Blood Red Paintballs (Thread from Pbnation News)

[kruger]

If this thread is about the use of Red paint, then my opinion stands. If it is about this particular ad, then I am in agreement with the majority of the opinions here. This ad was done in bad taste with little fore thought as to what image that they are projecting. I do agree that drugs and violence are not what paintball is about and, to be honest, I did completly miss the dead girl in the add. Just didnt pay that much attention to it. To me, this particular ad is directed squarely at the Speedball crowd. All the "agg" and attitude that they seem to love. Image is everything to most speedballers. I do know that there are exceptions tho......

[Phaelynar]

I've only been hit once from a paintball where getting hit resulted in bleeding, and that was playing speedball in a wife beater, and getting bunkered by someone shooting at 330ish. There was barely any blood, just a significant amount of bruising on my arm and it left a cut which eventually turned into a fairly large scar in the shape of 95% of a paintball. I wiped it off with a paper towel, and went about my day.

How could anyone seriously be stupid enough to think they are bleeding uncontrollably from the stomach/leg/arm/back of the head/foot what have you after getting hit by a paintball? I don't even think one being shot at 400fps would have the capacity to do that.

With that being said, unless the paint stained horribly (which some do, and they're not all red filled) I don't see a problem with using it. As stated above. If people believe they're dying after being hit with a paintball, which some people can't even feel half the time, this sport is most definitely not for them.

[mpsd]

This is all politically correct BS. Sure, I see the argument of masking real injuries. I also see the the fact that some may see it as too realistic. But, when it is all said and done, it is still just a game. And, even if you dont like it, the woods/scenario side of the game seems to be carrying the sport right now. War games, pure and simple. If this seems offensive to you, then the simple answer is dont buy the paint. If is is being used at a field where you play, then either play or leave. Me, I would play. It's just paint.

You're the man! I agree 100%.

When I started playing, back in 1991, there were basically two paintball colors: red and blue. Each team used one of them and it was cool/funny to see people who was shot by a teammate. And, at that time, no one ever complained about this BS of "red looks like blood". It's a color just like any other.

[Lohman446]

As noted above the old white peanut butter / chalky stuff was impossible to wipe off on the field without being noticed


/Err... so I've heard

[warbeak2099]

The point is not the color of the paint. It's the fact that these guys use the following in their marketing:

a) Glorification of drugs
b) Glorification of murder and violence against women

Unacceptable and so what we don't need in our sport. Like I said in the thread on Pbn, is this the image we want? If we allow companies to project this image, will the kid trying to start a club at his high school succeed? Will the youngster asking his parents for permission to play paintball receive a yes?

This has nothing to do with PC. It's about the fact that companies like this and immature players are scaring away new people. They do a terrific amount of damage to the sport, and then go away a few years later, not caring in the least bit about what they did.

Take the drugs and the dead woman out of the ad, and I have no problem with their company.

[DevilMan]

How could anyone seriously be stupid enough to think they are bleeding uncontrollably from the stomach/leg/arm/back of the head/foot what have you after getting hit by a paintball? I don't even think one being shot at 400fps would have the capacity to do that.

Keep in mind that we are not just talking about getting paint on you as an injury. I am talking about running and somehow managing to gouge your leg or arm on a stick, branch or nail of some kind. Or tripping and falling and getting a compound fracture that breaks the skin and DOES bleed. Take into account that the stuff may not break the clothing so all of a sudden you have a red spot showing through your clothes... You complain that it hurts and everyone laughs and points at you for being a wussy.... Say you are blood shy... you touch it, look at it and pass out.... Instead of someone knowing that there is no red paint on the field and knowing that that color can only be coming from one place they ridicule and make fun of and then only later realize that you are seriously injured.

You are also forgetting that some people bleed profusely from a paper cut. Have you ever been shot to where the shell actually cuts your skin??? If you are bleeding whether it's "serious" or not wouldn't you like to know so that you can get a bandage on it or would you rather just keep playing in some muddy swamp water letting who knows what into the open wound?

How many have twisted an ankle and went down??? Or slipped and fallen?? Or gotten their mask yanked off by a tree branch.... Wouldn't you rather let someone know that if they see "blood" that there IS an injury??? And not that you just got shot by someone shooting red paint???

To me that is logical. The other side of the coin is... Why do you WANT red paint? What's the purpose??? Why is it so hard for you NOT to shoot another color??? Why do you feel that it's better to shoot red than any other color??? Give me a valid reason as to WHY IT'S BETTER.

DM

P.S. As for the ad.... The company name not an issue. The top and bottom levels of paint. Not a problem. The "blood" paint.... Not a good choice. The Needles, Pills, Dead Chick.... Not a good choice.

[Beemer]

Just another example of how we suck at self governing ourselves. It will be worse when they come in and tell us what to do, since in twenty years we cant get it right. Did I say Paint Ball got stupid.

The fact of the matter was, it was never "illegal" to make blood-red paint. No one ever passed a "law" banning it, and there's no real authority that would have the power to anyway- save the Gummint maybe.

It was "suggested" very strongly, however, very early on in the game- mid '80s- that the makers of paintballs voluntarily refrain from making the blood-red stuff, so the sport could more easily shed it's "war game" image and become more mainstream.Early anti-paintball news articles occasionally focused on the fact that players shot "fake blood" at each other, to "better simulate a wound".

Some early heavyweights, such as SC Village in California, did indeed "ban" the use of blood-red paint (the referees had to be able to tell the difference between red paint and the blood of an actual injury) as well as some particular brands of other colors- specifically blue Nelson, which tended to create permanent stains when the dye would soak into dry wood, rock and brush.

Red paint is one of the sad things about this industry that keeps us in the back woods of the social mainstream. Time and again everyone agrees that it is bad for the sport but the manufacturers will not stop making it because "the other competitor will". This a blatant example of money and market share before making sense and industry longevity.

http://www.automags.org/forums/showthread.php?t=8960 Historic Thread from two thousand one

[Phaelynar]

Keep in mind that we are not just talking about getting paint on you as an injury. I am talking about running and somehow managing to gouge your leg or arm on a stick, branch or nail of some kind. Of tripping and falling and getting a compound fracture that breaks the skin and DOES bleed. Take into account that the stuff may not break the clothing so all of a sudden you have a red spot showing through your clothes... You complain that it hurts and everyone laughs and points at you for being a wussy.... Say you are blood shy... you touch it, look at it and pass out.... Instead of someone knowing that there is no red paint on the field and knowing that that color can only be coming from one place they ridicule and make fun of and then only later realize that you are seriously injured.

How many have twisted an ankle and went down??? Or slipped and fallen?? Or gotten their mask yanked off by a tree branch.... Wouldn't you rather let someone know that if they see "blood" that there IS an injury??? And not that you just got shot by someone shooting red paint???

To me that is logical. The other side of the coin is... Why do you WANT red paint? What's the purpose??? Why is it so hard for you NOT to shoot another color??? Why do you feel that it's better to shoot red than any other color??? Give me a valid reason as to WHY IT'S BETTER.

DM

If you're running and cut yourself on a branch your clothes would rip as well. I'd say you wouldn't confuse that with a paintball.

A compound fracture that breaks the skin? Are you serious? What idiot would mistake someone's bone protruding from their leg for a paintball? Someone's going to point and laugh at you for being a wussy while your bones coming out your arm or leg? Give me a break and at least put it something more realistic.

What if you're blood shy and pass out? It's not blood?

I played in the woods for a while as the main field I used to go to was Canobie paintball, and they didn't always have speedball fields. I've never seen, nor personally had any of the following happen: Falling and impaling myself/or seeing another do so on a branch or rock/having my or anothers mask taken off by a tree (wth?), although I have seen someone take it off themselves which is against the rules for starters/breaking my leg/arm/any other appendage where the bone protrudes through the skin (no one dumb enough could possibly confuse that with a paintball)/severely cutting myself in any manner shape or form. This is after years of play in wooded areas. This also includes fields not sanctioned by a legitimate business, rather using an abandoned warehouse people set up (had concrete floors/shattered glass/etc and no one ever got hurt there) or a wooded area that people used in the middle of nowhere to play that had been set up with makeshift bunkers.

Any other absurd hypothetical scenario's you'd like to throw out in the open?

And here's a legitimate reason: Some people might actually want the realism. Some people play with very realistic looking markers, so why not add the "blood factor" too. There's a very legitimate reason.

[Hilltop Customs]

take a look at the add, they are not marketing for realistic war games.....

[Lohman446]

How many have twisted an ankle and went down??? Or slipped and fallen?? Or gotten their mask yanked off by a tree branch.... Wouldn't you rather let someone know that if they see "blood" that there IS an injury??? And not that you just got shot by someone shooting red paint???.

Of all the injuries related to paintball you have noted how many have had anything to do with traumatic bleeding? I have seen more than a few and none of them involved traumatic bleeding myself.

[Steelrat]

I think the advertising on these products is about 2 years behind the times. The agg crowd is giving way to the mil-sim crowd, who I can't see this product appealing to.

[Phaelynar]

Of all the injuries related to paintball you have noted how many have had anything to do with traumatic bleeding? I have seen more than a few and none of them involved traumatic bleeding myself.

It's beating a dead horse arguing with these people Lohman. Next he'd insert a hypothetical scenario where there was massive bleeding and it was mistaken for paintball fill or use some person walking through the woods who manages to never see any paintballs being physically shot anywhere around them, but sees someone being hit by a red filled shell and confuses that with them being actually shot.

These are all hypothetical situations with no proof behind them. If you conduct a study noting the total of people who have been shot by red paintballs and confused them with an injury to those that haven't (it'd have to be a significantly large sample size depending on the amount of red paint that's being shot by paintballers worldwide) and prove that they pose a threat, then you have a legitimate argument.

You can't run around like a chicken with its' head cut off making all these outrageous claims that x/y/z will happen when you have no documented proof of it ever happening. "What if" arguments are not arguments.

If you say "what if" with red paintballs, I say: "What if a giant meteor rained down from the sky and obliterated everything in a 1000 mile radius while you were using yellow fill?" It's got just as much bearing as your theories, as giant meteors raining down from the sky have actually been documented in earth's history. While it may be highly unlikely, it's still very plausible.

[DevilMan]

If you're running and cut yourself on a branch your clothes would rip as well. I'd say you wouldn't confuse that with a paintball.

So you've never managed to wear a shirt and have it come up when it snags something only to leave you bare and cut underneath? So I guess when you slide into a bunker that your kneepads ALWAYS stay in place and never expose skin?

A compound fracture that breaks the skin? Are you serious? What idiot would mistake someone's bone protruding from their leg for a paintball?

A compound fracture of the lower leg is very likely NOT to break/cut the clothing of the pants. ESPECIALLY when those pants are often times LOOSE and DURABLE.

Someone's going to point and laugh at you for being a wussy while your bones coming out your arm or leg? Give me a break and at least put it something more realistic.

What if you're blood shy and pass out? It's not blood?

Obviously your imagination is lacking in what CAN happen. Stick with speedball. Say you have 20 people on a field. It's said not to use red paint. This company says "with thick blood coloured fill". 19 people can manage not to shoot red paint. 1 does. Someone who is blood shy sees it and passes out. A fall from vertical to a horizontal position is enough to kill you if you land wrong. I don't guess you've ever passed out have you? In case you don't know... You don't have a choice in how you fall so keep that in mind.

I played in the woods for a while as the main field I used to go to was Canobie paintball, and they didn't always have speedball fields. I've never seen, nor personally had any of the following happen: Falling and impaling myself/or seeing another do so on a branch or rock/having my or anothers mask taken off by a tree (wth?), although I have seen someone take it off themselves which is against the rules for starters/breaking my leg/arm/any other appendage where the bone protrudes through the skin (no one dumb enough could possibly confuse that with a paintball)/severely cutting myself in any manner shape or form. This is after years of play in wooded areas. This also includes fields not sanctioned by a legitimate business, rather using an abandoned warehouse people set up (had concrete floors/shattered glass/etc and no one ever got hurt there) or a wooded area that people used in the middle of nowhere to play that had been set up with makeshift bunkers.

Congrats... And what's your point?

Any other absurd hypothetical scenario's you'd like to throw out in the open?

There are millions of rules and laws based on hypotheticals are there not? Care to disprove any of the above mentioned ones? Have you ever seen a gopher fart? What about a hummingbird lay an egg? Just because you haven't seen it don't mean that it don't happen. And in case you haven't noticed there are a few more folks than just you playing this sport.

And here's a legitimate reason: Some people might actually want the realism. Some people play with very realistic looking markers, so why not add the "blood factor" too. There's a very legitimate reason.

Some do. And if you are one of them then by all means go for it. HOWEVER. That needs to be done in a milsim area where you all agree that it's fine and dandy to shoot red. Don't bring it to the rest of the field just because you "want" to. This isn't about 1 person. There is a field near here where EVERYTHING is allowed. Full Auto, Red Fill, 300 FPS, OverShooting is common as well as bunkering. Come on out and play.

BTW.... WANT TO is not a LEGITIMATE reason.

[DevilMan]

Of all the injuries related to paintball you have noted how many have had anything to do with traumatic bleeding? I have seen more than a few and none of them involved traumatic bleeding myself.

I've seen a few bleeders. I've also be the stretcher bearer for one or two of them when someone passed out from exhaustion. I've helped people hobble off the field with BROKEN ankles and took one lady to the ER with an ankle the size of my thigh. Traumatic bleeding?? No not really, but the possibility is there. Likely??? Let's hope not.

But still give a valid reason why red fill is the way to go???? Is it more visible??? Does it "resemble" blood better??? Have you ever seen a persons head that's been shot? I know you've seen other things that have been shot.

It's a simple matter of WHY have it? When there are enough other colors available.

DM

[DevilMan]

And here's a legitimate reason: Some people might actually want the realism. Some people play with very realistic looking markers, so why not add the "blood factor" too. There's a very legitimate reason.

If that's the case then why when you get shot and are out why don't you just stay where you are? Why do you leave the field? Why not just sit/lay down where you are and allow someone else to take your spot and use your gear? Why do you play where ANYTHING counts as a hit? Why does a hopper hit count? What about a barrel? or a foot???

One or the other. Don't be a fence rider.

DM