Psychological aspects of paintball

[Blazingace]

Hail fellow Paintballers,

Have you noticed what kind of mental impact physical appearance and equitment can have on other players? I realize that the game is 20% equipment and 70% player. (and 10% luck, of course) But nontheless, seeing someone roll up and ask if you would like to play looking like they are sponsored by JT, WDP and 32 degrees makes me alittle nervous. Or perhaps seeing someone with an E-Mag w/ warpfeed and having thier whole setup color coordinated AND putting out what looks like 30 balls a second doesn't inspire confidence in me. But that is just me, what do the rest of you think?

[OldSchoolMag]

Personally, I only see that problem with what I like to refer to as "second version paintballers". The average newbie (version 1) doesn't really know that much about equipment, sponsors, or brand names and etc. They just want to play, and have no idea how or why (well, because they want to try it, but other than that...). Version 2 players know enough about the sport to realize what brands are expensive, and thereby more intimidating. After that, they usually realize that not every guy with an angel or autococker is referred to as a paintball god unless he happens to be able to use that gun to its full ability. After v.2, you go to v.3 which is basically becoming one of the intimidating looking people, so...

I don't really see that anymore, but... everyonce in a while.

OSM

[~WarpedRT~]

I think it is intimidating, but you have to realize that if someone is sponsored by all of these companies, they have to be good, or else why would they get sponsored? Yeah, I know the feeling, I have been sitting there while the other guys are polishing their Angels, and going to the chrono, and shooting 15 balls a second over to show off, then I blast the hell out of them. They seem to take it harder after they took all that time to frighten everyone. I think if your having a good day of play, there isn't anyone who can stop you, just try to keep up the good work, and shoot everyone else out.
A while back at a place I like to play at, I saw a guy who had his entire gear scheme in blue and black, was field sponsored, and had one of the nicest Angels I have ever seen. The guys was said to be one of the best at the field. I played against him in an air ball game, and I shot him up, I wasn't having that good of a day either. I simply let him make too many mistakes. He thought he had me on the right tape line (he went after me), because I would look at him, fire, and get back in, and "forget" about him. He got too close, and let that punk have it.

I don't get intimidated by too many people any more. It's the player that counts.

[Smoken]

All the sponsorship and "intimidation factor" in the world can't save them when my barrel is over the top of their bunker pumping balls into them.

[gimp]

I get intimidated a lot, but hey, that's what makes it fun. I used to get really intimidated by the fast guns and all the gear and stuff. I think that now I get more intimidated by all the older guys. You know, the guy's that have been playing since paintball's beginning. They won't have the best marker or anything. They'll have a good marker though. They're the people that everyone on the field knows. Those people always intimidate me.

[Croix71]

If I see someone with a pretty nice set up, I'll be gunnin for him. As for intimidation, I'll have to see him play first. For all I know he could be a newb who just borrowed the stuff.

[Havoc_online]

it doesnt matter who your sponsered by when I have my mag in my hands as far as intimidation goes.

[giant1515]

the guys I worry about

show up to a speedball/hyperball field with a phantom and 12gram cartridges. This comes after watching a guy with just such a stock class setup play about 12 games, never get eliminated and eliminate about 16-20 people. (including me about 5 times). granted not all phantom/pump/stock class owners are as good/on as this guy was that day, but it's enough to make me keep an eye on where that person is until I see how good they are.

Giant

[the JoKeR]

I'll only worry about someone if I know he's a good player and a real threat on the field. If I see somebody with their high-end gun that I've never seen before at a field I regular, they don't bother me in the least. I know the fields, and I know my ability. He's just some guy that showed up with nice stuff. Then again, I've played guys that don't have the latest and most high-tech electro stuff on the planet that I'll avoid like the plague on-field. It's the player, once again...

[tysonmachado]

There is a large psychological aspect to the game, more than just the tech. Once I was playing rec ball in the woods and there were three of the other guys from my team with us (Chrome Psychosis.) There were a bunch of newbies but there were also several guys with plenty of experience playing in the woods. Well, were standing around between games chatting and taking a bit of a break. Somehow the conversation came around to how we play, we have a bit of a reputation as aggressive and a little hard to predict. I stopped paying attention for a moment and the next thing I know it's been decided that we are going to play against everyone else, 4 of us against 20 of them!
Well, we played a game of attack and defend, no time limit, with them on defense. We took our time advancing to give them time to get nervous. Then we split up and attacked from three different directions using hit and run tactics. Keep in mind that three of us had been playing about a year and one of us had just started playing four months before this. We're not really that good yet, we're just a little crazy.
By the time we started attacking some of them were so jumpy they were firing blindly into empty woods, and even shooting at each other! Of course we lost, but we took out around six of them and they lost another three to friendly fire. After that they were a little afraid of us for the rest of the day!

[Miscue]

I just put on a T-Shirt. :) I'd rather have people not pay attention to me.

[DJSOLID]

I'm with miscue - I wear jeans and a t-shirt normally.

[the JoKeR]

This psychology stuff has gotten into my head, so I have to let it out.... One more fun thing I like to do during the tourneys Animal and I have been playing is to let the other team think they just made a bad decision. A coin is flipped before the game to determine starting sides. If the other team wins the toss, no matter what side they choose, I'll get real happy and let them think the side we get is what we wanted. I typically don't care where we start, but it gets them worried!

[Havoc_online]

lol my first tourny I wore a muscle shirt and jeans, the rest of my team wore t shirts and camo pants, we surpised a lot of teams that day to say the least

[kickass68mag]

i used to be scared of those people when i first started plaing and now that i have more experience i am not, i am just scared of the pysco's that do the dead man's walks to the wrong end of the feild, if you are stupid enough to do that, well then i think everyone should be scared of you


othere than that, i am not afraid of guns, i am more afraid of the player