12/13/03    Okay, Rant number two for the night.   That is some kind of record.      Latest craze in the sport is Mil-sim- or Military Simulation paintball.   It is growing rapidly with the expansion of many scenario games being offered by fields around the country.    Paintball gun makers WGP and AGD have both recently jumped on the bandwagon as well.    WGP is now offering a ‘Tactical’ Autococker and AGD is offering the Tac-One a ‘tactical’ Automag.    While I personally don’t consider either of these markers ‘Mil-Sim’ in the purest of definitions they certainly embody a different approach to the game with the emphasis leaning more toward ‘Combat’ than ‘Sport’.    Certainly companies such as the seemingly plural Armotech, and the crop of current Tippmanns have a much stronger resemblance to firearms that give rise to the truest definition of Mil-sim.    Mil-sim is certainly not new to the sport. Many of the earliest paintball guns that were specifically made for the sport were made into rudimentary firearm clones.    And many players devoted a lot of their own personal time to further enhance the firearm appearance.    As can be expected I’m already hearing a lot of people decry the folly of Mil-sim and the sport of paintball.    Ten years ago I would have led the charge.    But times have changed. I am, myself, primarily a scenario and mil-sim player.   My main marker, a customized Armotech, WG-75 is so scary real that I keep it locked in a case at all times when not at the field.    I’m going to cut to the chase.    Mil-sim is NOT going to kill the sport. Paintball has reached a point now of such widespread acceptance that we are not going to see some sweeping national movement to make it illegal.    Something that, ten years ago might have existed in the realm of plausibility.    I attended the Oklahoma D-Day game in 2003.    There were over 5000 people from all walks of life there playing. Speedball players, Rec-ball players, and the most hard core Mil-sim players you will ever meet.    There were, by some estimates another 5000 people there who weren’t players.    The non-playing spouses, parents, or children of those who did play.   Everybody got along fine and I feel quite certain that even the most skeptical of observers there would have sounded pretty foolish trying to call the event some of the things that paintball was often branded ten years ago.   Certainly it bore no resemblance to a gathering of Neo-nazi’s, Survivalist, or any sort of Terrorist training camp.   Mil-sim players are just a growing segment of the mix that has always been there.    Many of them are persons who, like myself are dissatisfied with the speedball format and want to get back to the old format ‘stalk and shoot’ type of game.    Many more are military enthusiasts who enjoy the roleplay aspects of the game and want to play the part of an elite tactical team.    Which, while it may not appeal to everyone, is not an unmerited approach to the game.    There is a satisfaction involved with the extra training that goes into forming a small tactical team and polishing the skills needed to perform effectively on the field.   It is not entirely unlike the feeling that speedball players get from the extra training they put into polishing their own on field skills.    We have to accept the diversity of the game now. Like we accept diversity in our everyday lives.   But in the same way I have harped on Pro players to monitor their conduct I say this to other Mil-sim players like myself.    The eyes of the public are upon you.   What you do impacts the sport.    Your status as a mil-sim player bears with it responsibility.    Responsibility requires discipline.    To be a mil-sim player you have to understand both.    Discipline is at the core of any military endeavor.   When you are in your playing clothes, be they a S.W.A.T uniform or the B.D.U.s of your chosen branch.    Eyes are on you.    Your conduct reflects on the sport.    When you are carrying your paintball marker you must exercise twice the discipline of any other paintball player.    While the speedball player in flashy colors and a garishly anodized marker is less likely to be mistaken for a ‘man with a gun’ we all should understand the need not to flash our markers about in public.    That this is doubly true for a player who has taken steps to enhance the ‘realism’ of his or her appearance would be an understatement.    Show Discipline.    Save your show for the field.   When possible, don’t even put your playing clothes on until you reach the field.    And NEVER, NEVER transport your marker outside of a case.   To you and me, the ubiquitous Tippmann A-5 only vaguely resembles a firearm but to the little old lady across the street, or at the gas station on the way to the field, or wherever you encounter her every thing with a barrel and a handgrip is an UZI.    Think I’m blowing that out of proportion?    Let me give one example.   There was an article on the news here a few years back now about a local cities citizenry getting together and circulating a petition making it illegal to own an Uzi within the city.    The petition passed and was written into the ordinances.   After it passed the local sheriff was interviewed on television and his comment was that ‘In my fifteen years in law enforcement I have never seen an Uzi. . .’   That is correct.    There had been no instances of an Uzi, or any other sub-machine gun for that matter, in this township that had come before the police.    It was simply a case of public hysteria that had lead to the passage of the ordinance.   Don’t let your paintball activities be the source of public hysteria in your community.    Play with Discipline, so that we can all keep playing.    My .02 scarecrow