When buying a marker ask yourself what you want to do with it: play woods/outdoor, play indoor, play speedball, showoff or other. If you want to showoff, play once and then hang the marker on the wall or stuff it into a closet - rethink buying REALLY. Indoor/speedball requires a different marker and configuration than one you would use when playing outdoor/woodsball.

Whatever you do you want to get a lower end marker at the beginning just to get the feel of the game, to sort of break yourself into the game. There is a reason why you don't hand keys to Lamborgini Diablo to a freshly graduated driving school 16 year old, instead you buy them a 10 year old Toyota Corolla. Reason is you have to develop habits and feel or you endup wrapped around a tree or in case of paintball being the first person out every single time. Word of advice to all begginers, the poser-showoffs who will go out and get an Angel or DM5 and all top gear to look like the pros will look like the biggest noobs when a kid with a rental will get a head shot on them in the first game. Half the game is skill and expirience how many bps is your marker comes 2nd, many pros train with pump markers PGP, Phantom or Marverick.

So on with the buying:
I always believed in company loyalty and personal feel for the equipment I use. I think it is what should guide you when buying a marker. You will never be completly satisfied with your marker if you did not like it from day 1. If you goto a store and take a marker in your hands and say "hmmmm this feels wierd" then it is probably not your marker. Call it the excalibur factor, you put your hand on the marker and say "yes this is it" you like the logo, the grip, the color and the lines of the marker, you feel proud standing there in a store holding the marker like you are on the field. That's when you found the right marker.

Scenerio or speedball?
If you pick(or want) a scenario marker you do limit your choice in markers, because few Spyder clones have scenario cosmetic mods (Kingman MR1 and MR2), no high end pro markers like dm4/5, shocker, angel, automag come with cosmetic mods (the Smart Parts ION comes with replacebale body parts however it is advertised as a speedball marker and all body options are more cool/alien/tribal designs) so you are limited to Tippmann and Armortech/Ariakon company.

For Woods and outdoor fields - those are large and uneven, can include water, swamps, mud, sand, trees, snow and many other elements found in nature - for those fields get (or you should get) a marker which can be serviced easily(most spyder clones), or one which doesnt need constant maintenance because it is very durable ( Tippmann 98, a5, prolite or BT markers). Tippmans and BTs are the AK-47s of paintball they can be kicked in the sand, submerged in water and still will work like on day 1, there is a canadian version of the pro-lite carabine called Mirage i have 2 of them always use them as backups (check out the mirage page <link>). All tippmans work with co2 and n2o. They are well worth the price. And if you are the kinda person who doesnt do maintenance this marker is for you, if you forget to clean your tippman after a game just go for another next week it will work no problem. Tippmans also come with a lot of scenario mods where you can make them to look like real guns(if you are into this sort of thing). A5 comes with special loading system powered by same gas which fires the ball and recocks the marker so forget about an electro hopper, each time you squeeze that trigger another ball gets loaded, when you install an eframe you are set! Tippman 98 doesn't have a special loading system but its ok, its a great marker and shoots very well right out of the box. (Besides there is an addon mod for the 98 to be equipped with the cyclone loading system) see here how <link>. Tippmans also have the famous Flatline barrel - it puts a backwards spin on the ball to make balls fly further and more in a straight line. Unfortunatelly due to a large bore of the barrel flatlines are not the most accurate barrels in the world, they are good for making long range cover fire and need be do some assult but a sharp shooter will not use a flatline.

TOP: is modded A5 with full stock, magazine and top handles with a sight rail, the barrel is thunder pig riffed barrel other than that its stock, makes for a great marker and perfect for scenario play.

Indoor fields (speedball) actually require smaller more light weight marker, playing speedball requires small relativelly easy to carry marker which can be shot at arms lenght or squeezed tightly to your body when you try to become one with a bunker and not get hit. Thats why you don't see people come with scenario markers and play indoor speed ball fields, you gotta move, you have to slide, drop, and run fast in 5 - 10 min rounds depending on the size of the field. Its also the place where you would prefer a electronic frame or marker that shoots fast. Tippmanns doesn't make for a good indoor marker, its good but not for speedball, tho I seem people play with them and be happy - all the power to them. You might want to a smaller tank when playing indoor, you will never shoot out a 9 oz CO2 tank in a 5 min game, so why get a heavy 20 oz? If you can get a light weight Nitro tank, also small, you can refill after each game. But light weight Nitro tanks made from aluminum wrapped in carbonfiber and other polimers are in about $200-300 range.

For indoor use you should concider an electronic marker, many electronic markers now days are inexpensive, ViewLoader and Kingman released electronic grip markers for about $100, Smart Parts ION has dropped in price to $200 (sadly its quality did too), many companies like Evil, WGP, 32 Degrees, PMI began releasing economy models of their best selling markers priced well in to a buying range of a highschool or college student.