Excelling at paintball takes a combination of practice, skill, talent and luck.  Not everybody has time to practice to develop the requisite skill and even fewer have the innate talent to really be the best.  But for one game, everybody, from the professional paintballer to the first-day novice, can have the luck they need to win.

My favorite example of luck is the run-through.  When you're down numbers and you are out of options, just run and see what happens.  I've played games of base capture where I was all that was left on my team and so I ran.  The typical result is that I end up getting hit in record time and the game is over (as you would expect), but there have been games where luck was with me.  I remember one time where I was down four players to one and I was not in a good position to run for the flag.  The opposing team, though, was more interested in shooting me than moving in on my flag so I had a second to roll the dice with lady luck.  I internally counted to three and started firing like mad from around a bunker and I got the other team to duck their heads for just a second. I dropped my gun and took off running through the trees in an indirect path to the flag.  I could hear paintballs whizzing past me, hitting trees and one bounced off of my leg as I grabbed the flag.  In my few seconds of running there were probably close to a hundred shots fired at me by four different players, but somehow, luck lead me to victory.

Luck, though, is a very fickle mistress.  For all of the stories I have where I was down big and somehow won, I have many, many more about what usually happens - I start to run and within two seconds I've been hit half a dozen times from multiple directions.  Those times where I defied the odds, though, keep me asking for luck to lend me a hand.

Paintball manufacturing is a cutthroat business as evidenced by the many manufacturers that have come and gone over the years.  In the never-ending fight for consumer's dollars, manufacturers are always searching to do something a little better or a little different than their competitors.  The problem that I see, though, is that all of the manufacturers have lately seemed to be doing about the same thing.  What really differentiates Planet Eclipse from APS?  Both have a new high-end gun out about every year and are available at the same stores.  How about Tippmann from Kingman?  Both can be purchased at Wal-Mart and both just released a new line of paintball pistols.  Then Kee, which now seemingly owns one out of two paintball brands, really is just one company with different faces.

The problem with each of these companies is that they don't distinguish themselves in any meaningful way.  Sure, you can prefer an individual brand or gun, but that usually just boils down to gut preference; nothing seems to really differentiate comparably priced paintball guns.

My question, then, is what would make you choose one manufacturer over another?  Do you care if the gun is made locally as opposed to being produced abroad?  Do you want top-of-the-line customer service?  Do you want a network of local, certified airsmiths?  Do you want a butt-to-barrel warranty?  Do you simply want a manufacturer to produce something that's different while still being fun to play with?  Or, are you just so in love with a certain brand that nothing anybody else can do will ever make you switch?

There are manufacturers who read this blog, so now's your time to tell them what they can do to get your money.

Paintball news can be pretty frustrating.  Rather than focus on the pros of the sport, most media coverage is still based on the negative - primarily acts of vandalism and mischief.  Whenever I go to a news reader and search for paintball the primary stories are not about the results of tournaments, the camaraderie of teams or individual experiences playing the game, it's about stupid people messing around and causing problems.  I'd count how many negative stories come for every positive one, but I'm sure I'd get depressed doing the math.

Paintball is a very constructive activity and the world should know about it.  For some reason though, too many boneheads drop all common sense whenever they pick up a paintball gun.  It's frustrating and it's not helping the sport grow.  Unfortunately, when all somebody knows about paintball is that they got shot in their car while driving home they often don't have any desire to try the game or learn more about it.  I can't say that I blame them.

Whether .50 caliber paintballs and paintball gear will catch on remains to be seen, but another manufacturer has bought into the idea.  Kingman has announced the Spyder .50 line of equipment.  It appears that they're planning on releasing similar guns to what they already have, just in the .50 caliber format.

I'm still undecided whether I think the .50 caliber format is a good idea for paintball or if its just an attempt by manufacturers to get existing players to spend more money on new equipment.  Either way, I'm very interested to see which other companies announce new .50 caliber gear and how much support is given to the smaller format.