Paintball's Golden Age

[Boski51]

Question is:

Has paintball reached it's "golden age"-best it can get, or is it yet to be and why do you think that way.

Some say the good old days of paintball are over and some say they are right around the corner.

[Apple_Pie]

I think the golden age was about 2003...

[neppo1345]

The "Golden Age" was when I started playing...in all seriousness...

1997-1998

The mag and cocker were the kings

electro's were coming onto the scene...

there was still something known all over as courtesy...

It wasn't WHOLLY commercialized...there was still just a strong grass roots following...

Unfortuneately...these days are long gone...it honestly makes me want to cry thinking about my first two years. I can still remember my first game...my pro-lite, my friends spyder SE, and my other friend with his BE Talon, good times...Then later getting torn up by my friends with their mags...we only played woodsball...all the friends, all the good times...rambling...

[Boski51]

That was a great response!

[neppo1345]

Thanks...that may be the first time anyones ever told me that...

[Prairie]

The "Golden Age" was when I started playing...in all seriousness...

1997-1998

The mag and cocker were the kings

electro's were coming onto the scene...

there was still something known all over as courtesy...

It wasn't WHOLLY commercialized...there was still just a strong grass roots following...

Unfortuneately...these days are long gone...it honestly makes me want to cry thinking about my first two years. I can still remember my first game...my pro-lite, my friends spyder SE, and my other friend with his BE Talon, good times...Then later getting torn up by my friends with their mags...we only played woodsball...all the friends, all the good times...rambling...

You got it.

The golden age has come and gone...1995-2001 would be the span I would consider the golden age.

Pro-lites, 68 Carbines, Spyders...the Tippmann 98 storms onto the scene.

Angel LEDs...yum.

PUSH is out on DVD, the NPPL is a good league filled with good teams.

Fields are bigger than 30 feet square.

Tom Kaye and Bud Orr and their history are known by every player on the field.

Oh Pawlak still existed.

Ed Poorman wasn't just a team captain...

Neither was Shane Pestana...

I could go on and on, but i'd probably just cry.

[JOESPUD27]

Yeah, I'd agree with the "electros just coming onto the scene" is the golden age. I got in just when it ended, 2000. Mech and Pump is still the Golden age in my mind.

Jay

[Boski51]

Oh Pawlak ROCKS! He lives in the Sacramento area and used to own a chain of PB stores in the area. He too is out of PB. He was one of the nicest guys I have met in PB.

[Chronobreak]

Oh Pawlak ROCKS! He lives in the Sacramento area and used to own a chain of PB stores in the area. He too is out of PB. He was one of the nicest guys I have met in PB.

OH SNAP!!

havent ehard that name in years

i recall seeing him with his gold minimag in EVERY APG

i mean EVERY



he probly helped get me into mags a bit as one of the "pros" of the time i looked upto


on a sidenot..he looks like a mean eskimo

[phantomhitman]

Why were the golden days years ago and what is wrong with pb now? Unless you field is run by pb nazis who make you play in sponsored gear, take your gun away and make you use $1000+ guns, level the forest, and play on airball fields I really do not understand. People have been *****ing about this constantly but no one says why this or that is better, because you know why?

IT IS OPINION, not fact.

[dre1919]

Well, each response is always going to be purely opinion. However, that being said, let me tell you why I totally gree with the other guys that have chimed in here.

For me, the Golden Age of Paintball was just what they mentioned...the 1994-2000 range. I began playing paintball as a senior in high school ('93-'94) range and I was immediately hooked. It was the most amazing game I had ever played. I moved to college and set about playing as much as I could. In those days, we had this little field down the road from where my university was. It was locally owned, pretty crappy by today's standards, and all woodsball. But it was the most FUN thing I can remember going out and doing. I had so many wonderful memories of that place. We played with pumpgun rentals and you were THE MAN if you had a semi. Everyone wore camo, played with tactics and skill (who mowed down the forest? That was stupid and wasteful) and everyone had a blast. I never worried about getting a faster gun, or playing in tournaments back then.

A few years after it had started the newer and faster guns started arriving. I think I remember the Stingray and the VM-68 being some of the first semis on the market, with the Mag and the Autococker coming along right around the same time. They were impressive, sought after markers. Very well made. Who here remembers the BE Rainmaker? The first Spyder? Those guns were the stuff back then. We used to play for so cheap back then too. $10 field fee, no charge for air (CO2), and $10 for 500 rounds of paint (that lasted half the day). Where can you go play for $20 these days? As my friends and the sport grew we started getting into bigger and better markers and playing tournament paintball. Slowly we began playing less and dreaming more. We were always talking about what we wanted to do and what equipment we wanted next...but we started playing less because all of a sudden it cost us $100 per person, per weekend. Our newer faster guns started spitting out so much paint (and you get used to firing more) we couldn't afford their ROF.

Add in that most fields converted to speedball, started charging $1 per 1000psi for compressed air and paint prices rose steadily and there you go. My friends and I can't really go out these days with our Angels and shoot less than a case apiece unless we really try. You throw in field fee, air, and lunch and you're looking at a Benji for the day. Who can afford $100 each weekend? Even twice a month? We can't...not with bills and families. So I guess for us the Golden Age was then because of the fun, the comraderie, the prices and the smaller scale. Paintball wasn't this big corporate sponsored money making juggernaut it is now. It was about playing a game of tough individuals, tough competitors, and having people look at you funny (but respectfully) when you told them you played. It set you apart. You weren't following a trend or a craze then...you were an extreme personality that other people thought was interesting.

That's one of the reasons my friends and I are trying to get more into scenario paintball these days. The sport has grown so much it's really too expensive for players with bills and families like us. At least shooting a case a weekend at a field is, anyway. I don't have any problem with the state of paintball right now...it is what it is and it was inevitable to have this kind of an evolution. However, those old days will always resonate with me as special...far more so than my Angel firing speedball days.

One amusing story I will always be proud of: We were playing at that little field one Saturday way back when. Some of my friends that had the money to purchase guns had purchased semi-autos and brought them to play. Me being a poor art student in college I couldn't really afford my own gun, much less a semi. So I rented a pump rifle, which was the equivelent to bringing a 12 guage to war with M-16's. Anyway, I was prepping in the stage area and my buddies came over with a few of the other rec players to start the game. I gathered my things and headed to the staging point. As I walked over, my buddy called out "Hey, you ready?" casting a sideways glance at my pump rifle (a few of the other players did too). I was holding it vertically in my hand anyway, so I just grabbed it by the pump handle and racked it vertically all Terminator 2-Sara Conner style with an audible "chick-chuck". "Let's roll" I said, and a couple of the players heading out were like "Damn!" They began wondering if I purposefully used a pump instead of a semi, and that kinda worried them.

Just thought I'd share that, always made me laugh.
~dre

[SCpoloRicker]

Why were the golden days years ago and what is wrong with pb now? Unless you field is run by pb nazis who make you play in sponsored gear, take your gun away and make you use $1000+ guns, level the forest, and play on airball fields I really do not understand. People have been *****ing about this constantly but no one says why this or that is better, because you know why?

IT IS OPINION, not fact.

One of these things is not like the other!

/Mr. Rodgers

[tyrion2323]

I don't think that there's simply one golden age. For every step in paintball, there has been a 'golden age', and to many, it's simply based off of the nostalgia surrounding their introduction to the sport.

For example, my "golden age" is around 98-2000. I first began playing seriously during those times, and I remember the advent of the double-trigger, the Boomstick, etc. I DO remember Oh Pawluck and Rocky Cagnoni, and thinking that, "someday, I'm going to buy an awesome splash shocker 4x4!!!" Those days bring back memories - mostly because I was still learning about the fundamentals of the game, and I thought that the world of paintball was endless and exciting.

At the same time, my newer 'golden age' is just beginning. I am the captain and founder of my school's paintball team, and after three years, we're finally coming together. We're playing tournaments, I'm becoming a knowledgeable and respected player, and I am looking ahead to see what I can do to continue playing competitively after I graduate. I just spent half a year practicing with the Copenhagen Ducks, P.I.M.P and Paintball.se, and I have a huge interest in European paintball now. For me, this is another 'golden age' in which I feel like paintball is perpetually on the horizon.

I can't say that I've been happy with every turn that the sport has made; however, the only things that really bother me are the cheating and the bad sportsmanship, BOTH of which have been around for decades now. Unlike many, I don't look at the younger demographic and shake my head, but instead wonder who will be there to teach them what the sport is truly about.

There isn't such a thing as a 'golden age', as we each define our own. Just as some on these boards long for the times when Lasoya, Cagnoni and Pahwluck were the 'kings' of paintball, we now have even better, more phenomenal players and teams such as Dynasty, Joy, Russian Legion, etc.

[phantomhitman]

The whole cost issue is clearcut also, no grey areas. You can either afford to play or you can not.

If you cannot afford to shoot a case then dont. There are only a few people at fields that bring cases with them, and out of those it is rare for them to wonder over to the rec players and gun them down. Play pump, have fun, and save cash. Lots of people do it.

But then people say I play scenario to save cash. These are more than likely 2 day events, you buy an average of 1 case of paint (AT LEAST), drive hours to get there, pay for hotel and food for the 2 days, and drive back. If it is a local run scenario you are lucky, or if it is a small scenario (less than 100 people) then it is not the typical scenario game.

Why does it matter what other people do? You can still have your cake and eat it to, just dont compare it to everyones eles cake. Enough with the "look at them and what they are doing" factor, play your game.

[Boski51]

My question that starts this thread is not a "does paintball suck now" question. It is mearly what DO YOU THINK of the current state of PB where you play.

I personally think that paintball is at a crossroads. I think we are in the days of paintball going commercial. That is not a new or original idea. Tons of folks have pointed that out on AO. But what I do think we are now seeing is with this change, you will see more paintball companies go out of business as the big guys get bigger and the demographics of paintball change.

In the beginning of PB, kids were not the demographic sold to. Adults were. This is a big change in PB. Look at PBN as an example. PB companies are selling to kids and young adults. They don't really focus to much on adults much after college. Why? People in that demographic don't have a ton of money or time for paintball. Adults with familes are another example. We have bills and young kids to take care of. Playing PB is a luxury that we gladly do, but it is the first or second thing to go if we have other responibilites.

So whats my point-paintball is at the crossroads of tourny paintball's growth will flatten out and other forms of PB sales will increase as the rest of us who love this game try to find a spot on the field.

But PBs near future hinges on the demographic of the pre-teen, teen and younge adult market. As that market changes, so will the golden age of PB.

BTW: Just My Opinion.

Boski