I’ve just returned from a really fun game, Line-of-Fire’s Halo 3, which was actually their fourth Halo game. I know, these Halo games are a dime a dozen, but this one really stood out from the crowd. For one, they built a real, working, awesome, insert adjective here, Warthog. Take a look at the pictures. This thing handled like the video game vehicle (only not so much air time) and it featured a mounted gun on the back - the .50 turret. The game also had a couple of guys dressed as Spartans in the full armor getup, an amazing double barrel Spankr rocket launcher, and a set of missions written to follow the plot of the newest Halo installment. I hate to break it to you humans, but the Covenant emerged victorious and destroyed the galaxy. Sorry ’bout that.

Spankr and ammo

Master Chief, Warthog, and Spankr

Wartog Turret Gun

I had the privilege recently of playing some rec’ ball with Bea Youngs Paxson, Mike Paxson, and Rocky Cagnoni.  The photographer at the field (Line-of-Fire in North Carolina) took this picture immediately after Bea shot me out.  Hey, it was down to a three-on-one, and I held them off until Bea made her move.

I subscribe to dozens of podcasts but very few paintball ones.  There’s a dearth of good paintball material in the world of podcasting.  My favorite is Wayne’s Blast Radius Woodsball Podcast.  If you haven’t been turned on to Wayne’s dulcet tones, go to his site immediately or simply subscribe through iTunes.

I’ve been thinking about this issue - what makes one scenario event more newsworthy than another? For a player/writer involved in covering events, this is an important issue to me. I’ve come up with a list:

• Size matters. Big events deserve coverage simply for the fact that they’re large. Larger events simply affect more players, and when any producer can gather together a huge crowd for a paintball game, that deserves some attention. It proves that paintball is gaining steam, if that many participants gather for a game, a tournament, a tradeshow, or any paintball-related event.
• Innovation. When producers break new ground, the game deserves to be covered, no matter what size. I’ve been to games that really stretched the boundaries of scenario paintball, but had relatively few players. Sadly, the scenario community isn’t always aware of where the best games will be held, only the most advertised ones or the ones by the producers with the highest profiles. Case in point - Line-of-Fire’s Pirates of the Caribbean event. They transformed their field into two ships with a desert island between them. Players lobbed water balloons at each other, battled ship to ship, and “swam” in the water by hopping in potato sacks while trying to grab pineapples for points and avoiding remote controlled sharks. Insane! That game broke the mold and deserved media attention, no matter how many players attended.
• Teams. I’ve shown up at some mediocre games that became great, though no responsibility of the producer’s. Top notch scenario teams put their hearts into uninteresting missions and made a normal game a competitive, dynamic one. In the same way, a few experienced role-players on the field can work wonders for a game. Producers take note - hire a few third party role-players to bring the storyline to life. Even a field with little interesting terrain can be made great through some role-player intervention.
• The Field. Any game that pushes the boundaries of what we think of as a paintball field needs to be covered, preferably with plenty of pictures. Games on abandoned military bases, in old prisons, corn field mazes, even natural fields in unusual locations (the desert, high mountains, Hawaii) can be innovative.

Of course, the absolute best games involve a confluence of all the above factors. Take a great producer who draws large numbers of top teams to an unusual field, and you have a recipe for a game that makes history. I have my eye on some upcoming events, big and small, that promise to be noteworthy.

This Saturday I plan to be at one of my favorite fields on the east coast for a one day game based on the third installment of the Halo video game series. Line-of-Fire Paintball Field has even built a warthog and who knows what else they’ll break out at the game. At an earlier Halo game they had a ghost, a sniper rifle that looks exactly like the one in the game, and a working replica of the Spankr rocket launcher. Check back here for pictures from the game.

My buddy Brian from SC Roadkill and PB Junkie came to Fulda Gap to blast some players with his camera. Check out his work.

 Wrapping left handed, scenario style, boyee!

For those of you on the east coast (or with the budgetary means to travel), mark the Fulda Gap Mega Game on your calendar for next year. Command Decisions Wargames Center in Taylorsville, NC, runs a tight ship and their large scenario field is chock full o’ great terrain. The home team, ODX, fields some of the best tanks in the game, and they were in full effect this past weekend as hundreds of players took part in a big game based on a hypothesized invasion of West Germany by the Warsaw Pact during the late Cold War. Ferg puts on a great game, and Archon Paintball supplied some fine-shooting event paint and great prizes in the mil-sim Tacamo line. I’ll post more on what went down as well as some pictures, so stay tuned.