Biggest paintball gimmick of all time

[mr.mag218]

I wouldn't go as far to say that Mike is a Gimmick... He tests products and gives his opinion on them. If anything we need more people like him in our sport. I just don't see how you can call someone a gimmick for reviewing paintball stuff. Imo, If you don't like his reviews than do it yourself. Go spend thousands of dollars on gear, spend weeks testing the products, and give your opinion on it... sounds easy enough, right? no.

Mike helped get my younger brothers and their friends into paintball. His reviews led them into making some good choices gear wise.

I think the biggest gimmick in paintball was Smart parts in general.

that alone should be enough for people to support mike. bringing new players into the game is something we need.

+1 for mike for each player brought into the wide world of paintball through his videos or his site.

[Newt]

Holy necropost, Batman!

Meh, I'll bite. How about First Strike rounds?
TechPB a gimmick? I don't see that. There's plenty of legit advice to be had from him. I sure wish I'd have followed some of it from the beginning. Mask -> loader -> hopper -> gun? That would have saved me some cash and a lot of frustration early on. Some of us tend to do everything backwards.

[CatoRockwell]

Mike's a nice guy and his vids are definitely helpful especially to new players. No complaints from me.

[druid]

I wonder about the low pressure guns. You can breath deep into the tank, sure... but lower pressure needs a higher volume of air, so are you really gaining any shots?
Well, I can tell you that a modestly upgraded Ion [bolt and reg] will gain you more shots than a comparably priced marker.
And pressure on the ball? If my tippmann and 'mags don't explode paintballs when the air releases then nothing will.

Only thing I think you gain is sound signature. LP guns tend to be much quieter.
That and I guess there is less wear and tear on the seals.



I'd put almost anything SP high on the list, especially the Magic Box.

Consider the ION. Sure it is a cheap gun and good for the beginner, but add a better feedneck and barrel, upgrade the broken trigger, change the ASA, swap the reg out, change the bolt, and get better software with some nice modes you can use and you've spent as much as a decent Proto would have cost and came with good things stock...
Except that the Ion isn't a Proto. Remember...it was marketed as a cheaper alternative to high end markers, given that all other things were the same [bps, fps, etc]. The only reason to HAVE to 'upgrade' anything was user preference. Want lighter 'recoil' [another argument but one nonetheless] then change the bolt. Wanter a better 'feeling' trigger, get an aluminum one. Want better board management, get another type.

You would think that with all the business OTHER companies [meaning non Smart Parts] made off the Ion, people would be happier that SP built it at all. All those bolts, body kits, triggers and styles, feednecks, barrels, boards and detents....that SP never stopped/halted or disuaded in any manner [outside the threat of "warranty voiding" threats]. To that I say "big whoop" because it doesn't matter WHAT marker a person buys, be it SP, Bud Orr, 'Mag, Angel or Viking...SOMEONE is always thinking of upgrading it SOMEHOW.

IMO, SP is a gimmik company. I don't see how they are "good" guns or a "good" manufacturer, but people still buy them...
Why? Because Dynasty shoots them? I'll never know.

How about personal customization or simply customizability??

Another is marketing porting patterns. Porting is function without form, not form with function.

Rifled barrels are pretty up there on the gimmik factor.

I'll have to give it to Tippmann on the Flatline and APEX, they do what they are marketed for...
to a point but then again, the JFK bullet was wonderously programmable too...

Open bolt vs Closed bolt is an age old gimmik that I still see in use. I like to debunk it in public and at stores whenever I hear someone say it or use the term "closed bolt accuracy".


Anything marked "Agg" is totally a gimmik IMO.


A lot of the new loaders are total gimmiks. If the ROF limit is 15 why do I want to feed 50?


But as mentioned before, most of the paintball market is gimmiks...

My favorite gimmick of all time..........

Hand thrown paint grenades. You have to throw them from the top floor of the Empire State building to even HOPE they go off...

[druid]

don't forget if you have a different marker from me, I'm going to pwn you!!!!!

but the biggest gimmick in paintball right now is Mike from Techpb. !!

You sir, are my new best friend.

Mike = and I loathe him.

[druid]

I wouldn't go as far to say that Mike is a Gimmick... He tests products and gives his opinion on them. If anything we need more people like him in our sport. I just don't see how you can call someone a gimmick for reviewing paintball stuff. Imo, If you don't like his reviews than do it yourself. Go spend thousands of dollars on gear, spend weeks testing the products, and give your opinion on it... sounds easy enough, right? no.

Mike helped get my younger brothers and their friends into paintball. His reviews led them into making some good choices gear wise.

My question is...why did you let Mike tell them what YOU should have told them instead? I've seen you around enough to know that you are well versed enough in the game to have a very credible opinion...one that I would trust over the DB Mike...

[CatoRockwell]

I'll admit that Mike can be a bit abraisive at times, but just out of curiousity, why do people hold such disregard for him?

[Frizzle Fry]

I'll admit that Mike can be a bit abraisive at times, but just out of curiousity, why do people hold such disregard for him?

Probably for that abrasiveness.

I don't love or hate the guy, but I could see people being frustrated by his approach to things he doesn't understand... For example, the "tossed Angel" a few months back, and the following assertion that Angels are hard to work on. Everybody (including an Angel MT) popped up and tried to explain why he was getting bolt stick - but his mind was already set and he just wouldn't take the advice. What basically amounted to a 10 minute $5 fix was overlooked in favor of a strong opinion and an Angel slam.

Having an ignorant opinion and being obstinate isn't a crime, but when you broadcast that opinion to a bunch of impressionable kids it can cause people to become a bit frustrated with you... I fellow AOer and I play with Angels every weekend, which used to get us a lot of "Oh cool, an Angel" but over the course of the TechPB Angel debacle earned us a lot of comments like "Mike from TechPB says Angels suck (so they must suck)" or "Mike said it's really hard to work on Angels". He's effectively convinced a large group of young players not to buy from Angel Paintball Sports because he was too proud (or too busy) to re-glue, or worst case scenario, replace a small soft part on one of his markers.

Again, I don't hate the guy for that. He has a right to his opinion and clearly Angels aren't for him. Mike has a big personality and that's what attracts some people to him - that said, it drives other people away from him. I give the guy credit, really. He has a short fuse and he knows it, but he makes a good effort to keep himself in line, trying not to fly off the handle and keeping his comments for the most part civil. If he could shut Cockerpunk up (again, permanently, whatever), I'd probably like him a lot more, but in the mean time, I respect the fact that he has a good knowledge of the sport and doesn't claim to be all-knowing (like some of his moderators).

[SOUP]

My question is...why did you let Mike tell them what YOU should have told them instead? I've seen you around enough to know that you are well versed enough in the game to have a very credible opinion...one that I would trust over the DB Mike...

Trust me, I help them as much as I possibly can. I practically gave away half my gear to my brothers just to get them interested in the sport. My youngest brother (12 years old) played his first real game of paintball about a month ago at his friends birthday party. My brother was using alot of my high end gear, and his friends were all using spyders, tippmanns, and rental equipment.

Afterwards some of them came to our house and asked me questions about paintball lol. I happily answered most of their questions and told them what they should invest in next, What gear is more important to own, and what brands they should look into, how much money they should spend, etc.

knowing I wouldn't be able to help his friends all the time, I pointed them in Mike's direction as a good source of information. I showed them his youtube channel and showed them some good reviews Mike had done.

Its only been about a month sense then, but some of his friends have already bought new masks, and one of his friends who has been watching mike's vids recently purchased an azodin blitz, which imo is a way better choice than the spyder victor he was going to buy.

When he got the blitz he brought it over for me to look at and I gave him one of my steel hpa tanks... I told him he would need it for that marker lol.

Between myself and Mike they have all made good choices.

[Drix]

My god! We're on a mag forum and have not mentioned low pressure air reduces chops? Fail!

[druid]

What Fizzle said AND [from my own perspective]


I'm an officer in a Prison [which most people here know] and I see in him, what I see in 85% of the inmates.

He's a rude, abrasive, ignorant, megalomaniac and simply put, tries to exhibit a "Cool replacement for dad" demeanor when it's obvious that he is simply a DB. He echoes in the shadows of greats [Tyger] who have already established what he's trying to drum up for himself. A name.

His videos are littered with swearing and an "I don't give a _ _ _ _ attitude" in an attempt to seem "cool" with the aggletts and at ~32 years old, it's a bit strange [to me] to be catering to people under the age of 17 like this. As a father of 3, I wouldn't trust ANY of my kids around him...including my 21 year old [who coincidentally could knock him out].

His forum is nothing more than Nation II, ironically though, his forum name is banned from Nation itself.



When he can't win a ::urinating:: match that HE STARTED with you, he simply bans you as an undesirable so you can't subvert the BS he spreads. It's like, "he who shouts the loudest, wins the argument" - which we all know is simply untrue.

I've said it before, where if his mindless drones thought by ANY stretch of the imagination, he buys everything he "tests" [like he says he does], they are sorely mistaken and that's proven by "they won't send me ___ so I can't review it" admittedly from his own "fan boy" lips.

There was only two instances where I actually agreed with him and it was on two separate videos; One where he dug out his Mag and Cocker and spoke to old gear respect - and the other on 'old player respect' [or something to that nature].

So...in two separate videos [provided] he speaks to showing respect and gratitude.

And yet - He boasts at having started playing at the age of 12 [which puts that about 1990] when people have been doing this way longer than him [myself @ 40 and started in 1986, so I was 16] and there are other [better] players in this longer than me. Why then the contradictory attitudes?

In the second video link below, he speaks to "respect" - yet exhibits none by himself and especially when he's spouting the words "I don't give a ::crap:: on the videos he's trying to pander to the masses.


Hey Mike, you have to give respect to get some...

http://www.youtube.com/user/paintballtechpb#p/u/176/zqMW2OBVZq4

and

http://www.youtube.com/user/paintballtechpb#p/u/665/h1WGuw56fFw

He's all about the money. He's all about fame and glory. He's all about a fanboi following because it's pretty clear to me that he can't [or won't] make adult friends [his own age].

His actions and words on tape detail - nay - prove it. Hell, he's probably looking for a full time job from DXS or some other conglomerate because maybe his unemployment or disability was/is running out.

He's also a huge fan of Smart Parts which for me, is no big deal but for you guys...is all the more reason why you SHOULD loathe him as I do.

[cockerpunk]

He's also a huge fan of Smart Parts which for me, is no big deal but for you guys...is all the more reason why you SHOULD loathe him as I do.

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

thats a good one.

[druid]

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

thats a good one.

Well, it's also true...lol. he just "luvz himself hiz SP1" and has said it on numerous occasions.

[shooter311]

Back to gimmicks, anyone shoot those golf ball paintballs? The most inaccurate thing I have ever shot from my marker.

[druid]

Back to gimmicks, anyone shoot those golf ball paintballs? The most inaccurate thing I have ever shot from my marker.

Shot something close to them...

was a bag of paint that I forgot to rotate. Looked exactly the same and turned themselves into the JFK Magic Bullets




the ultimate gimmick of all time right here:

...ahem.........




















"The .50 paintball is better than the .68 and will save paintball from extinction."
---paraphrased and condensed from Richmond Italia's fear-mongering drivel

In fact, the .50 sucks. Has in the past, will in the future...and no amount of marketing can change the physics.

Richmond/GI Milsim + Kingman International have already invested way too much to let it go morons. They don't care about your game, they care about selling all new gear.