Style over Substance

[AzrealDarkmoonZ]

Tyger, Think about the state of paintball in those days. It was by far and large entirely woods based. Think of the image of paintball at that time also.

Now contrast that to now, plus the fact for most markers performance is not an issue. Most markers perform well enough for all uses. What is performance gains nowadays? What is performance for that matter?

There will always be those who beleive in things that do not matter, LP vs HP for instance, but to judge a group by the least, seems almost dooming any group to the same stereotype. I can pick up almost any mid range marker, uled mag to bushmaster and to be honest the only things that differentiate them are how it feels when I shoot it and how it looks.

Az

[Sir_Brass]

becasue the prevailing winds come down to "it's better to look cool in the lot."

but what they forget is that you do NOT look cool even with all the bling bling on your marker and jersey if you're in the dead box with paint on your mask, b/c you couldn't perform as well as the guy with the 'ugly' hyperframed RT pro who happened to land an accurate snap shot due to his school of thought of skill and performance over style .

[edit] Thanks for redirecting me to that thread, tyger. But still, care to explain how the phrase "chuff chuff" came about? I'm still a little foggy on that one.[/edit]

[Tyger]

Originally posted by Tanner Johnson
Dangit Tyger, you beat me to it
Do you ever sleep man!?

To abuse the great Billy Shakes :

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them?
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
To die: to sleep;
No more



Az : A good point, but problem isn't the people who buy performance, but buy what looks good. And it's just annoying to me. Granted, back in the day we played woods, and it helped to have a black gun. Ad now we see people who want to make it on the cover of the mags, and think they can look good and make it there. **sigh** It just looks ridiculous, in some cases. Or they get something without understanding what they want, or need.

Does that make sense?

-Tyger

[Tyger]

Originally posted by Sir_Brass

[edit] Thanks for redirecting me to that thread, tyger. But still, care to explain how the phrase "chuff chuff" came about? I'm still a little foggy on that one.[/edit]

It's the sound of a 'mag, L 10, when it stops on a ball rather than chopping it. So it became kinda the rally cry of "We're not gonna swallow that pill"

Beyond that, you'll have to ask Tom Kaye. It was his idea.

-Tyger

[The Action Figure]

disagree

I agree with most of what your sayin, but my mag looks awesome, and its still the best gun on the field

[AzrealDarkmoonZ]

Tyger: I assume you informed the group of people that LP vs HP is not a very big thing. That in some cases it can be a detriment. The problem is not really style but ignorance. If your friends, store owner, manufacturers, all say X shoots Y faster and better, then you are going to beleive that. Only when someone comes along with a bit of knowledge do opinions change. In my early days I bought a boomstick , why? Because everyone agreed it shot better straighter farther. I bought a cocker because everyone said it shot farther better straighter. I found out and studied and thus became an informed person.

Az

[Miscue]

This is what happens when people do not understand how what they are using works. The only thing that they understand is that: a marker is visually appealing, other people/friends use it, and it costs X dollars which you would think is correlated with performance.

I see this in almost every hobby that involves equipment. In car audio, people are concerned with wattage only, off the shelf brands, and how it looks. They have no idea how any of it works, or what makes one component better than another. I'm sure those who are good at other hobbies have noticed something comparable.

If you look at a Hernnstein/Murray type distribution curve, and correlate this with consumer buying trends, it is no surprise that style (the superficial) is king.



I think that 2 standard deviations to the right of the mean is about where you find people who look beyond the superficial and can value form (substance). And, the rest are hopelessly lost - they place high value on superficial things and get performance by accident... because that's all they can do.

[RRfireblade]

Damn,it's pretty cramped over here in .015


Jay.

[AzrealDarkmoonZ]

Actually I would wager that marker buying may not look like a symetrical curve. My guess, purely a guess that the mean would lay around 300ish, the median would be below that and the range would be 1500ish, discounting a few outliers, ie that PPS marker that someone paid 3k for

Az

[Sir_Brass]

Originally posted by Miscue

and this, folks, is what you know in school as a BELL CURVE .

[Carbon]

Diagrams are neat!

Lets face it, not all of us are minimalist.

AS is the case with many other engineered products, one can put a number(s) to "measure" performance. And as for cool looks, thats all subjective, obviously. Yes, a machine will route a path on a peice of aluminum, but you cant discount the fact there is a person who had to design the mill pattern. There is a degree of "artistry" involved. Futhermore, that "artistry" has to remain within parameters, we dont want to mill stuff to thin now do we.

And as much as pball the game is a team sport, pball the culture is individualiezd. I mean, why have a stock aluminum difling pin when you can have a blue aluminum one, with a skull on it. becasue you can. Speaking of flashy, why does Tyger dress like a tiger in his sig? Cause he can.

I think it is a common nuerosis among us "informed consumers" or more closely, "life style obssesd consumers" to want to help the un-inforemd. But from time to time, we come across the greatest challenge for "us" to bear with: those who wont listen. I mean, whadaya gonna do?