Battlefield Live vs. Paintball
Mike thinks that paintball and airsoft can be fun, but there’s no way he’d rather get out on a field to play either one instead of Battlefield Live. With Battlefield Live’s trademark lasertag experience players feel the weight of the gun in their hands, hear the weapons’ fire around them and can experience the feel of live combat without the risk of injury. Battlefield Live weaponry looks and feels real. Every effort has been made to be true to detail, from sound and muzzle flash to clip size and the need to reload.
When you boil it all down, Battlefield Live is really a live video game experience. After all, you have multiple choices in gaming guns, variable range and performance between different guns and the gear is all accurate and includes a scope. You can wear a costume or even full military or police gear if you want to run a themed game and you don't have to worry about damaging or staining anything. Encounters occur at a much longer range than in paintball or airsoft and are resolved more quickly. (Remember: Battlefield Live gear literally fires at the speed of light!) Simply put, you end up with a more rounded, more complete experience with the Battlefield Live gear.
Advantages of Battlefield Live include:
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Battlefield Live is not the lasertag you’re used to! There’s no bulky vest and the game plays just as fast-paced as paintball or airsoft, but without the pain. It’s like stepping into a live videogame of Halo, CounterStrike or Call of Duty. If you enjoy lasertag, paintball, airsoft or video games then Mike is sure you’ll love Battlefield Live! Do you want to sit in the brush and lie in wait with your sniper rifle so you can pick off the other team or would you like to assault your opponents before they can attempt to ambush you? No matter what strategy you like to use Battlefield Live will make it easier and more fun than paintball or airsoft.
What's wrong with paintball & airsoft?
Well, nothing’s wrong with paintball or airsoft as a couple of sports by themselves. They just can’t compete with everything that Battlefield Live can do. First of all, paintball and airsoft are painful and inherently dangerous. Paintballs are small and travel at a high velocity, allowing them to easily bruise or even damage skin. It is imperative that players wear uncomfortable masks and safety goggles that tend to interfere with visual fields and auditory perception.
Other problems with paintball and airsoft have to do with the equipment and the feedback that they provide. First, neither paintballs nor airsoft pellets fly straight and they have a short, limited range. Also, the guns are small, unrealistic and look like toys. They lack the weight and feel of real guns. This lowers the suspension of disbelief and level of immersion. Paintball guns also perform and sound nearly identically due to safety requirements. They also fail to teach the advantages of a smaller weapon in close quarters and a larger one in the open. Furthermore, because gravity is needed to feed paint the guns can’t even be sighted over the top of the weapon.
There are also many problems with using paintball as a combat simulator. Many of these have to do with the use of paint as a projectile. Sensitive or fragile equipment, including radios, GPS units, scopes, night vision goggles and other electronics need to be stored or covered for safety to protect them from paint and impact. Any area that is used for play quickly becomes covered in paint, as do obstacles. Using paint limits the play area almost exclusively to outside and during daylight only. Paintball fails to provide a realistic, immersive combat experience because it is limited by both the equipment and projectile. Well, nothing’s wrong with paintball or airsoft as a couple of sports by themselves. They just can’t compete with everything that Battlefield Live can do. First of all, paintball and airsoft are painful and inherently dangerous. Paintballs are small and travel at a high velocity, allowing them to easily bruise or even damage skin. It is imperative that players wear uncomfortable masks and safety goggles that tend to interfere with visual fields and auditory perception.
Other problems with paintball and airsoft have to do with the equipment and the feedback that they provide. First, neither paintballs nor airsoft pellets fly straight and they have a short, limited range. Also, the guns are small, unrealistic and look like toys. They lack the weight and feel of real guns. This lowers the suspension of disbelief and level of immersion. Paintball guns also perform and sound nearly identically due to safety requirements. They also fail to teach the advantages of a smaller weapon in close quarters and a larger one in the open. Furthermore, because gravity is needed to feed paint the guns can’t even be sighted over the top of the weapon.
There are also many problems with using paintball as a combat simulator. Many of these have to do with the use of paint as a projectile. Sensitive or fragile equipment, including radios, GPS units, scopes, night vision goggles and other electronics need to be stored or covered for safety to protect them from paint and impact. Any area that is used for play quickly becomes covered in paint, as do obstacles. Using paint limits the play area almost exclusively to outside and during daylight only. Paintball fails to provide a realistic, immersive combat experience because it is limited by both the equipment and projectile.
What's wrong with old-fashioned lasertag?
We’ll be honest: Battlefield Live is completely different than traditional lasertag. Traditional lasertag has a bulky vest that you have to wear and you only get one choice of gun: a small plastic “phaser.” Traditional lasertag guns shoot in a wide cone that often means you don’t need to aim directly at your target to hit them. Not only that but traditional lasertag has to be played indoors because the sensors are blinded in daylight. With Battlefield Live you get to choose the weapon that appeals most to you; it doesn’t matter if you want a big assault rifle or a submachine gun. Your gun is accurate and shoots straight. Like in real life, smaller guns have a shorter range and larger guns have a longer range. You can play anywhere you want, any time you want, any way you want.
In recent years paintball and airsoft have overcome the market segment that used to be dominated by traditional lasertag. Mike believes that this is partly due to the fact that paintball and airsoft games are run by people, not computers. When you play Battlefield Live you’ll have human referees on the field with you. In traditional lasertag you return to your base to be respawned, which makes it difficult to use realistic tactics. In Battlefield Live, on the other hand, your respawned players will return to play from off the field, the same way that reinforcements enter play in real life. In fact, Battlefield Live is used by many police and military groups for training and recruitment because of the level of realism.