The Struggle

[Chappy]

It’s real, we’ve acknowledged that. But is it fun? Well I guess that’s obvious too. We play paintball we must enjoy the struggle to some extent. The ramping in recball post had me thinking about why I like to struggle in my hobbies and how that struggle is nuanced; ie we all seem to like different aspects of said pain and suffering.

To take an example outside of paintball, I am a casual backpacker. I’m not planning to thru hike the AT but I enjoy a few days at a time. I remember years ago loudly questioning my vacation decisions after climbing wind gap on a 90 degree, 15 mile day. But damn if camp wasn’t sweet that night. For me there’s something about enjoying a night in the woods with only what you carried.

On the other hand, I also play guitar. I’ve heard a lot of players talk about enjoying struggling against a guitar’s action. It’s part of their tone. No thanks lol. I like my 9s on a downtuned strat thank you very much. I learned on an old stiff acoustic and am glad to have moved on.

Im not a car guy but I remember talking to someone about modifying cars . In response to a “why not just buy a V8” comment he brought up the satisfaction of eeking every last bit of power out of the little import. It’s like modifying and racing Neons… Which is a perfect Segway back into the struggles in paintball, right? lol I know some of you get it.

There are a lot of hard things to enjoy in paintball, and a lot of us make it harder on ourselves then we need to. Pump, limited paint, stock class. But not everyone on the same level, even within the same niche. Stock class for example, is two different things imo, a play style and a game format. If you play the format then there is an appeal to the equipment and game limitations. But that goes both ways. Not everyone who enjoys the format enjoys the play style outside the format. But those who do enjoy it BECAUSE of the limitations imposed on themselves.
For the life of me I cannot seem to explain even to myself why I would rather shoot a gun that jumps around in my hands than one that clicks like a computer mouse but blowbacks make me smile. They are also reliable, which is a struggle I have little interest in. I enjoy eclectic shooters but when they let me down I’m moving on to old reliable. I’ve certainly met plenty of ballers who get their kicks from keeping their weird old stuff running between games tho.
i guess it’s just weird that I’ve belly crawled thru mud that smelled like pig shit to get the drop on someone but I have no interest in a smooth shooting bps machine to help me hit them.
What struggles do you enjoy, paintball or other hobbies ? Am I the only one who thinks about this stuff? Why is the punishment sometimes part of the fun?

[Cdn_Cuda]

Going to go with trying to resurrect an old marker that's been sitting for years. You get it in unknown condition. Maybe it will work, maybe it will not. They you take it apart and start to rebuild. Sometimes it's easy, just a couple o-rings and you're good to go. Sometimes it's a struggle, leak after leak after leak. They easy to fix ones are fine, but generally leave no lasting impression. The markers I've struggle with, been frustrate and then get to work are the best. Get a real sense of accomplishment that I found the problem and was able to fix the problem (usually with the help of MCB!). Then there are the markers which I completely fail at. Can't get them to work at all, or it's either too expensive or parts aren't readily available to fix. Thankfully this has been only a few markers, but happens. A System X NME, a Dye Hyper 2 reg.... actually HPRs in general are the bane of my paintball experiences. I really need to order a huge stack of WGP reg seals..... if only they were available in Canada.

But when you finally get that old marker up and running and shooting it feels like a real accomplishment and I do enjoy it. But there have definitely been some very frustrating roadblocks (looking at you BL Timmy valve o-rings....).

[Cdn_Cuda]

Jordan. Those have been out of stock for months. Mechpaintball never seems to restock anything.

[Jordan]

Dang, didn't notice the "sold out" on the listing.

Yeah, they're horrible at keeping things in stock. I liked it better when Maier Hardware was the dealer.

I can check my oring stash, I might have an extra reg seat or two for you.

[Cdn_Cuda]

Jordan. I’m planning an order from Autocockerparts in the new year.

[RPP]

Reminds me of a time a crawled around the far side of Temple to Jager Beach at SuperGame. Took about an hour to get the drop on 3 players walking calmly down the road, and it was amazing. People are drawn to calamity, struggle and "train wrecks" so to speak. Some/a lot of people get joy and a feeling of accomplishment from solving/conquering/helping/suffering through those hard things. I think that's an enate human trait.

When someone can apply those life lessons to a hobby that they like, it becomes that magical activity that fills your soul with joy.

[Chuck E Ducky]

The struggle makes the end result that much sweeter.

Nothing is more rewarding than a well placed shot out of a single shot on the lens of an overshooting electo player.

The game is more fun for me when it’s slowed down and more challenging. I can have lots of fun playing with inexperienced players by gearing down. Everyone playing has more fun as well because they’re not getting shot up. It’s also substantially cheaper for me to play that way. My favorite thing about Stock Class is the Process to me it’s like driving a manual car vs automatic. It’s a new skill set to master, to challenge, and keep the game interesting.

Coming out on top when you put yourself at a disadvantage makes the challenge worth while and exciting.

Like the time we eliminated a hand full of teams practicing on the Xball field with some open class pumps. 3 or 4 points without dropping a body. Those are memories that keep you coming back.

[Reflex0283]

I enjoy the struggle of blowing all of my money in the BST section

[RPP]

Im sure we all can agree on this one...

[sonixr7]

Agreed. Best investment I could ever make.

[Glovebox Operator]

How is that a struggle? It happens so easily. I guess it's a struggle to decide what to get.

[sonixr7]

Basketball. Going to a court by myself alone. Playing 5v5 full court not 1v1 or 3v3 half court. Taking any other 4 players, big or small, young or old, male or female, first-timers or old-timers. It does not matter. We win and keep winning. I don’t score much. I direct. The opponents are confused. How are they loosing? They have 5 superior players who can score. That is all they practice. They don’t know how to play team defense. Can’t defend pick and roll. It may seem like a struggle but I already knew it was not.

[RichM]

As the saying goes, it's about the journey, not the destination... or, from one of my favorite movies (Heat), 'the action is the juice'. If things get too easy they lose meaning, as others have pointed out the best memories are always those that stem from having gone through some kind of effort, and it's the effort we remember as much as the actual outcome. The smell of the dirt as I'm crawling to a position, the rush of making a move, the thought process and feel of fixing up a marker and making it work, etc. There's definitely a line in the sand, the areas where I try to minimize 'struggle' are those that relate to work or 'life' (family, house, etc.), otherwise it's part of of the experience. If it weren't for the struggle, we'd all end up like Wall-E people (that may be where evolution is taking us anyway, but that' another discussion!)

[JohnB]

Sometimes I put my fingers in a Chinese finger trap; just to appreciate free phalanges!

[cockerpunk]

there are two types of fun:

Type 1 fun: hedonism

Type 2 fun: fun in retrospect, often uncomfortable in the moment

both are pretty great.

[nerdcore]

I don't think of it as "struggling." Doing most things is difficult, imo. Doing the dishes is hard. Reaching the 50 without getting shot is hard. Tuning my trilogy build to reach field velocity is hard. Trying to win a game of Wingspan is hard.

For me, it's more apt to think of it as doing something out of necessity, or doing something because it's better than doing nothing. Whether that thing is an uphill battle or not is irrelevant.

[coyote]

During the winter I coach high school wrestling.

One of the greatest life tools you can pass on is the value of struggle. There isn't a week that goes by where I don't hear myself saying " we do this because it's hard".

Progress and accomplishment are the children of struggle.

[Tinybear]

Doing things to challenge oneself is what keeps you going. It’s what makes life worth living. Without challenge or struggle what worth would success have.

Some enjoy the feeling of that success more than others so search out for more manufactured challenge or struggle to conquer.

[shrompman420]

I do enjoy the pep talk to the rentals, I've i given it for years upon years, " Y'all spread out, not to many to a bunker, and have fun" still really enjoy the new blood giving it a try.

[JonM]

Besides paintball (which I enjoy pretty much all play styles from stock class and magfed to speedball), I also like to fish and play games. However, when fishing, I'm not always using conventional tackle. I'll often go out and fish a lake with a light fiberglass fly rod (often a 3WT) from a kayak using flies I tied myself. Still water fly fishing is often challenging enough as it is, but to do it from a kayak is on another level since it affects how you cast and manage your line. There's also little to no current, so you need to rely on different techniques to get them to bite. As for games, I tend to gravitate to the more difficult titles out there as a challenge to overcome. This usually consists of games like Dark Souls, various roguelikes, and other similar games that don't hold your hand or reward low skill.

[Chappy]

Your games illustrate my point well. I LOVE complicated games that don’t hold your hand but Dark Souls can go screw lol. I love a complicated quest or a large map to explored but button timing boss fights is not for me.

[Nish]

Just chasing our favorite flavor of dopamine right.