It's time to think, once again, about paintball gifts.  If you're a regular player, you (hopefully) already know what you want for Christmas.  If, though, you're shopping for a paintballer and you don't know the difference between a Revy and a Rotor, take a look at the paintballer's wish list to get some ideas.

Backyard woodsball can be lots of fun with a chance to play a variety of different games, play as much  or as little as you want and no requirement to pay field fees.  There are some drawbacks with generally no designated referee, on-site air or well-developed bunkers.  Also, there can be a big problem with people not chronoing their guns.

When I play woodsball on an outlaw or backayard field I always take a pocket chronograph to make sure the guns are all shooting at a safe speed - usually around 280 feet per second.  While this works fine the vast majority of the time, there are occasions where people switch to an unchronoed gun or even intentionally increase their velocity as soon as their away from the chronograph.  Sure, shooting at 350 fps increases your range and almost eliminates bouncing balls, but it can really hurt and a new player who gets hit by a hot gun might never come again.

There's a reason that paintball manufacturers always say to shoot less than 300 fps - any faster and a shot that otherwise might leave a small bruise can leave a painful welt that might take weeks to heal.  I still have three paintball-shaped scars on my back from getting hit by someone shooting hot and if I didn't already love the sport I probably never would have played again.

If you're out playing with friends, make sure you're shooting slow enough.  If in doubt, shoot even slower.  It's always better to have a few bounces than to shoot too fast.

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.