Hrm...

[pblunchbox]

Are you sure paintball started as a simulation of war?
Can you site me the source of that information?
What are the odds that it was a bunch of cow herders, or tree loggers who decided to shoot one of their friends in the arse and then it degenerated fromt here?
Paintball is all about IMAGE now days.
Look at the "Pro" uniforms.
Look at X-Ball.
those of us who care about image care about articles such as this one.
Those of you who do not care about image Please feel free to continue to give paintball a bad name.
Brandon

[shartley]

This may have been meant for another thread (I think it may have been meant for the thread about the AD in the “gentleman’s” magazine)…. But I will address what you said…

YES paintball did start out as a “Survival Sport”, or “War Like”. That is FACT. It was not just a bunch of cow herders or loggers shooting each other in the rear, and then just denigrated from that. When Paintball became a “game” it was thought out as such. It was a game of elimination.

I agree that promoting it as “warlike” is not a good thing at face value. I prefer “team building”, “capture the flag”, “tag”, etc. But in all honesty, it IS warlike… it is a bunch of people shooting weapons at each other. But we do the same thing with super soakers…. ;) (I admit paintball is a bit different though. :D)

You may not like the way someone portrays the sport when they say it is simulated warfare, and you may think it is a pretty irresponsible thing to do, and I would AGREE with you…. but that is what Paintball really did start out as, and is actually still played as today. Almost any Rec game IS simulated warfare. But the question is, is that necessarily a BAD thing?

We still see plastic soldiers sold in stores. We still see cap guns sold in stores. We still see GI Joe toys being sold in stores. We see video game after video game centering around war being sold. And the list goes on and on.

The only problem is, when folks attach a negative connotation to it when talking about paintball. And then they fail to realize that there are many styles of paintball play. But even at its MOST warlike, it is not “bad”. And here in the US, we have always played at “war games”…. It is part of our culture.

Yes, we should take care to make sure we present our best face, but we can’t ignore what the game really is and what it started out to be. :)

[pblunchbox]

Yeah this was ment for my thread about stuff magazine.
and oops.
/blush
So paintball started as simulated warfare? then why are the markers called just that.. markers?
i am now confused.
And i do agree with you, the games we play are elimination, but then again so was Capture the flag (tag style).
GiJoe is fine, capguns are fine.
Smurfs were communist, but thats a different topic.
Paintball gets a bad name because of teens and even young 20's doing ignorant things with a paintball gun.
Robbing stores, doing "drive bys", shooting roadsigns.
I guess what i am getting at is it does matter what face we show the country. We are under eyes all the time. Mom's watch kids play.
Remember that.
Brandon

[ShooterJM]

I believe they're called markers for two reasons.

1)The original equipement used was actually meant for marking trees.

2) Soccer moms freak out when they hear the word "gun"
;)

[shartley]

They are called “markers” because that is what they were. They were originally designed for the cattle and lumber industries to MARK things. And for the sake of public perception, the industry still calls them “markers”. But those IN the industry still call them guns in casual conversation.

But the first GAME of paintball, and then all others stemming from that, were developed specifically by people NOT normally using these “tools”. The game of Paintball was not created by Lumberjacks or Cattle Ranchers. It was created by people outside these professions, but used their tools. And it was originally simulated warfare… or “survival games”… which to me, is the same thing.

I AGREE that we need to be very observant of the face we put out for the general public. No arguments there. I was just clearing up your misconception of what Paintball IS, WAS, and was originally played as, as well as WHO developed the game.

[pblunchbox]

Awesome thank you, i had been wondering off and on for quite some time.
Brandon

[Evil Bob]

The very first game was a contest that pitted several men from different walks of life, some guys from the city, some from rural areas, to see who had the best survival skills.

There were several stations where the participants had to check in at to prove they had been there (ie. sign their name on the check sheet). Each was armed with a marker to eliminate any of the other players that they came acrossed.

The guy that won the game never fired a shot, he was a forestry ranger by profession.

-Evil Bob

[Webmaster]

The main objective of the first paintballers wasnt war - but survival. Hence how the early franchise was titled "The Survival Game".

While I suppose there were war like elements (you are shooting at one another) it was more to see if city boys had the grits to roll in the muck with the country boys and survive.

We call the markers now as a more politically correct term - both to be less inflamatory, and to try to distance ourselves from fire arms. They were called guns back then.

Of course we have come a LONG way since we were running around for 3hours for a game with Nelspots!