Paintball or Laser Tag?

[JCvgluvr]

For my 22nd birthday on June 12, me and my friends want to do either one or the other. Which should we choose? (Doing both is not an option.) Here are the pros and cons, as I see it:

Laser Tag:

+ Me and my friends have done it before (familiar and easy)

+ It's cheaper

+ It causes little-to-no pain

+ With the extra money, we can probably go do other things, like Imax or something

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- Me and my friends have done it before (boring)

- The Laser Tag place is almost 2 hours away from me

- I've never driven to this place before, and we might get lost

Paintball

+ Me and my friends have never done it before (mysterious, interesting)

+ The paintball field is close to my house

+ It seems more exciting than Laser Tag

+ Who doesn't want to play an FPS in real life?

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- Me and my friends have never done it before (we wouldn't know what we're doing)

- It's much more expensive (renting the field, gear, paintballs, etc)

- It could be exhausting

- The paintballs probably hurt a lot more than lasers (lol)

- It could become uncomfortable, considering heat, and the weight of the gear

[Kenogu Labz]

There's always airsoft. You don't need all the gear, just safety glasses, and the pellets are cheaper (I think). They sting/make a popping sound when they hit, so you notice it like in paintball, but without the same bruise potential. Just don't shoot anyone within a 10 meter range. And if this matters much, airsoft guns tend to look more like real guns a lot of the time; paintball guns, not so much. Not sure if you can rent airsoft equipment; maybe do a search in your area. Here's an article (airsoft-biased) on some of the differences you can expect. I got my first pistol for ~$40, and used it for years.

• If you're looking for kinds of games you can play with either paintball or airsoft, the simplest is Team Elimination: limited number of respawns per player, last team standing wins. Just have players pick one of two (or three) kinds of objects from a hat, and divide into teams of like object/color.
  
• Another good one's Capture the Flag, and its variant, Steal the Bacon. Bacon is good for quick rounds: place a single flag in the middle of your area of play, and try to get it back to your respawn. Generally, these games have infinite respawn; just make sure the points a little wider apart than in Team Elimination.
  
• Another goodie (but a toughie) is Regicide. Each team secretly selects one player is the King, who is then left defenseless (or with a very weak weapon). When the round starts, the King hides (along with any bodyguard he may want, though they can easily give his position away). If either King dies, game is won by the other team. Make sure you set a time-limit.
  
• A variant off of regicide is Foxhunt. A group is selected as foxes and hides in the area; everyone else tries to clear them out. Limited respawn for the hunters, and foxes can only die once.
  
• Counting Coup: Rack up kills against the other team in a limited time! Each team starts with an empty bucket at their spawn. When you get killed, go back to spawn and place a rock in your bucket. If an opponent manages to reach your bucket without being killed, he can place two rocks in the enemy's bucket! Once the time limit's up, bring the buckets together. The team with the least rocks wins.
  

You will definitely need to have markers or armbands to set teams apart. Also make sure you set up firm bounds of play, if they're not already set; the one person who makes a mile-wide arc just to kill your team from behind can easily be a game-breaker.

[BlackPanther]

I think you would get more out of paintballin. For some reason pain in the middle of extra curricular activity brings out excitement in people so while you will feel gettin hit with paintballs, you're gonna love it, trust me. The gear isn't that heavy, just wear like two shirts and you're fine. I'd say go with paintballin especially since you've never tried it. Do you mean, rent the field just for you and your friends? I wouldn't worry about that, just play with the people there, it's always fun taggin people you don't know lol.

That's my two cents, I have done both and I find paintballin to be a lot more fun, there's definitely nothin wrong with laser tag though. My good friend is super good and he goes to tourneys and he definitely prefers paintballin over laser tag lol.

[linkspast]

What Black panther said...

At then end of the day when your sweaty bruised and tired you and your friends will be having such a good time laughing and telling stories.

[BlackDragonSoul]

i agree with blackpanther. paintballin is a lot of fun. never had to rent a filed cause we already had the gear and stuff so we did it around the house. it was so much fun. never did laser tag but i rather go with paintball

[MaxFrost]

my experience with laser tag is that you just run around and shoot people.

paintball actually requires using cover, using covering fire, elevation, etc. It's far more tactical, and gives a lot more feedback. There's nothing quite like dodging paintballs in flight, or diving behind a bunker to avoid getting painted. And you know you're in trouble when you're about to poke your head out and the wall goes "THUD THUD THUD THUD" from someone trying to tag someone about to stick their head out.

[Nabeel Ansari]

Laser Tag, only because I am very biased against paint ball because I was shot in the side of the head where the mask didn't so very fortunately protect me.

Turns out hiding behind a log for emergency reloading isn't a smart thing to do.

xD

[Deep Thought]

Laser Tag, only because I am very biased against paint ball because I was shot in the side of the head where the mask didn't so very fortunately protect me.

I'd say paintball, but I was found in a similar situation. The result was a full head mask, and a dedication to woodsball. The lasertag location near me is probably one of the best, but the one problem I have with them is that they spend too much time on safety and regulations to make it as fun as a paintball adrenaline rush. Now if someone could make a laser tag with minimalized rules, then they could easily make a fortune.

[Kenogu Labz]

Again, note that airsoft has the same fun-value (except for the paint splatters), except with much lower pain/injury risks. If that's a prime concern, you probably won't want to go the paintball direction.

[1337 1]

If you can find a place that rents the gear out, they'll also probably rent out deployable cover and such (this generally occurs more with laser tag places). Although this can be expensive, done right it can be both more fun that paintball (because of more cover, more variety in the same location), and still end up being cheaper.

If you do choose paintball...keep your mouth shut during the game. Those things are...untasty, shall we say.

[JCvgluvr]

TNot sure if you can rent airsoft equipment; maybe do a search in your area.

I hadn't thought of airsoft, but if I can't rent it, it's out of the question.

If you do choose paintball...keep your mouth shut during the game. Those things are...untasty, shall we say.

:lol:

[Nabeel Ansari]

If you do choose paintball...keep your mouth shut during the game. Those things are...untasty, shall we say.

I just had a disturbing mental image of a german troop from a WW2 shooter game getting a paint ball shot right into his mouth...