War games have been around for ages. They were used by the military for training. They would learn how to use surprise attacks and they would use scenarios to make the game even more realistic. So how did a military practice turn out to become one of the most popular games of all time?

It all started in 1981. Since you couldn’t run around shooting each other with real guns 11 people including Bob Gurnsey, Hayes Noel and Charles Gaines came up with the ingenious idea of using markers to shoot each other.This soon evolved and the markers were developed to shoot paintball which were made of .68 calibre gelatin capsules. These were coloured so that each team could distinguish who they had hit (some people had their own colour paintballs to see who they had hit individually).

The game of paintball has evolved since. The guns have become better and now accessories like paintball grenades are now available. There are now various ways of playing paintball. There is capture the flag (capture the other teams flag before they get yours), king of the hill (only one flag and one team has to capture it before the other one does).

The size of the game has no also developed. It used to be the size of a basketball, but now has become the size of a wooded area. The largest game ever played was in 2005 which consisted of 3000 people on a 700 acre field.

Protection in paintball has always been essential. The pain of paintball is like being hit by an elastic band but because the capsules can fly at a max of 300 ft a second it is a risk not to wear protection. Protection includes:

• Helmet

• Chest Pads

• Gloves

• Knee and Elbow Pads

• Long sleeved bottoms and tops

Paintball has developed from a military practice into the 3rd most popular game (study done in 2005) in the world. The game is fun for all the family and injury rates are minimal as long as proper equipment is used and the safety rules are followed.