Would people with better FPS skills be better at paintball?

[wings012]

Having a concept of basic squad tactics might help, even if it came from videogames. Compared to a regular person who doesn't play videogames, you might have a better idea of how to move or approach.

There's also been studies that says gamers have better reflexes and such. Though marginally better reflexes won't help you if you're physically unfit.

Won't help your aim at all. Paintball guns are more than just lining up your sights and firing.

I've been paintballing before and fired a few varieties of rental guns. Different models have their own quirks. Spyders fire slow moving parabolic balls. Tippman 98 fire comparatively fast and straight. Loads of goddamn spread either way. I hear personal guns are far better in performance. There's complex shit like using nitrogen gas instead of CO2 as well. Either way, far different from holding right click, lining up your crosshair and firing. They are honestly quite awkward to aim with the bloody ammo hopper over the top while the gas tank kinda makes for a pretty shitty stock. Add having a foggy ass mask over your face...

Also while you can be super gung ho in videogames, some people just can't take the pain and will be an absolute chicken shit. There's also projectile costs to consider, so you get people who are super frugal with their ammunition.

It's a complex enough sport that playing FPSes won't give you some huge advantage. An FPS playing newbie might have a slight edge against a non-gamer newbie assuming equal physical fitness. But easily negated by personality traits. You won't perform well if you're not willing to buy enough ammo. You won't perform well if you're way too afraid of getting shot.

 

[Dragonlayer]

I've wasted much of my life on FPS's and I think I'd totally be God-King of the Paintball Wastes....if they hadn't given me such crappy guns that time I did go paintballing. Everyone else had fully automatic weapons, mine was basically pull-bolt action due to its mechanisms being so old - and then halfway through the game the bloody barrel exploded off when I pulled the trigger!

In all seriousness, nah, they require entirely different skill-sets (not to mention levels of athleticism).

 

[JohnnyDelRay]

I played both. FPS for many years, then started paintball and airsoft, in a huge way. Hardly anything translated at all. Literally had to learn everything from scratch. I'll list down what I noted as most important, in order:

1) Body/weapon awareness: taking cover is not a matter of holding down a key. You have to crouch in such a way that your weapons and appendages, and even gear are not sticking out giving you away, or exposed to shots. Also, the way you lean in/out of cover, minimizing your exposure is critical.

2) Shooting accurately and quickly: Target acquisition is MUCH harder than a simple right click. Bringing up a long weapon as opposed to secondary is an entirely different story, both very different skills. And this is not even talking about recoil, double-taps etc, which is another totally different thing to real firearms.

3) Using your senses: Pretty obvious one, but the only sounds that are somewhat similar to game are footsteps, and maybe ricochet on certain surfaces. Guns sound different too, depending on propulsion type. Also, lights from weapons, and shooting in the dark - long story short, it's terrifying.

4) Reloading, managing your weapons: Running with long arms and gear hanging off you, the way you move, reloading tactically and efficiently, keeping track of ammo without a counter at the bottom of the screen.

Above all, I think players with more tactical sense in terms of movement and advantage in position will fare well than those who are simply accurate and with quick reflexes. The rest, is just a whole new thing you have to learn, among a LOT of other stuff like teamwork and fitness.

 

[Vanilla ISIS]

No, that's silly.
It's like saying that people who masturbate a lot are better at sex.
The only way they could actually get better at paintball is if they would use this:

 

[Pyrian]

Weirdly, FPS players are better drivers. They identify potential threats a few milliseconds faster than the general population. But paintball? Not so much.

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

Weirdly, FPS players are better drivers. They identify potential threats a few milliseconds faster than the general population. But paintball? Not so much.

I actually drive very much like a play a shooter. I'm always checking my mirrors getting a snapshot of traffic much like checking the radar in a shooter and getting a snapshot of the battlefield. I almost always know whether or not I can switch lanes just in case something unexpectedly moves into my lane, which has saved me from a few accidents. I also only use my mirrors when changing lanes besides for highways/expressways with 3+ lanes where you can have the situation of 2 cars from different lanes both moving into the same lane (which your side mirrors can't see).