A disturbing trend...

[Tyger]

Durty Dan on his site had, for a while, a section called "Durty Dan vents his spleen". I'm stealing the idea.

Over on another forum some kid asks for advice on playing woods ball. He then get berated and verbally beaten up. And why? "Only n3wbz play woods." And "If you don't play speedball you should just quit playing." It's not said in jest, I've seen it on at least three forums and the person was serious. Play speedball or don't play at all is the motto.

Now I won't go into the details, but I've been seeing this as a trend as of late. It's almost militant how protctive people get over the style of paintball they play. "we won't play anything but AIR BUNKERS!" Isn't that like saying you'll never drive on anything smaller than a 3 lane highway? Or you'll never eat anything other than nachos with your special green sauce on them?

What ever happend to well rounded players? Players who can go from one type of terrain to another without caring what it is? "Next game is where? Ok, I'm down. Lemme grab my pack." Or at least players who really didn't give an airborne concievable act with a rolling pastry where the next game is, as long as there's a next game?

And for what it's worth, why are "speedballers" so defensive when you bring up woods ball? Is there an inadequacy clause here? It certainly can't be intimidation, as we all know "woods-ballaz only use "Tippys" and "speedballaz use "E-guns". So are they feeling threatened? If it threatens us, kill it? And if that's the case, what's the threat? Woods ball gets on TV first? NAw, couldn't be that. Oh, wait, it's already happened... A few times...

The only thought I have is that there's a panic. If the entire "game" of paintall is not played on speedball / airball / tube fields, then it will never be considered a "Sport"? So in order to get paintball as an accepted "sport" you must intimidate everyone into stepping in line and doing what you want them to do? Perhaps it's the winning mentality. They feel they have to win at the game, but they also have to win the non-existant battle to make the game what they want it to be?

I just find it disturbing, that's all. Sure, it's fun to play on the airbag course. Why can't it be fun to play in the woods too? Oh, right. Woods ball encourages the "military" image of paintball. Like the fact we're shooting "guns" at people to "kill" them is helping it any. But it seems we just can not embrace that concept, and continue to try to work around the core of the game to market it.

I won't say "Can't we all get along?", because it's obvious we can't. So I'll just say this. Let's admit, as a group, that paintball is actually two seperte entities. The woods players who want to go romp in the flora and fauna, and the arena players who want to romp in the limelight. Can we collectively admit this? Just once?

Or is it a pride thing? Or a "Ford / Chevy" thing? Or just an ego problem? Or are we going through a collective caniption because the basis of the game is really what will keep it from being televised. And as we all know, once paintball is on TV we'll all make a million dollars and the speedball fields will be paved in gold. Really.

I don't know, But my spleen feels better...

-Tyger

[f3rr3+]

i didnt read all of that but... i could care less where or how im playing i just love to play... it def. is going in the direction of far less people playing woods ball, and i think mostly because of the hype and political correctness... dont get me wrong tho, i LOVE all types of paintball and airball is nice cause your in the game right away

[jayloo]

The saying "different strokes for different folks" comes to mind here. But it seens not everyone has an open mind due to ego and the like.

Personally I do not like woods ball but if its that or nothin than woods ball it is.

[krafty]

That's just really sad. Unfortunately however I can say that there are people at my field who would give the same advice.

I can honestly say the best times I've EVER had playing paintball were woods/scenerio/big games. I enjoy playing on airball fields, hyperball fields, hell, just about anything.

[Tyger]

What I'd really like to answer is "why?" Why is airball "Better" than woods games? If you actually corner a guy who's "airball only" and ask him, he'll give you the same answer you'll get from a woods player. "It's the rush."

I still think it's the promise that we can all be heroes on TV that keeps them violently opposed to woods ball. But that's me. "The woods game is holding US back!" I've heard that from a lot of people. Held back from what?

-Tyger

[Branchvillian]

Less browsing of PBN, less anger. Most PBN posters are noobs.

[Josh2Xtremes]

Goods Points

Rob:
Good points. I'm not sure I like the concept that paintball has irrevocably broken into "woodsball" and "speedball" genres but it does have a disturbingly factual ring to it. As a person who edits a magazine that leads the industry in its coverage of arena events and who also edits the only magazine totally dedicated to the recreational/scenario style of play that is practically all woods-ball, I'm proud to say I love them both, and feel I'm half-decent at them both from a player's standpoint. I can have just as much fun and feel just as strong a rush of adrenalin in the woods as I can on the speedball field. I just love paintball. Period. It's all paintball. It's all good. Play safe, have fun, that's doing it right.
Josh

[cledford]

What really bothers me is the stigma attached to "woods ball" even by our own brethren. I've seen a number of posts in threads as far back as a year and a half ago where PB players berate other players for "militant clothing", markers that are too "real", and their style of "anti-social" play. It sickens me on several levels. First I find it absolutely ridiculous that some one would care to CAST OFF a fellow player as expendable to make their style of play a little more secure - but I've seen it even here on AO. What is even more ironic is that they seem to feel that by casting off the "militant types" that their choice of how they run around shooting people is going to be acceptable to those (Rosie O'Donnell) types who would have it done away with altogether. There are a number of times in such threads I've seen statements about how good it is that our sport "evolved out of the woods" and that the "woods" need to go away so that the sport is more socially acceptable. It befuddles me how some can feel that since they don't wear camo and do shoot a purple marker that they are legit, while people shooting black ones are "militant psychos."

All I can say is that had you asked me 6-9 months ago I'd have told you that any play outside of speedball was doomed in the short term. I'd based that opinion on the responses I'd seen in those threads. Now I hear scenario games are the next big plateau in the sport - with several manufacturers as big as AGD and WGP catering to the game style. All I can say is that I'm shocked but happy by the new trend. As a true veteran of the pro-gun movement I can see the folly with internal (We're "better" then you) squabbling. Personally, I'm a former military member and cop who started playing BECAUSE the sport was a simulated combat environment. I'm glad to see that aspect reemerging and acceptable.

What we have to watch out for as we move forward is 2 things. First, those within our own sport, who applauded themselves for "moving the sport forward from a violence based perception" while at the same time using such nonsense for justifying their millions of dollars worth of soft goods sales. (I'll going ahead and name names, in an interview in Faceful Dave Youngblood said as much - that he was helping legitimize the sport by leading it away from camo clothing by pushing his line of brightly colored stuff...) The second group are our down trodden brethren from across the pond. They seem to be EXTREMELY concerned about the mis-perception of our sport - especially if that involves anything military related. They as much as, and possibly more than anyone at the fore-front of the anti-woods/rec/scenario movement - just pick up a copy of Faceful to see for yourself. Because their political systems are whacked, because they choose not to educate and fight for their rights, because they live in oppressive societies, they would see to it that we lose our right to play all styles in an instant - to insure their one option remains. Ben Franklin said it best when he said (to the effect) "that we can all "hang" together, or we all can HANG separately." It's little surprise to me that he was an American.

-Calvin

[Rather]

What if someone were to set up sup-air bunkers in a woods field? Or baloon bunkers used on fields with tree's dotted here and there. Sort of mix them together. Mabey get rid of a few steriotypical things. It could go places. Having the fun of airball and getting rid of lanes and cutting down on off the break shots. But still keeps that fun element of squishing into the bunker. that could kill abunch of woods/speed slander.

Anyone else think that could at least cut back on the hating?

[SuiciDal Sn Y p ER]

well for me to solve this problem i did the following.

Purchased an X-Mag for those hyperball and supair fields.
(works great in the forests also)

Then i bought a wgp ranger and heavily upgraded it for a scenario/rec style play.

That way i can play in any field on any terreign(sp?)

I support both types of play and i don't care which field i go to (well...i do have a fear of scratching up my xmag when i'm in the woods...that's about it)

[DiRTyBuNNy]

I've been around paintball just as long as Josh has; except I was on the west coast and I feel the same as he does about it. I don't prefer one style over the other but I feel I'm decent at both. I just see this as a result of the money and the fact that the popular kids arrived late to the party...

it's kind of like when I was student teaching and the kids asked me how the internet was when I was there age. They were mystified by the fact that i told them that the internet did not exist, at least in it's present sense, until I was in high school.

The people these days are being driven by the images in magazines and the opinion from their peers that paintball isn't cool if it's in the woods. Even the Pan Am, one of the last tourney series to include woods fields, has dropped all of their non AirBall events. It's something that we have to live with if we are going to continue playing the game we love.

on a side note, I don't necessarily agree with people who make markers look more like real weapons. It's your own perogrative but why risk the acceptance of the outside (I don't mean accepting our sport as real...but just not outright trying to ban it) world over the fact that you want your Spyder to look like an MP5 because you like to tear people up using one playing CounterStrike...

[Methylphenidate]

ok you all might not agree with me on this but here is my two cents on the speedball woodball debate. and i will give my reasoning.

speed ball all the way. speed ball is the only way that paintball will ever be moved from the the catogory of activity to the category of an actual sport in the eyes of the general public.(i.e. people who are not familiar with the game). and it has nothing to do with being on television or fame.
speed ball is a sport because it requires things that all other sports do. things like skill, practice, strategy. no one walks on to a speed ball field and is immediatly olie lang. just as no one steps on to a basketball court and is micheal jordan. yes some people have this thing called natural talent that gives them a considerable edge over other, but you cant just jump in the ring with ali because you think you box.

where in wood ball sure there is some strategy but for the most part it comes out to luck of the draw, as my friends say anything and everything can happen in wood ball. and you can be a totall newb with no experience and still kill the best player that has been playing for years, why because you went to walmart bought a plastic bush duct taped it to your back and hid in a ditch while you waited for someone to come by. tell me where is the skill in that.
how did he practice and study and refine his game to dress up like a bush and shoot people as they walk by. that is not a sport my friend that is a hobby.

[barberjohn]

well, i mostly play at my local speedball field, and not my woodsball field, because the woodsball feild owner is a jackass and charges extremely high prices for paint, air, and field fees. i like all types of paintball, as long as its paintball!

[cledford]

Originally posted by DiRTyBuNNy

on a side note, I don't necessarily agree with people who make markers look more like real weapons. It's your own perogrative but why risk the acceptance of the outside (I don't mean accepting our sport as real...but just not outright trying to ban it) world over the fact that you want your Spyder to look like an MP5 because you like to tear people up using one playing CounterStrike...

Exactly one of my points - do you think that people who would have the sport banned care whether a marker looks like a Dragon Timmy or an Tippmann A5? Honestly, it's not how that marker looks it's the fact that you're shooting (erm, marking) other people with it. In reality, they might seek to ban the A5/Milsim marker first - claiming "public safety concerns" but do you really think that once black, "mean" looking markers are gone that your red cocker or purple Angel is safe? I say all in or not in at all. You can count on the guy with the Milsim marker to defend your sport, you can count on the person against the milsim marker to try to ban at least part if not all of it - who do you really want to support?

-Calvin

[wimag]

Originally posted by DiRTyBuNNy

on a side note, I don't necessarily agree with people who make markers look more like real weapons. It's your own perogrative but why risk the acceptance of the outside (I don't mean accepting our sport as real...but just not outright trying to ban it) world over the fact that you want your Spyder to look like an MP5 because you like to tear people up using one playing CounterStrike...

ugghhh. Tyger started this thread on being more open minded and you had to throw this in there.

I think the bozos doing drive byes and such have more of an impact of getting paintball banned as opposed to a small percentage dressing their markers up, who for the most part are only seen at events.