I'm talking about the attitude. I was recently thinking about some great fields I played at a how much fun I've had at different venues. I've played countless paintball games with countless people. I've played speedball on groomed courses and outlaw ball in abandoned buildings and every field in between and, for the most part, I've loved all of it. The problem, though, came from a few people I played with.

If you're a regular paintball player, I'm sure you've seen that person, too. It's the super-competitive, ultra-cocky player who just is sure he's better than everyone else. Usually this isn't a problem, but the second he gets out in the first few minutes of a game, he starts to sulk and the enjoyment level drops for everyone. In his mind, it just doesn't make sense that he could have gotten out - somebody cheated, something went wrong or something is just plain messed up. Not only will he sulk for the next little while, he'll keep a grudge against whomever gets him out for the rest of the day.

I've been lucky in that I've found a lot of good people to play paintball with and I enjoy the current fields I play at. At the same time, there are fields that I have abandoned simply because of the players who go there.

Keep paintball gun and don't be the guy that sulks away the competition.

68 Caliber has a great article about the trickle-down effects of teams playing with basically an unlimited supply of paint. The basic premise is that sponsored teams will shoot as much as they want, which leads to non-sponsored teams spending more on paintballs and then rec and woodsball players slowly following suit, resulting in too many people shooting too much paint which will eventually leave them without enough money to play paintball at all.

I'm not sure that sponsored teams are the root cause of too many people shooting more than they can afford and ending their seasons early, but I definitely know it's a problem. I know of many players who shot themselves out of paintball because they thought they had to shoot a case or two a day to compete.

I'm not convinced that limiting paintballs in tournaments is the solution to keeping people from bankrupting themselves out of the sport, but it definitely could help. The cost of shooting countless paintballs is a big problem for many that play paintball and 68Caliber.com does a great job of bringing out some of the issues.

I highly recommend you read the whole article and share any thoughts you have.

The simple truth is that the vast majority of paintball players simply can't afford to buy every single paintball gun they want without thinking about price. In fact, most of us can't really afford to buy any paintball gun without really thinking about its price. While I would love to get my hands on every paintball gun ever made, reality tells me that I have to be pretty choosy about which paintball guns I buy (lately, that seems to be pumps and older blowbacks). That means that I have to look for deals. Deals are out there, it just takes a little time and effort to find them.

Call it a pet peeve, but I just don't understand why some people don't think gun and hopper hits should count. Is it to penalize the person shooting since they mistakenly shot directly at their opponent's mask and hit the hopper? Or, is it to reward the person getting shot for being so adept at using his gun as a shield? I just don't get it.

I've heard people say that if you were in a war and got hit in the gun you wouldn't be dead. They're probably right. Paintball, though, isn't a war - it's a game of tag. Plus, I'd be willing to bet that if you were in a war and you got hit in the gun you probably wouldn't be firing it again any time soon. Those same people that say they "only" got hit on the gun sure don't seem to be in any hurry to lay down their gun and start throwing paintballs by hand.

Just remember that paintball is a game of tag. If you get tagged, you're out. That doesn't matter if it's in the goggles, the arm or the sole of your shoe, you're still out. That goes for gun hits, too.