Problem with paintball?

[GT]

Why have we allowed children to take over paintball?

[dave p]

Why have we allowed children to take over paintball?

i have been asking this question for a long while now. it goes back to what you said about money.

[peewee]

I feel your pain. All our local fields are identical to what you have described. It has made me step back from playing a bunch. One field in our area felt the crunch after a while because a lot of players stopped spending money there. They now have a whole new crew of still young but respectable people working the field. Its taken a while for them to come around.

[master_alexander]

i am in mansfield and like hit and run. i am sure you heard about extreme concepts really loose, they got drunk and unloaded on a mail train. they are now closed. i used to work there but quit because if my other job (reffing soccer). i love hit and run though also in mansfield. they are great and have been running for years.

the problem is not paintball, but the fields and reffs. I am probably the most advanced 14 year old paintballer out there. some kids get yelled at "put your barrel plug in!!!" and "keep your mask down!!!" and "no the tank does not go there the barrel does".

so there is no problem with paintball. just the bad reffs and the bad fields and the stupid people.

[JoshK]

I am glad to say that I don't have this problem. The owner of my local field (The Siege Paintball), is a very nice guy, and has refs that do whatever they can to help. It stinks that other people don't have the "luxery" I do .

Also you can ask most any of the paintballers from waukesha alone (there are a few). But I'm pretty positive they would say the same.

[shatter_storm]

There are a lot more young kids in paintball than there have been in the past. Yes, it's a safety concern and a growing problem. No, I'm not ragging on kids - you young guys have your place, but in my opinion it shouldn't be reffing, it should be playing.

I hate to make generalizations, but my impression is that teenagers lack confidance more than other age groups. Reffings takes confidance - you have to catch hot guns, you have to punish cheaters, you have to stand up for the fields rules and not let players (especially older players or ones that look "pro") push you around. I'm not sure that teenagers are well suited for this. Quick judgement calls can make or break a game, or save someone's eyes. I just don't think that younger refs have the wisdom or experience to make those kinds of calls.

One thing is for sure - Kids are great for profits. Teenagers have more disposable income than most other age groups, and they also have a natural tendancy to spend it. Impulse buying is great, and shiny go-fast markers sell. Go-fast markers sell paint, too. Win-win-win scenario for field owners - attracting kids makes a field money.



I kinda want to play with more mature players though. Squid-hunting a whole lot of rental-toting kids that can't drive gets really darn boring after like one game. Sure, they're smaller targets and they can move faster than I can, but they *SUCK* at paintball. :P

[FireITup14]

im 16 myself and although i think it would be cool to ref and stuff at my feild like all the other kids, id like it more if we had older refs. it seems as if they care more and they are more expeirienced. it just seems like you get better more orginized play when adults do it.

[Jackel411]

Why have we allowed children to take over paintball?

Because were all morons.... we demand cheaper equipment , cheaper paint , paintball on TV , MORE COVERAGE ,MORE PRESS.

We are killing it our selves. We are demanding things that are making it more affordable for snot nosed prepubesant morons. Sorry if I seem jaded but Ive been playing for 12 years and Ive seen a decline in older players since 1997, for some reason its becoming a youth sport I guess because its cheaper.

Look at the numbers.
Got to a sporting goods store.... You can get a model 98 with tank, goggles , hopper , and some paint for 170.00]

That same 170 couldnt even buy you a decent plastic gun pre 97.

Now.............

The internet shops also are killing this game. Why? Anonimity. So long as you have a credit card they dont give a **** if your 8 or 80 theyll sell you the gun any way. Back in the day you had to go into a local shop and if you werent 18 GTFO! No gun for you.

Also fields have changed from 18 years old to play period. To younger than 18 if you play with a parent. To fill out this form saying its cool for your 10 year old to play than just leave and go get a latte

Im sorry.. kids are going to ruin the game for all of us...


This is why my shirt for my team say " Im the person that will make sure you play one game and go home crying "

Rant mode off....

[peewee]

Sadly must agree

[nerobro]

I don't see equipment getting cheaper. back in 96, I got my spyder, mask, tank, hopper for $189, shipped.

High end guns are in the same price range as they always have been. The best guns are $900-1500, the basic guns are $70-150. The midrange guns are $300-500.

About the only thing that's really changed are hoppers and air systems. Accuracy is the same. with a good hopper, my 95 spyder will keep up with anything sold today.

What's killing the sport are the kids though. Whiney little babies. Most specifially the ones without jobs. People who don't earn their way in. I earned my way into paintball. I understand having to drive two hours to get to the field.

and if it's not kids. It's people who don't care about other players. "I" will help a kid fix his gun. "I" will apologize to anyone I break more than two balls on. "I" will not let my gun even creep over 300fps. "I" will make sure EVERY SINGLE SHOT I shoot is becuase I pulled the trigger.

And if it's not the lack of caring players.... It's the stagnation of technology. I haven't seen a new gun design since the matrix. The matrix was beign passed around the 99 skyball.

I dunno what to do. The sport is run by players. Which is a problem. We need a governing body. But the only people with enough money to build a governing body are the people who are screwing it up. (think rabid pattent holders)

I think a stock class paintball gun (think nascar, not "stock class") would work miracles for the sport.

[Target Practice]

Amen, Greg. The last 10 times I've gone to the field, I haven't played one game. I've CONSISTENTLY had 6 and 7 guns loaned out to people each trip. I'd ref when we had a big party. I'd tech and fix 3 or 4 guns each day.

After all of this, I went home thinking about the good day of paintball I had.

It's all about the attitude.

[stop whining buy a mag]

I'm 15 and I totally agree with some of you guys. My local field is firing all the decent refs that are about 18 and is hiring several 15 and 16 year old kids that have no more than one years worth of paintball experience. In the past two months I have played 5 times and not had a single good day of reffing. The field owner is a nice guy but tries to make it as cheap as possible to run the business.

Last weekend while I was playing several players that were off the field watching the game got hit by a few stray balls and got pissed. They started shooting at the kids on the field. It started a little mini war between the seven of them and the ref did nothing about it.


Refs should be at least 16 or preferably 18 by law.

[Kallahan]

So everyone under 18 is a retard? Bad refs are in every age group, bring it up with the store owners, they are not making much money right now, get a group of a few regs to threaten to leave the field for good and they will have to make changes to stay in buisness. A bad rep will kill a field nowadays. I'm 20 right now, I've seen plenty of bad players (behavior wise) and there is no correlation with age where I am.

[Evil1]

The biggest problem I come across in the NY area is: Many kids that are under 18 just hanging out at the field, shooting their unearned $1k+ markers in the staging area and playing one game a day, but shooting 2 cases in the process. The other problem is kids talking a big game but then getting mowed on the field and calling anyone that beats them cheaters. I kind of miss the days when paintball was really expensive and 99% of the players and field owners were cool and honorable.

[Pyrate Jim]

You could do as I do, which is to run games privately and have a minimum age. Some might call it outlaw but it's on my own property, safety rules are in place with chronos and pre-game briefings and my insurance covers me as long as it's not a business (ie: charging money to play)
So I have a few games each year that are all over 21, bring your own everything because there are no fees, no sales and no rentals. And no problems with babysitting.

Alternately, you could get all the older players together for a private game at a local field. Sort of like the birthday party games that they have privately.