Thursday, November 26, 2009

Playstation v Paintball

So as I drove to the Paintball segment of Paul's stag, a question was in my mind: is there a correlation between the skills honed in Playstation first person shooter games and RL survival in Paintball?

It was a question with some personal interest, because I suck at Playstation, and paintball pellets hurt! Turns out that all that Playstation develops is your thumbs...

Strategy, team work, a healthy sense of self-preservation and decisive action all proved more helpful.

It's one of those sacrifices you make: suffering the stigma of being cannon fodder on Playstation so that one can actually function effectively in RL. It's just good to know that when the balloon goes up "the grey ghost" will not be the first against the wall.

2 comments:

Rhett said...

I know you don't usually watch these, but do yourself a favour and watch this one!!! It's only 2 minutes long. And it seals with your subject perfectly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jBKKV2V8eU

BJ said...

You had me at 2 minutes. "Living With First-Person Shooter Disease". Nice.

What was interesting to me was that I only got shot 3 times in 6 games (some games I shot people that many times!) Plus I was active in achieving the missions ie I wasn't camping or sniping. I wonder whether Playstation is actually a negative for paintball - the respawning function means people don't have to think that much about survival? Plus its not a high strategy thing, more a high reaction thing.

I would say: I am as bad a shot in paintball as I am in playstation - I just get into superior positions before firing which gives me a bit of leeway. We executed some beautiful game plans against the opposition :)