the crash and burn of paintball.

[CatoRockwell]

I know what you guys mean. When I first got into paintball 13 years ago, I had a Sheridan pump I borrowed from a friend. There was a player there who probably had the nicest equipment and a totally custom autococker. He saw that I had no idea what I was doing so he came and rolled with me for a while showing me the ropes. All the more experienced players were so chill and helpful, always trying to make sure teams were even that I had the time of my life. That day was the reason I decided to spend all my paper route money that I had saved for a nintendo 64 on a paintball gun instead.

Flash forward 13 years and even the woodsball/scenario players which had been the last refuge for laid back paintball. Now there are a bunch of competitive DBags who aren't really competitors or they'd want even teams, no a better word is egomaniac. They pound on a bunch of noobs to make themselves feel big. I always make sure I join up with the new guys so they have some experienced help, but there are so many @$$holes that they still drive away new players by the droves.

The only hope paintball has is for the rest of us who truly love the sport to go the extra mile to make new players feel welcome and to reinstill chivalry in the sport. We need to make this videogame agglets realize that their attitude is not welcome and either make them change their ways or drive them back to their mothers basements.

You know what we out to do? We should form a chivalric order of paintball. Basically a network to gather players who truly love the sport this order can host events around the country for various play styles with the sole purpose of creating an enviroment that is similar to the enviroment that got many of us into this sport.

Wherever there is unbalance we'll be there to bolster the noobs ranks
wherever there is a lost noob we'll be there to show him the way

and so on. Like another said this issue has been brought up time and again, so let's do something about it!

[snoopay700]

This, this is why i am cautious about buying a faster gun. I play only rec ball and when i got my pneumag set up it was fun to lay down paint, but a lot of the challenge had gone away. That's one of the many reasons i prefer stock class now. I've also taken newer players along with me and try to do it whenever i can, and if i'm going a way that i don't think they would keep up i try to give them tips.

[chafnerjr]

This, this is why i am cautious about buying a faster gun. I play only rec ball and when i got my pneumag set up it was fun to lay down paint, but a lot of the challenge had gone away. .

I don't know... I play pneu because I like to be able to attain higher ROF if needed. Mostly because it's fun to be "that guy" that hangs out with the newbs who can fend off the 5 ballers that show up with the elctros mid-scenario and then go right back to plinking Though I totally understand what you're saying.

P.S. I still consider 3 shots on target to be "overshooting"

[AGDRetro]

I've been in the game for 10+ years too and I don't think this is something exclusive to paintball. The fact is that there is a serious lack of mentors for young people across the board.

When I ref I like to assist younger players by encouraging them to move up and showing them how to use their opponents blind spots to their advantage (so long as the group is cool and won't whine). Most mature adult players will not throw a fit if they see you helping a young gun. The same goes for when I play, and if it means grabbing my pump to "even the odds" that's cool too. The best thing you can do for the sport is maintain a cool attitude and exceptional reputation good sportsmanship. Fields and players will look forward to seeing you come out to the field if you can accomplish those 2 easy things. I always try to compliment the opponent that knocks me out of the game with a "good shot" and thumbs up. It seems to have done wonders for me and my team. I totally stand behind your desire to see more responsible mentors on the field!

[b-cuzz]

That reminds me of one day my group and I were at the local field. The owner invited us out to play, and there were some kids and their dads already there. we start setting up (my group uses Mags almost exclusively), and one of my guys' Mag is leaking. He switched to his Spyder, and it was leaking, too. All the while he's telling the kids that they need Mags.
I told him straight up at least theirs were working. He shut up.

It does seem that recball is far overshadowed by speedball and milsim woodsball. As such, someone just getting into the sport will be intimidated by what they see on the shelves or in people's hands at the field. I try my level best to educate new players when I see them on the field, or even at Wal-mart in the paintball aisle. However, instilling "fear no gear" into a new player is nigh impossible.

[classic68]

I went with a bunch of guys from work and their kids last week. Some have never played and we went out of our way to make sure they had a good time. We really wanted them to enjoy their first time like we did years ago so we did a private party even though we did not have a lot of players and it ran the cost up. I would never take a new player to open rec. I was out of the sport for several years and just started to get back into it when my sons wanted to play. I played a few times at my local field and you guys are not kidding about Dbags. I never seen so many people seem to go out of their way to punish new players. I saw so many kids not having fun because they were getting shot up. I tried to help out but there were just too many Dbags. the size of the teams were 40 on 40 on smaller fields. 5 people backed up in a bunker. One teen tried a run by and was shot several times on the way to bunker 3 kids (my son was one). He knew he was hit but kept going. He shot the three at close range. I asked him what he was thinking (I was out watching from the side lines) and that he was out. He tried to argue but its hard to argue the big splat on the mask. The ref (who is this kids friend) saw the whole thing and was going to do nothing until some of us adults started to make a big deal of this ****. The ref told his friend to sit out the next game. These types of stories used to be rare and shared around the camp fire like scary stories but now it is a regular event every weekend at field near you.

[snoopay700]

I don't know... I play pneu because I like to be able to attain higher ROF if needed. Mostly because it's fun to be "that guy" that hangs out with the newbs who can fend off the 5 ballers that show up with the elctros mid-scenario and then go right back to plinking Though I totally understand what you're saying.

P.S. I still consider 3 shots on target to be "overshooting"

I consider it overshooting too, and that's another thing, it was very easy to bonus ball someone and the first time i used it, if memory serves, i did on accident. But it also just made it a lot less fun, because now when i play woodsball with my phantom i rely more on remaining out of sight than firepower and it's fun to see the guys with fast guns freak out when someone shoots at them from the bushes behind them. I actually got one guy calling most of his teammates back by shooting a shot at him that bounced. So much fun....but i'm getting off topic haha, sorry.

Classic68, not every field is like that, it does suck when the refs watch out for their friends, and that should be brought to the field owner because if they care about their business they'll talk to the ref or fire him. I wouldn't stand for that kind of behavior from refs at a field i played at, and if the owner did nothing about it i would leave and try to get him as little business as possible.

[drg]

This rant is like 3 or 4 years too late.

[kumijia]

It's not only on the field, it's even in the pro shops. When i first started it hated just going to get my tanks filled. "Oh you got BE, you're using wal-mart balls.....bla bla bla," I don't understand how they got people to join there teams...I've never played on an actual field, I've always played in my own property. We all started with Tiger sharks, and we played every Friday night, it was great. I like woods ball, i like to sit and ambush, and i like to hunt. I prefer a one shot kill. All my friends i started with stop playing and now i play with my brother in laws and his friends (on average they are 12 years younger then me.) We all set up bunkers and blinds with fallen limbs, and we all learn to strategize, points of attack and weaknesses, and we learn SPORTSMANSHIP.


At my local field, there was one guy that worked there that was cool. He didn't care what you played or shot, He was just happy you were in the sport. He'd give advice on products, techniques, and markers. If you had a problem with a marker, he'd discuss it with you to see if he could fix it. He even would let you try out his personal markers, in fact he's one of the reasons i bought a mag. I purposely would go when he was on duty, everyone else at the shop were dicks.....until i got my RT. Then to them it made me a player, and in talking to them, i found out they were just talk, they didn't know anything.

[Reiner]

There were always d-bags around as there are still lots of honourable people around these days. The d-bags can just be bigger d-bags because of newer technology and cheaper paintballs. The cheaper paintballs mean that fields have very little mark-up and need/want their customers to shoot lots of paint, so many field owners turn a blind eye to situations like the one you described. The economics of the game have changed, and that has changed the game.

The best thing any of us can do that don't enjoy this kind of thing happening, is tell the field owners. If enough people start complaining to the field owners, maybe they will see the light and realize it's hurting the industry and their field.

[wimag]

over the years I have seen hardcore mil-sim GI Joe wanna be morons be more of a annoyance than tourney players. Same gear, different color is all.

Sometimes i miss the days of $120/2500 count cases.

[Lohman446]

Seperate paintball from the game and the sport. The sport is crashing, and burning (ignore the cheering). The game is still there, as elusive as ever, you just have to find it.

[saintnoir]

its not just paintball but people in general.I was judging at a local TKD tournament and noticed that in a group of kids from one dojo (wont say a name its being taken care of) were all wearing belts one rank lower.They were basically cheating to try and get more trophies for the dojo.
Theirs this weird win at all costs mentality running wild these days

[gimp]

Now this is more like it! Paintball needs more people with YOUR kind of attitude and reffing. People have been D-Bag's since the beginning of time... it's good players, good ref's and good fields to fix this issue. It's just fine up in my area, but there's still @-#ole$ around that need to be... "balanced".

I hope you can even it out some

This is off topic, but I just had to agree with the quality of players in NH. I don't think I ever had a bad experience up at OSG. I do find that playing mostly with pump players maintains a pretty good environment.

[chafnerjr]

This is off topic, but I just had to agree with the quality of players in NH. I don't think I ever had a bad experience up at OSG. I do find that playing mostly with pump players maintains a pretty good environment.

... Thanks I'll have to let Dave know that gimp from HI had a good time. That's a heck of a distance to travel if you didn't just move out there (service?). Dave (OSG's owner) always works with his ref's and staff to keep everyone having fun. Whether that means evening teams, private games, etc. OSG is one of the best fields around when it comes to just having fun playing paintball.

EDIT* Shameless plug.... but since I don't work for them