There must be more to scenario paintball than just shooting paint. Sure I know about the thrill of the hunt and out smarting your opponent or the excitement of a huge fire fight. These things are what most people come for and what the magazines and promos on web site game ads tout but I believe there is something else that we all get to take part in each time we attend a game and it satisfies something deep inside of us. It’s not a subject that will come up very much around a campfire as we recount the days events but the fact that each of us get to be someone else for just a day or a weekend can be a very powerful lure and maybe without even realizing it this is one of the main draws that calls us to the scenario events.
The Greeks of 2000 years ago or so loved the theatre and everyone would attend the plays put on and this was the main entertainment of these people at that time. Those in the play would put masks on a stick over their face to portray someone else, their character. There was no word for ‘actors’ in their language, instead those masked people were called ‘hypocrites’ and that is where we got this word and still use it today. Hypocrites back then were celebrated much like our actors are but now a days when you call someone a hypocrite it is a negative and could get you punched.
ORIGIN Middle English : from Old French ypocrite, via ecclesiastical Latin from Greek hupokrit?s ‘actor,’ from hupokrinesthai (see hypocrisy ).
When you think of it, scenario paintball players are hypocrites and I for one think it is a positive thing indeed. In todays hustle and bustle world people are under tremendous pressures in life. Family, bills, deadlines at work and the list goes on and on. Many people ‘check out’ and get caught up with the snares and traps that ruin their lives that in the beginning was perhaps just a way to escape, just a chance to be someone else for awhile and leave all of their worries and troubles behind. These people put on a mask and the temporary freedom soon becomes a hard burden that doesn’t so easily let them go. That is the negative.
In paintball I feel that a player does much the same thing but on the positive side. For that weekend he or she can become someone else and it doesn’t have to be negative at all. I’m no psychiatrist but every once in awhile we all want to be our alter ego, top dog and let loose and live with the kind of courage that maybe we don’t have back in our home town. Where else can you go and live out a ‘mission impossible’ scene and slink through a group of 40 guys to complete a mission? While it’s not Ok to lie in a real business deal the art of deception may be your best friend in scenario paintball as you con another spy out of a valuable prop for a worthless 
document you created in the parking lot. You really have nothing to lose and the person you conned or that player you shot out will most likely say “good play-you got me there” and no one is worse for the wear. It’s a release of some sort to check out in this way, an escape that has positive effects later on as you reflect upon the game. I’m sure there’s a term for it in a psychology book and a reason this kind of ‘acting’ does a person good but I wouldn’t have a clue what that would be.
So for me I’ll just enjoy this aspect of playing scenario paintball along with all the other thrilling things that this game brings to the table. I won’t even mind if at the end of the day you walk up to me and say-”You’re a great hypocrite!” I’ll know exactly what you mean.
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