10 years of Paintball...and its going down hill

[mercury]

Lots of hostile people here. To anyone who's telling him to shut up (or something similar), realize that this IS an internet forum in which the purpose is to voice your opinions and concerns. To the people telling him to quit because he doesn't like it, then it could be argued that you follow your own advice and stop reading this forum or thread because you don't like it.

Instead of ripping on him, help him out. I realize a few have done exactly this and that is a good thing.

In any case, I also recently came back into the sport and noticed a drastic change. I have adapted by purchasing a Tunamax that I should be receiving soon. I also thought that tourny style paintball was dumb and that people were just wasting paint...until I tried it for myself. There is much more skill involved than one would think. It may seem like mindless wasting of paint but that is far from the truth. I think tourny ball promotes teamwork very well along with many other skills. There are insane ROF's and stuff but there is a method to the madness. I think it's something that you must try for yourself. Having said that, some people still don't like it, and that's fine. But, there are still many other people that like to play woods ball and stuff so you just need to find people or a field in which to play your style of paintball. As far as prices, paintball is just expensive...there's no real way around that. I've always paid more for paintball than I do for other sports and hobbies. That's pretty much a fact you are going to have to accept, however, you can find good prices on things online and that's where I do most of my shopping to help lower costs. Like most sports, you pay a premium for the top name equipment. Just look up the price of a Taylor Made R7 driver...and that's for one club!

In the end, I think tourny style ball has hooked me but I also do enjoy woodsball. I like every form of paintball so I just change my style of play according to what game I'm playing.

[yakitori]

it all depends on what kinda ball you play. Ya, it is a bit crappy when someone w/ a timmy, DM4/5, or other tournament high end gun is playing rec ball and just hosing ppl. That does suck.

It doesnt suck for ppl who play speedball tournaments or play w/ the high end electros when everyone else on the field has one and everyone is skilled, and games are fast. If you play this kind of paintball, then it doesnt suck.

Everytime I go to a rec field, there is always someone complaining about 2-3 balls being overshooting. PPl get hit w/ a lot more than that from a closer distance, and Im not complaining. I love it. Get bunkered, it makes you learn and get better.

Speed is great when ya need it, but just cause ppl shoot a fast gun, doenst mean they go around spraying everywhere. IT is the wannabe tournament schmoe at the rec field that sprays paint everywhere. That is truly obnoxious.

[tyrion2323]

Mercury,

Several of us have make suggestions and given advice. It was not listened to.

Jacob

[SCpoloRicker]

Not this shiat again...

[RusskiX]

Lots of hostile people here. To anyone who's telling him to shut up (or something similar), realize that this IS an internet forum in which the purpose is to voice your opinions and concerns. To the people telling him to quit because he doesn't like it, then it could be argued that you follow your own advice and stop reading this forum or thread because you don't like it.

Instead of ripping on him, help him out. I realize a few have done exactly this and that is a good thing.

Bravo for the most dignified response in this thread!

The one thing this thread made me think about is how thankful I am to have at least 3 good, established woodsball courses within an hours drive; two of which also have excellent airball fields as well. Thank goodness I have the luxury of choice. I think one of the main points from the original post was the lack of ability to shop or play to a different style.

I'm a 16 year pb veteran and I have evolved with my hobby. But I can understand the frustration if you don't enjoy every aspect of the game and are not able to take your game elsewhere. I just hope everyone can take a moment to reflect on what they DO enjoy about paintball.

[AGD]

Interesting comments on both sides. I'll sticky this and see where it goes.

AGD

[Chris42050]

I personally like both types of games. I started out in the woods with splatmasters about 13 years ago. I liked the individual skill involved and sneaking up to the other team or lying in wait for them to come too close and surprising them. I have been playing on and off ever since then. The field I go to has plenty of both woods and speedball fields. I didnt like speedball at first because I got shot out right away every game. After sitting out and watching for awhile I realized what I was doing wrong. Speedball is more of a team sport. You have to work with your teammates more. You have to listen to the positions being called out or call them out yourself. Also with the field being smaller and the guns being faster and more accurate now, I realized that you must tuck in every inch of your body so you dont get eliminated. I was not used to this style of playing. I was also not used to the pace of the game. After learning the style of the game I liked speedball just as much as woodsball. Both games use paintball guns but after that they are pretty different games. Give yourself a chance to get used to it, you just might like it. Don't let the fast shooting bother you. There is much more to speedball than just fast shooting.

[CoolHand]

OK, I've been playing for a good long while. I have enjoyed every minute of it, or I wouldn't be doing it anymore.

However, there are a few things I do not do anymore. I won't play with the 13-15yr old AGG kiddies, period. I can't stand their attitudes on the field, and I have a pretty rough temper, so I simply bow out for the good of all. When I'm not playing, I get a kick out of the crap they pull, it makes me laugh. On the field, it just makes me mad, so I don't play with them anymore.

About a month ago my house team and I were at a field near STL (which shall remain nameless for now). There was ~50 people there, maybe 35 of which were newbies in the purest sense of the word. The balance was the eight of us, and about 10 or so guys we knew and who wanted us to join their private group.

We are all toting the latest stuff (except for me, still shooting the mech FreeFlow ), and the other guys all have Tippmanns or some derivation there of. We all had a good time, because all my guys are good sports. They do their best not to overshoot, they are polite, they help folks whenever they can, and they don't roll people who aren't up to their skill level. That said, we didn't loose a game. Everyone had a good time, because they knew what they were in for when they asked us to play with them.

We only got to play three games that day because there was only one ref. Three!

When we asked the managment if we could just hit the speedball field, they said we had to have a ref, and that we should just pile on and whoop the newbies for a while.

When the capt. came back and told me that, I was incredulous. I didn't know what to say to that (well, I knew what I wanted to say, but not a polite way to say it).

So, we packed up our stuff and went home. As we were leaving, the manager ran out to see why we were leaving. Eric told him that we wouldn't go out and lay to on the newbies, and that we were going home. He told us that he'd never seen anyone leave because they didn't want to beat on the newbs, their field "pro" team does it all the time . . . . . .

Its not what I'd call a good time to go out and ruin a kid's day of PB. If more people would take action, instead of just complaining and then going ahead and doing what you know is wrong, you'd be surprised how much better things would be.

For the guys complaining about the paint markups, I will say this -The field has to make money somehow. Who are you to decide what is a fair markup for them? Their overhead may be terribly high, or they may not get a good deal on the paint, or etc. If you don't like the prices, go elsewhere.

A lot of folks in paintball seem to think that all the infrastructure and support needed to play paintball should be provided for them free of charge, or for a tiny pittance. Guess what? All that stuff requires a sizable outlay of cash, which should be expected to come back, along with some friends it has made. There is no reason to do it otherwise. This is why you see so many of these "for the players" places that start up, charge almost nothing for field fees and paint, and then fold in a year. They don't help but a few players, and hurt the other fields around by convincing them that the other fields are price gouging. In the end they hurt paintball in the area far more than they help.

To the guy who started this thread - Just try to play in places that fit your style better. Or only play with friends who feel like you do. I play mech in an all electro battle, but who cares? It doesn't bother me to get shot out of every game, and the guys on the team feel really bad when I mark them (The fat guy with the mech cocker out shot you!). :rofl:

[MedicDVG]

I played my first paintball game in an old rock quary back in the mid '80's. I don't know what marker I used, nor how much the paint cost, but I do remmeber that day a new world opened up for me. To say that I was hooked is an understatement. There wasn't a saturday that I wasn't out there flingin paint with the guys. Over the years I have witnessed much of the evolution of paintball, and I don't think that paintball is going down hill at all.

I will say this though; what I do see is the industry emphasis of paintball tends to think that every player out on the field wants to be Ollie Lang. But do we really? I would say that a good 80% of paintballers in the USA are not tournament players, nor do they want to be. Most of the paintball world is still a bunch of guys in a larger field with tires, plywood, trees, wire spools and old cars who, just like me, spend every weekend enjoying this sport. It has only been the last few years where we have seen the evolution of paintball to the level that is most visable today.

So, is this a good/bad thing? Who am I to say. I still play mech, 8 bps woods ball, and I play speedball. For me, speedball can become tiresome after a while and the woods can become boring after just another game of attack/defend. But there is still something that brings me back to the sport time and time again. I wish I could tell you what it was; energy, agrenaline, tactics -- hell I don't know. I just know that when I am at the paintball field, I am in a different world -- I have fun. The day I stop having fun, then I will hang it up and find something else to do.

Maybe that is what is the "problem" with paintball, if there is such a thing. Perhaps the sport is TOO competative these days where we have to all have the fastest, newest, and coolest of everything. Maybe that is the voice of frustration here where we have forgotten the basic sprit of the game?

As with any sport, there are idiots, and there are great people. Like Coolhand, I avoid playing games with the poor sports, the overshooters, the wipers, and the rectally cranially inverted rich kids. Thankfully, overall I have met more real and cool people then I have the idiots. That goes for field owners as well. I have been at fields where all they care about is your money and I have been at fields that will give you an airtank to use, or fix your marker, or even give you some extra paint so you can finish out your day and have a good time.

Frankly, I can not wait to see where this sport goes. Just look how far we have come in the last 10 years. As paintball becomes more mainstream and accepted, it will grow. Sure there will be 'growing pains' as the industry adjusts. I think we will see better markers cheaper as the industry is recognizing that there is only a very select market for $1500 markers. Look at the new ION for instance. SP is making a mint over a marker that does everything its high priced brothers do at half the price. Will the rest of the industry follow suit? Who knows?

I love this sport, and I really enjoy the people I meet. I promise you that I will still go out and play paintball until I am physically unable to do so... and maybe longer.

[Blazestorm]

Interesting comments on both sides. I'll sticky this and see where it goes.

AGD

Oh em gee!11..

You should post your comments as you're not associated with AGD anymore now are you? <3

[jaredborne]

I love the sport, but being a college student, I cant afford to play much. Maybe once every 2 months because of the paint cost. A local field charges $60 bucks a case plus $15 to play plus $12 for all day air

That is $87 just to play. I don't shoot that much but spending 4-5 hours, I prob could shoot that much.

I would just liek to see the cost of paint to go down a bit more. I know it costs to make it but it doesn't cost that much.

[Miscue]

At IAO I was watching a game where one team had electros, and the other team was completely pump guns.

The game starts. The pump players RUN. The electro team sprays paint. The pump players try to gain some position. The electro team sprays paint. The pump players are snap-shooting as best they can. The electro team lanes them, merely wiggling their fingers and take them out comfortably. The pump players get wiped out, and leave the field. An electro player got hit, and WIPES.

Past vs. Present...

[ICP]

Of course it's going down hill, TK isn't runnin AGD anymore.

But seriously. I've been playing since 98 ( i know not a real long time, but). When I started I played with 10-12 friends and all but 2 had pumps, and all were def. mech's. I used to think I was at a disadvantage because I used a pump (plastic) against the semi's. And it affected my game. But once I got over that feeling, I learned to play different and have just as much fun with my pump (and less paint) I think feeling "out gunned" is just a state of mind.

The semi's and Electro's have really boosted the popularity of pball (imo). I've had a few elctro's since then and a couple more mechs. I don't think MOST people buy electro's just so they can simply shoot insane amounts of paint. I thinks its a preference of how the trigger feels, and the show off factor when not playing. Most people don't (or can't) fire at those rates during a game. So I don't think there is that much of a gap between shooting a mech and electro during a game. A consistant fire rate is more important to me (when playing speedball)

I will partially agree with you about greedy companies. However, you have to realize that EVERY company in EVERY business is out to make money. But there is a limit on what a company should do to make that money. There are more companies that care about what there customers say, than ones that are just out for a quick buck.

As far as your fields/stores go. There are some places that just haven't caught on yet. In my area there is one field/store that is 45 min. away. Othere than that, we have a hardware store that sells paint and CO2 and that's it for paintball around me. But the customer, controls were paintball fields/stores set up shop. If there is enough interest, someone will move in to make money.

I enjoy both woodsball and speedball. And I can tell you , I thought the same thing about speedball/tourny's. "It's just a bunch of kids pointing there markers and pulling the trigger, trying to paint anyone and everyone who is at the other end of the field. But after playing, I can tell you it's not like that at all. It does take skill, thinking, and teamwork. Just a little different style than good old woodsball.

Ok enough of my mindless chatter.

[paintballfreak90]

I DEFINATLY say this guy is right, my friend went to go try the sport because i think it is so much fun and he comes back the next day saying im not playing that anymore and his reason is because he says its too expensive and the guns are just to unfair.

[Iceman8446]

I feel that with most progressive sports problems like this are run into, and especially in paintball. But that is why they are progressive. They chance rapidly and because of this the fourm of paintball you once played and liked has now evolved into something different. I feel that this is good. We are still a relativly young sport with still alot to learn and do.
I'm shure most of you have herd of Laird Hamilton espically after his movie, being on Step Into Liquid, and being on that commircial. Well he was slated to be big in the pro surfing seen with his dad being really good. He chose not to compete in the relativly new progression of pro surfing and instead went to toe in surfing. Its just another fourm of new progression. Maybe the next hottest thing will spring off of tourny paintball much like this and they will need pioneers who arent into tourny ball.
I personally am going to enter my first tourny in 2 weeks with my ion, after playing paintball for 4 years. I'm so pumped.