APG, newbies, and articles. Going downhill? >

[Vegeta]

I have a subscription to APG. Good mag. Lots of info.

I am not liking APG reccently though.. alot of articles about new teams and "My first Game" kinda crap. I couldn't give a..(Look! I didnt say it!) about newbies. Really.. I wanna see articles about and interviews with pro teams and their commentary.. not Johnnie Newbie and

"how in his 1st game Last Saturday he shot Sally but then Sally got Nick and then later He got Sally and snuck up on her and... (takes breath) and it was so exciting and we had our brand new Stingrays and... did I mention this was all last Saturday?"

Yea. I liek to see that there are new players to the sport.. but I like to look forward.. not backwards. (you look backwards too long, guess what happens? Thats right.. you run into a tree.)
I wanna see stories I havent heard 100 times (admit it, all "My First Game" stories are alike.. all of ours)
I dont wanna know how Johnnie Newbie snuck up on Sally to win the game. I wanna know how Adam Pro-bie (I am coining that term.. If you use it, you must give credit to me :) )
kicked empty boxes at the NPPL Las Vegas Tourney and how his team went to win 2nd in the division...

I read two articles in Nov. APG. One was about "Reffing Skyball" (im sure alot of you read it) I loved it.. really interesting.. and again.. about a big pro event.
Then I read somethign about some new team and how they just came about. I didnt get through it. Dry as a bone. No information for me, really. Now, an article about team building I would have read.. but abour some guys personal experience with 5 friends in da woodz behind Jimmies shed? No.



I have went to far. Anyone agree? I AM NOT dissing new player. Glad to see so many coming in. But Id ratehr not hear about it. Just venting a bit.

[BobCon]

I for one couldn't give a flying (do not try to circumvent the cuss filters) For tournaments. Magazines have to cater for all not the few so you will have to take the rough with the smooth. I will die a happy man if I never hear "Take the Hit Take the hit Check him ref" from a tourny player. I like playing newbies and not just because they are easier targets

[MikeCouves]

Haha that's funny Bob.

I TOTALLY agree with you Vegeta. Their articles are getting a little crappy. Too many "newbie" articles. Why are all the reputable article writers making so many of these. I don't really care how Shock did in the World Cup (Well not that much;), but I would like to see more articles on new products, tactics, new fields, interviews with Tom Kaye, Bud Orr, etc.

I would like to see more stuff like that...

[Dude]

I think he's right, APG does have too many newbie centered articles. Also, a lot of the authors are too young. They need more grown ups writing for them.

[MoserMan]

I do find it annoying that most of the articles are jsut about tourneys, what about tech stuff and startagy, not just a bunch of BS tourney stories

[Zo]

and co2 mail... like every other one is about people saying that they can take you out with their spyder, even if you have an angel. blah blah blah. everyone in the paintball industry knows that its the player. Except little jonny whose parents buy him an angel, but who wouldnt take it if your parents were gonna buy you an angel ? :rolleyes:

[845]

We need one big magazine like the JCPenny Catalog cause I have atleast 4 subscriptions to different mags to get different info. I get APG for advertisements cause they always have the most up to date products in there advertisement. I get PB2X for tech and industry news and paintball games for tournaments. I also get Paintball the magazine too but that is just to give to all possible pball recruits. Now i will go on to *complain* (go through greath lengths to control my language can i have a cookie)about each mag.

APG=Basicly someone has to get through to them that there is a reason for a new players notebook and all articles should stay contained within these 4 pages. The recent Jan. 02 is much better than the previous one. This mag has some good ideas like young guns section but i dont think hearing about how some newbie got his gluticus maximus kicked in a local tourny and all the scary people were shooting "FA" at him:rolleyes

PBG= This is the exact opposite of APG this one has tournies and scenarios and only tournies and scenarios no reviews just some tip sections.

Paintball 2 Extremes- This one has the best balance out of all of theme it has informatice articles but also caters to rec and newbies.

[PaInTbALL zAcH]

Personally I enjoy articles about new products. I like reading about big tournies too. I really like reading about scenario games. Ive benn wanting to go to one 4ever but can get a ride. I like reading about everything pretty much except newbie articles. I read one a lil while back about "The Surrender". I personally would like one about bunkering instead of surrender.

You also have to think about the newbies though. A lot of the newbies can find these articles very helpful. It also helps get more people into paintball. The newbie stories shows positive attitudes and can help influence other people to play what can look like an evil killing game to the uninformed.

That's my opinion anyway...

[845]

Yeah but even a newbie could get sick of some of that mindless dribble that they put in there. Someone once said at cP APG is written by Squids for newbies.

[Vegeta]

I'd love to see like a lot of after-game interveiws with like the players like 5 minutes after they won/lost.. and that way we can get a veiw.. and they can note what they did wrong/right.. and this can help us in our tourneys. i'd really liek to see mare stats too, like charts and things on how teams did, especially in those 1000 people scenarios.. I love reading baout those. Reading about little Bennies first spyder, i am not.

I also noticed the co2 mail problem.
For thsoe who missed it/doesnt read APG, I will show you what we mean:




My Old TL+
Dear Editor,
I am a reader of your magazine and am mad about all of these articles in CO2 mail saying people with good 'guns win becuase of their 'guns not skill. That is completely FALSE! The only people that say that are people who don't have good 'guns and always lose to "skilled" players with good 'guns. ...If you have the worst player in the world with an Angel, and the best with a Stingray2, the best will still win. I have been playing for about 7 months now, and I go paintballing every weekend and have an EM1. And I have beaten people with $800 'guns with my old TL+ and my EM1. So all of you people who say that you are losing becuase of your 'gun... Buy a new one if you want. You're still gonna lose!
Chris Costa, 12
Team Headhunters

(Originally published in Action Pursuit Games, Sept. 2001)

Straight out of the mag. Not a word changed. now.. one thing I noticed, is that this kid is 12 years old, been playin for 7 MONTHS.. and has an EM1. I dont knwo the exact price, but they arent cheap. 2nd thing.. he say that if you give the worst player a Angel and the best a Stingray II.. the best will win.. WELL OF COURSE. The poor guy (worst player) couldnt fig out how to operate the damn thing, let alone take out a pro.. hte match would be better (scientifically) if you have two players of equal knowledge, playing time, one with Angel and one with Stingray. This is a sign of this kids stupidity. also.. WHY WHY WHY do they always mention Angels? WHY? they ARENT the best markers.. we here at AO know that.. the EMAG IS!

And he says that he sees all the people writing to the Co2 mail saying people with good guns with cuase of the guns. All I see is what hes writing.. people sayign hte gun doesnt matter. so hes got his facts (and more) backwards.


And the gun DOES matter. Not as much as player skill, but take it this way:

If you played for 4 hours with a spyder, that thing has a 50% chance, or more, or breaking, mostlikely on the feild. No, if you haev an expensive gun that is well crafted, liek a Mag, its more reliable, therefore, while one guy is stuck behind a bunker feild strippign and tryign to figure out whats wrong with his TL PLUS the guy over miann with the mag is coming to bunker his ***. he loses... becuase his gun broke... now it could have been cuase of not enough oil.. which is a player fualt.. but.. if you have the moeny to buy a expensive gun, your gonna oil it. its expensive. duh.Unless your a 12 year old whose parents got him a 500$ gun for christmas and hes only played twice.

My ten cents (that was more than .02.. gimme credit.)

[Army]

Whine, whine, whine...

Been to a big game or tourney lately? Then write an article about it and send it in. Think you can do better than "squids for newbies"? DO IT!

All I see here is; "How come they don't put in the mag what I want to read? They should do this or this and this or this..." gimme gimme gimme gimme

I am writing an article about the Las Vegas Pan-Am right now, and fully intend to mail it off to APG and Paintball.

What are you doing this weekend, other than nothing and whining about that?

[barretc]

I switched from APG to PB International.....bc of the boring limitless articles about newbies.....although International is 6 buks...its well worth it....mostly tournaments.... but I still ahev to say SCENARIOS ROCK!

[RaV3n_Pa1ntba||]

whats that euro mag that is like Playboy/Paintball,,,,,read my friend got his hands on one it was really good (plus some INTERESTING THINGS) if you got boored with paintball.

hrrm whatcha-much-allit

[Vegeta]

hmmm.. they will really put it in?! I never read up on anything about submitting articles.. I am a semi-good writer.. I think Ill try that.

Alright.. Army your right.. I am whining too much.
Lets look at some +'s of APG (since I haev dissed them enough)


- Gear Bag. Love seeing those new products...
- Ads. theres a lot and they can get annoying.. but it gives you a good look at the guns and some features of them which you might not be able to get by asking people.
- Feild/Store Directory. Whenever I travel places I havent been.. i check here to see if theres a sotre I can stop by on the way.
- Upcoming Events. not a whole lot of listings.. but does give informative dates.
- Snap shots - tells about stuff you might not have caught. Like the coulum in Septembers (i have that one out right now) Snap Shots about Hydro-Testers... thats useful info for peopel with N2.
- Product reviews. I liked the one on the A.I.R. system, the Tipp Flatline, and the Spyder SE.. (I wasnt considering getting/liking the gun.. i said the review was good). Those details count when you are buying sometimes several hundred dollars of equipment.

Ok enough of that.... one mroe thing

They should haev a N2 mail... for Tom said himself: "Co2 Sucks"

[Webmaster]

If any of you want to write for APG or submitt an article - they have writer guidelines on thier site - www.actionpursuitgames.com

[pito189]

Originally posted by Vegeta

If you played for 4 hours with a spyder, that thing has a 50% chance, or more, or breaking, mostlikely on the feild.

My Xtra has never broken down on the field. The spyders that break down on the field are the spyders that kids don't take care of because they are kids. The closet that my spyder has come to breaking down on the field is me being a genius, and running out of air on the field.

[Nitroduck]

Um, not to flame, but APG has gone WAYYYYYYYYYYY downhill in the past 1-2 years...

It's not recently that its gone downhill. I think this rule sums it up : look at the first 10 pages of a magazine and see what articles it has. 2 years ago, it was alllllllllll AGD, WGP, WDP and such. Now its kingman , kingman, and ACI and others.

I get very tired of the stupid newbies whining into professor PB about thier problems, heck, half of the answers ARE IN THEIR MANUALS. And since its well known APG is now a newbie magazine, what right do newbies have to write in and say they know more than verteran paintball players about what gun works? Last APG I bought had "I love to use my slinghsot against Angel owners". Yeah, try that against some SKILLED Angel owners and you'll find yourself on the recieving end of a 14bps bonanza. The formula good gun + good player = great still applies to paintball. Yeah, you could give Ryan Williams a M98 or Ray and he'd take out quite a few newbies before they could wise up. Give Ryan Williams his Cocker and he'll take out a few pros before they wise up :)

I highly sugguest reading the following magaizines if you want TOURNEY coverage

Paintball Sports International
Paintball Games International
Paintball 2 Xtremes

Of course Im biased for PGI, I write for them alot =)
Of course I also wrote for one APG article...And I'm betting their lil Co2 mail or whatever is gettin letters to attack me.

[raehl]

Both APG and Paintball take articles on consignment. That means you write something and send it in and if they print it, they pay you. The reason you see so many of the newbieesque articles is that when the editors are sitting down to figure out what articles they're going to publish, they can only publish what they have. Both Dan and Jessica do double duty as writers, and they have some regulars, but when it comes down to filling that space, often times you get what they get: A pile of articles from newbie players about their "first experience". If you can honestly write well, and you go do something paintball related, and you submit coverage of it, it'll almost certainly get published.

Which, honestly, Idon't mind much. Really, every issue of APG should have one article about a newbie player's experience, because then someone who hasn't played paintball before who comes across the mag can read said article and have a pretty good idea what they're going to get into. It's like free advertising for paintball.

One thing I would like to see more of is tech articles - how to do this or that to your marker. What's the best sealant to use? Teflon? Locktite? Which locktite for what? Things like that Matrix Side Feed article on Warpig. And more college coverage, of course... But that's happening already. ;)

- Chris

[Vegeta]

I read a PB2xtremes today.. i liked hte way it was layed out... but I got another year of APG coming so.. bah.

I haven't seen a Professor Paintball section lately.. but when they were in there, There were some very good questions.. but then.. there were the ones about leaks, seals and such that could easuily be fixed by reading the part/gun manual and using some loc-tite or teflon on you fittings.. which is common knowledge. I cant recall.. but I wonder if anyone ever mailed in askign how to put on an o-ring? lol

[FeelTheRT]

what do u expect? they r written by 13 yr olds... seriously... i know a 13 yr old that writes for them.

[Doobie]

I can't wait to get my grubbies on PGI each month. Robo is a good editor(plus he's gonna shoot an E-mag now :D . Tactics, reviews, tourney, and rec/big game in EVERY issue. Funny Brit humor too. (those guys are ruthless!) I also subscribe to APG and have noticed it's decline. The ads and reviews are a good point. (shiny new stuff...drool)

[StevoC]

I actually submitted an article to APG about 8 months ago about building an LP spyder. The editor said it was accepted and good to print, but I haven't seen it printed yet. Guess the newbie stuff is better material.

I think they are just trying to get new people into the sport...the newbie stories help.

[Wheelman]

They have been doing a lot of stuff on old school play latley too, yeah we all like to get nostalgic about stuff we never did, but you're overdoing the history lesson here.

Also you read one article thats not bad and then you flip a couple of pages ahead and someone more or less bashes the hell out of what the last article said. And Jim "roadrunner" Fox just need to slow down a bit or they're gonna have to name the magazine after him (seeing as latley it seems he writes most of the articles in it)


Originally posted by Vegeta

Then I read somethign about some new team and how they just came about. I didnt get through it. Dry as a bone. No information for me, really. Now, an article about team building I would have read.. but abour some guys personal experience with 5 friends in da woodz behind Jimmies shed? No.
I know those 5 guys and while there article was weak they are a good team and doing well in the local circuts