Paintbal: Do you think the sport is growing "too fast"

[shatter_storm]

We need more people to get into the sport. I'm not talking about going in the woods and playing gi-joe, but I mean actually getting into airball and tournament style paintball. It's a bit early for the NXL to be on t.v. in my humble opinion, but there will come a time in the near future, when paintball is at the point where there are freshman, sophomore, junior varsity, and varsity teams in school; that's when paintball will be ready to be on t.v. and everywhere else.

There's no way you can get lots of people into the sport without changing the nature of the game. Think about it, how many people can afford to lay out a lot of money for their marker, accessories, and clothes to play in, and then spend $100 a *weekend* just to play? I'm assuming you'd play one day, with a moderate field fee, one case of paint, all day air, and food/drinks for the day. It adds up, certainly a lot more expensive than a bat, glove, and ball to run the bases for an afternoon.
IMO, there has to be an industry-wide shift in the mentality of the game. It's hard to break into speedball and tournament paintball when there's so much paint and equipment required. Maybe if a stock class circuit picks up it'd preserve the spirit of the game and provide an even, competetive medium - but everybody hates pumps and "speed kills". It's why intimidators sell.

It can't hit it off at schools and colleges because most of them have very strict government mandated policies concerning firearms. Paintball markers arn't firearms in the truest sense of the word, but tell that to the RA as he's writing you up, to the principal as he's suspending you, as the cop as he throws you in the back of his car. Markers are deadly weapons if used incorrectly, and there's nothing we can do to change that.

And one last thing, never forget that paintball is an "extreme sport". Girls are scared to play paintball. Parents are afraid to let their kids play paintball. People get hurt. People get killed.

[Carbon]

Good points all around. Lets not turn this into a sematics game shall we. Keep up the responses.

[Muzikman]

Simple. Not growing too fast, just growing in the wrong direction.

[Blazestorm]

What Muzik said.

I'd rather be playing paintball back how it was 4-5 years ago.

ROF wasn't a factor, people weren't trying to look cool (Need I bring up a very scary picture of Lasoya), they were just playing the sport and evolving it into mainstream.

People played because they loved the sport, cheating was heavily looked down upon and almost non existant. People weren't trying to sneak cheating guns passed refs and it was much different.

Dunno, I'm just going to play, not going to follow what paintball is heading towards, I'm just going to be in it...

[phelix]

Sure, by definition it seems like a sport, but it's not. A sport has 1 unified set of rules that does not differ. Take the NFL. Even when you play it in the backyard for fun same rules. PeeWee leagues= same rules. High School= same rules. College= same rules. Back to the NFL. Paintball differs in every field and every backyard. Xball, PSP, IAO etc etc.
You probably think hokey is a sport, it isn't. No ball. Hockey is actually 3 activities tied together. Ics skating, playing with a puck(which you find in mens room urinals), and beating the crap out of someone. Same with swimming, swimming is not a sport, swimming is a way to keep from drowning.
So, when paintball unifies and gets one set of rules to be used universaly, then it'll be a sport. Oh, and it has a ball. Actually, thousands of them a day.

you don't make a single bit of sense. there's rules in different leagues that are different from the nfl. and how do you justify hockey not being a sport? because there's no ball? are you retarded? every sport has to have a ball? by the way, even if every sport has to have a ball, the "football" isn't really ball shaped, retard. how the hell did you just pull that every sport has to have a ball? how is swimming not a sport? hockey and swimming are in the ****ing olympics... and don't pull any **** that it's the olympic "games", the terms are interchangeable. if you say that the things people do in the olympics, people will beat you with a ****ing rock. seriously, can you get any dumber? a sport is any physical activity that is competitive, retard. go beat off - you're playing with balls, it must be a sport.

[Deep Sixx]

Sure, by definition it seems like a sport, but it's not. A sport has 1 unified set of rules that does not differ.

I don't know where you came up with that definition, but according to you then... baseball is not a sport either. The AL and the NL have different rules.

sixx

[Jackel411]

Since I work at a store I fully see the way its be going for aobut 2 years and I do not like it at all.

I actually did a flow chart that shows the average path of a paintballer , plus crunched alot of numbers.. these are very much rounded to pure zeros to make my head not spin.. ask me to build a paintgun from scratch I can do that.. ask me to do complex math my eyes spin and say tilt..

There are roughly 3 Million Paintballers.. 1500 of which drop into the pro level catagory ( NPPL PSP NXL regestered teams )... If my math is right its only about 2 percent of actually players...

BUT! Look on the forums , and magazines there trying to push the rest of the players into being pro players.. The gear shows it , the attitudes

There isnt any kid that has ever aswered me since I started asking them the where do yo see your self with paintball , with the answer of " well I was hoping to get into that scneario play thing or that there happy doing what they do now "

Its always... I WANT TO GO PRO! , or Me and my friends are starting a team and doing a tourny..

Its pretty interesting , Im already preaching to the converted here but look at it.. 98 Percent of the player are left about 2million play rec and scenarios the rest want to be proplayers...

On a different note.. any one want to house me up away from NY there are just to many twibs out here... hehe

[sillypookie]

Although new here I kinda want to chime in on this one. I too agree it is going in the wrong direction. I used to play 3-4 times a week, tournaments (playing and coaching), even a small retail and repair shop. 2 years ago I played a local leauge and had a 15 year old kid try to pick a fist fight with me when I tried to offer him some game pointers (we had just beaten his team in a 3 on 3 in under 50 sec.)... you know what the prize in this leauge was? nothing, a silly medal! we were playing for the fun of it. When kids that bent out of shape over something that is supposed to be fun, something is going wrong in the fabric of the game. Hence I stopped playing. I've now gotten back into paintball, and from what I've seen, you won't catch me on a speedball field for love or money. Just my 2 cents.

[drewrw]

Paintballs not a sport yet, it's a game. A great game, but a game.

Paintball is a sport. Where have you been?

[Ityl]

Paintball, to me, has been on the decline since the around 2000-2001. The only thing that has really come about since has been cheater boards and lots of legal stuff. In the late 90s, it seemed new guns were popping up all over the place. The Angel took the tourney scene to a new level, as well as pricing. Autocockers were great markers out of the box. Affordable electros were hitting the market: Bushy, Impulse, etc. This weird looking Matrix was brought out. The list goes on. Now it's the same gun that is "new and improved" with a different mill job. DM5, Angel whatever now, Timmy (alias), etc.

Lawsuits have definitely slowed the development of new markers, we've seen that with AGD. Also, allowing the force feed hoppers has brought about this "cheater" board trend on. Now there is no skill to shoot fast and little need for accuracy. Accuracy by volume has never been so true.

Also, paintball was on TV a long long time ago, this is nothing new. It has just taken this long to get enough backing to have it on again.

[TheDuelist]

Just like anything else, paintball is going to wax and wane. Some years its going to move forward and make some good progress, other years it may stay a little stagnant. The sport is really still in its infancy, struggling for an identity with the mainstream public. In a few years we'll be sitting back saying "remember when" regarding stuff from 2004. The incredible growth of the sport will continue and its my belief that someday we'll see paintball as a regular on television as well as the Olympics. Don't laugh....it wasn't all that long ago when someone said "they can never get a gun to shoot that fast" and now look what we have. Keep an open mind and help the sport to grow in a positive manner. The best thing we can do as players is become an ambassador for the sport to those who know nothing about it.

[phantomhitman]

I'd rather be playing paintball back how it was 4-5 years ago.

ROF wasn't a factor, people weren't trying to look cool (Need I bring up a very scary picture of Lasoya), they were just playing the sport and evolving it into mainstream.

People weren't trying to sneak cheating guns passed refs and it was much different.

Dunno, I'm just going to play, not going to follow what paintball is heading towards, I'm just going to be in it...

this is not directed at you, but alot of people say these types of things.

4-5 years ago people were ABSOLUTELY after faster guns (99-00). 20 years ago they were after faster guns. 20 years from now they will be faster guns. If people were happy with rof we would still be using nelspots, a mech cocker or mech mag. The pump would not have faded off, emag or xmag never even thought of, and dye would never had made their money. Everyone would still have bdus and super small masks.
I can almost guarantee people wiped, hid pods of paint, and modified guns to shoot faster or at a higher velocity back in the day. I have read articles in different magazines about this, but no one will ever know the truth unless you were a ref back then that witnessed it. I know it was more looked down upon then, but it still happened.

The only thing that has changed is technology. No electros, no speed. No need for padded jerseys or pants to help bounces, no need for more coverage mask to protect you from 20 bps flying at you, no need for bigger tanks or packs that allow people to shoot 20bps at you for a really long time.

I like the sport as of now. I do not have to deal with nxl, nppl, or anyone because I only play local tourny series so I cannot comment on how things are run there. I like hte speed of guns, and different clothes you can get. Seperates you fm everyone else.
I love playing every weekend, no matter where I play. That is all I need.

[Carbon]

Whoa awsome responses! thn yallz!