Would people with better FPS skills be better at paintball?
- Thread starter JazzDemon
- Start date
I doubt it.
Contrary to popular opinion, firing a gun (even a paintball gun) and firing a gun in a video game are two VERY different things. Not to mention paintball hurts so your gamer is just as likely to be like me (Hide and hope no one finds me so I can shoot them in the ass) as they are to be Rambo and paintball murder everyone.
Either way, I imagine other experiences would be FAR more impactful (fitness level, used to being in "stressful" situations, real life gun use) than which of those people played video games.
Contrary to popular opinion, firing a gun (even a paintball gun) and firing a gun in a video game are two VERY different things. Not to mention paintball hurts so your gamer is just as likely to be like me (Hide and hope no one finds me so I can shoot them in the ass) as they are to be Rambo and paintball murder everyone.
Either way, I imagine other experiences would be FAR more impactful (fitness level, used to being in "stressful" situations, real life gun use) than which of those people played video games.
I'd say the opposite- hand-eye is the only skill that's totally different. Everything else, from tactics, placement, knowing when to push, ammo management, stance and the like- would suit gamers because they've already seen the benefits of what works and what doesn't.Elijin said:
Wasn't that the same argument people who said VR could train children to shoot up schools used?Squilookle said:
Funny story, I was a big FPS gamer when I did my first paintball session. I was fucking dismal. FPS are poor preparation for paintball.
Steady hand and fast reflexes sure, but its a real life sport and you need this thing called cardio to do it well. And dont be under any illusions that aiming with a mouse translates into shooting with a controller. I actually know a guy where its reverse, he wins medals in pistol shooting and competes for the state in real life, but when we would play Halo he was soooo bad at it.
Thats about the only case where I could see a vaguely plausible argument. Then again, the top players of probably have a bunch of weird habits specifically tailored to how that specific game performs that are completely alien to real life and could bite them in the ass, where the casuals wouldn't have that embedded and thereby adapt better to the new situation.JazzDemon said:
Like if you take a hardcore player from a shooter that's heavily ground based, and drop them in something that uses a lot more verticality, they will get constantly hosed because they have conditioned themselves to the concept of the enemy not coming from above.
Objects in games are generally well defined. This makes noise if you walk on it. This wall or tree is cover. If you can't see them they can't see you (from a first person view). Tossed in reality, that first case is highly variable, the second one (particularly as foilage goes) is all over the place, and any given part of you might be visible. People can be all sorts of odd locations and postures, not just a solidly defined width and 3 possible heights you're aiming at.
I'd say shooter gamers (with no gun experience) would be better at paintball vs non-gamers (with also no gun experience). The shooting skills won't transfer over because it's 2 completely different skill-sets, maybe the most transferable gunskill would be to fire under control vs wildly. However, the gamers should be much better at movement and positioning along with anticipating other players' movements. 90% of being good at a shooter isn't having "l33t" shooting skills and doing 360 no-scopes, it's all about positioning and knowing the ways to tip the scales from a 50/50 gunfight to say 75/25 gunfight in your favor. The gamer should know how to use objects better for cover purposes, most cover utilized in a shooter isn't using a game's cover system but putting an object between yourself and your opponent even if the object is 20 feet in front of you. Also, knowing when to engage and not to engage in combat is another great skill learned from playing shooters, you just don't start shooting at someone you see unless the environment is currently giving you the upper hand. I feel most people with no gun/police/military experience would just shoot when they see an enemy. Also, the gamers should have better communication skills.
Maybe it helps in a vaguely theoretical way (you know about controlled bursts, go you) but I don't think it'd make much difference.
No. I've played both. There is no overlap. Not even in tactics. There's a psychological element to playing with "real" objects that buzz by your head and hurt you when your hit. All that tactical shit goes out the window the moment you're out of your comfort zone.
One of the few who gets it.SupahEwok said:
Like I said, very minimal gain from hand eye co-ordination, but only if we're assuming the non-gamers are challenged in that area.
And the gain is minimal because:
It's the exact same gain any strong hand eye coordination activity would grant, like ball sports or such.
Standard paintball hoppers only have a vague relationship with accuracy.
Yeah, gonna say there's little to no overlap in skill sets. Whatever advantage would be so minimal it would be overcome over the course of a single paint pall match. The few times I've played generally physical health is a much better indicator of initial advantage, with people that can hack the cardio being much better able to move and aim the gun for extended lengths of time.
Also a lot of FPS have super accurate shooting, and often straight hitscan weapons, having shot paintball guns numerous times in the past, even experience with real firearms will do little to help with the drop and sway you are going to get with a regular paintball, it required some pretty serious adjustment to hit anything even close to human sized the first time I fired one.
All the nonsense about positioning and cover means very little, and any advantage would be overcome within a game or two as most people pick that up fast when you get hit with your first paintball. One of my buddies who's never played a game other than Madden and maybe Clash of Clans in his entire life picked up all of that within an hour of playing, and his better physical health meant he could do it more and faster than I could, despite my experience playing shooters since the days of Doom.
Pretty much anything else is vague enough to be an easily transferred skill and duplicated from any number of hobbies: communication, teamwork, etc.
Also a lot of FPS have super accurate shooting, and often straight hitscan weapons, having shot paintball guns numerous times in the past, even experience with real firearms will do little to help with the drop and sway you are going to get with a regular paintball, it required some pretty serious adjustment to hit anything even close to human sized the first time I fired one.
All the nonsense about positioning and cover means very little, and any advantage would be overcome within a game or two as most people pick that up fast when you get hit with your first paintball. One of my buddies who's never played a game other than Madden and maybe Clash of Clans in his entire life picked up all of that within an hour of playing, and his better physical health meant he could do it more and faster than I could, despite my experience playing shooters since the days of Doom.
Pretty much anything else is vague enough to be an easily transferred skill and duplicated from any number of hobbies: communication, teamwork, etc.
Not to stereotype but most of my gamer friends are not in especially good shape. Not that they are fat or anything, they just tend to not exercize much (myself included these days). Being able to aim a gun effectively is useful but so is being able to run around and be agile enough to take cover and dodge shots and stuff. And in my experience, those who like paintball are real into it so I imagine any motley crew I could scrape together would get paintball'd to shreds by any sort of even mild enthusiast.
A lot of them would be bigger targets IRL, considering the average fitness level of a hardcore gamer.
This.SupahEwok said:
The only elimination I scored all day when I played paintball that one time was poking the barrel out of a hole in a wall one storey above my target and just aiming down at the guy without him knowing I was there.
Every other round I was either cowering behind a wall and getting dunked on the second I stuck my head out, or I took a risk and went somewhere and just got outshot without a hope of winning. Not to mention trying to pay attention to positioning, but someone managed to flank me anyway and when you've got your back to a wall and someone's shooting at it, there's not much you can really do to get out of it.