Have we abandoned our roots?

[paint magnet]

What is your opinion? We have gone from games that were played in the woods with guns firing no more than 1 round/3 seconds and oil based paint to modern tourney games where people are sponsored by big companies and shoot markers running nitro and firing in excess of 12 rounds per second, mainly for money. Should there be more pump games? Should there be more woods play?

[shartley]

[Patron God of Pirates]

Personally I like shooting 12 bps, in the woods. Speedball makes me yawn. No offense speedballers, but it will never have the variety of tactics and game play you can get in the woods.

It is booring to play and nauseating to watch.

A combination of the two styles of play would be ideal. A football field sized, wooded arena, with tree forts and a 2nd lvl. walkway through the branches. Zip chords and rope ladders, oh my.

My cousins are building just such an arena on their folks property in Maine.

I'll be playing up there over the week of July 4th. I'll post pics if I remember to take them. The design they have is very exiting.

[paint magnet]

BTW, I meant to say "roots" instead of "routes" on the poll.

[Patron God of Pirates]

Originally posted by paint magnet
BTW, I meant to say "roots" instead of "routes" on the poll.

LOL. Yeah, I travel mostly backroads nowadays.

[hitech]

Originally posted by Patron God of Pirates
Speedball makes me yawn...it will never have the variety of tactics and game play you can get in the woods.

It's not just me! I was begining to think it was only me. You cousin's field sound interesting. You should try to remember to take pictures.

[paint magnet]

I like speedball as a "warmup" game.

[Creative Mayhem]

speedball = quick and dirty

great money maker for field owners, lots of game lot of paint is lots of money for the owner

[FatMan]

Hey, I like to play as many different fields and styles as I can. I like to play semi-auto, but I'm not at all interested in full-auto. I like to have plenty of paint available, but limited paint formats are cool too.

I find that when we play speedball, we tend to play hopperball and limit ourselves to 200 rds, which means on average we shoot about 100 rds a game. Plus the games are faster and we tend to play more games. More play, less paint.

In the woods I can't get by with one hopper. I typically shoot 300-500 rds, more sometimes. The games take longer. Less play, more paint.

The real kicker for me, is that being a old guy, I hate to trudge into the woods to play and then back out again - the speedball court is right there. The other thing is the cover is more consistent - so you have to use your shooting a moving skills more than sneaking and hiding skills. Fat guys don't sneak so good!

I love paintball - I love woods ball, and I love speedball. I also like scenarios. As far as I can tell all of those types of play are alive and well. Players tend to move from one genre to another and somtimes back again - and that's fine. The only real problem I've ever had with it is people who think they need to bash one form or another or say one genre is "real" paintball or "the best".

It all comes down to personal preferences - play what you like! Its all good!

FatMan

[nutz]

all i can say is that i love speedball...

personally i consider woodsball a waste of paint because i usually shoot more in woodsball. I guess people play whatever suits them. Speedball suits me.

[Dubstar112]

Nutz.. I played woods ball for a day, with my hyperframe mag, and I shot a case in a half!!!!!!!

I normally only shoot 1000 a day.

I think this was because I shot at any thing that moved, and I wasnt as disciplined then. Either way.. I love speed ball mega x's more!

[Jonno06]

/me agrees with SHartley

[boggerman]

I have to agree with FatMan, play whatever makes you happy. There are no speedball or woodsball or sup'air fields where I live, just one indoor place(kinda like speedball, I guess) so we play outlaw in the desert, woods, where ever we can go without getting in trouble. I live in Western Colorado and we are surrounded by BLM land, Forest Service land, and a few of my friends have big ranch-type spreads where we can play, so that is kinda like woodsball, I suppose, only no refs.

[Telefragged]

I think our roots have been strayed from somewhat, but have been for the better, IMO.

Paint quality has drastically improved over the years, and the price has actually gone down for it.

-With the advent of N2/HPA as a power source for markers, shot-to-shot consistency, and hence shot-to-shot accuracy has increased. And the chance for "hot" markers has decreased with the mass introduction of regulators to the paintball industry.

-Markers are now lighter, more maneuverable, and while I don't neccessarily agree with the "spray and pray" tactics that the electronic craze has introduced, for the most part, paintball markers have become a LOT more capable.

-Protective equipment has inproved, we've gone from goggles which only afforded the face minimal protection, to full face masks which are now availible with anti-fog, thermal, mirrored lenses, improved ventilation etc, more comfortable and better materials to boot.

-With larger tournaments springing up around the world, the publicity for our beloved sport has increased. This new type of gameplay and the increase in attention has helped disspell the myth of paintball players as hardcore thugs, who only have the intention of hurting people. It's also helped introduce new players to the game that are it's future.

The game has defintely come a LONG way from pump games and oil based paint, but it's been for the better, or, it is at least how I look at it. For those who like to get back to their roots, pump and stock-class tournaments are still held around the country, and some fields may hold pump-only games, even though semi's and electros now undeniably dominate the game.

[DJSOLID]

I'd love to see a little more cross-over. Patron God of Pirates is on to something with that field he's talking about. I'd also like to see some of the pro teams in a stock gun 10 shot gravity feed/ 12g tourney - Phantoms-n-sich. That would be neat as heck, IMHO.