What is the difference now?

[AnthonyW]

I see the same things happening in the ARCHERY world (My Profession) products keep coming out and changing just for the sake of change. I think most of the products in the paintball market need alot of refining instead of something new, it seems everyone is so fixated on new, new, new. Most of the new markers dont do anything any better than the ones that are already out.

Anthony

[dahoeb]

I see the same things happening in the ARCHERY world...
Anthony

thats pretty interesting.
you got some good points too.

[Coralis]

Just the general lack of sportsmanship and knowledge of game. Case in point a couple of months back i was playing at the local field I had made my way all the way back to the opposite teams starting box and was coming back on the other team from behind I shoot one kid out with a shot to the hopper. I moved up some more and came up on one other player and walked right up behind him and told him to take the hit so he asks me if i have paint (fair question actually) i shake the gun and he puts the barrel plug in and walks off. I turn around looking for my next victim when all the sudden i get lit up with about 10 shots , the little son of a Jupitor based alien colony says "well i never took the hit", so I said and that gives you the right to light me up from 15 feet away and he just laughed and said suck it up straw boy. When I was his age I would of never spoken to adult that way.


Tell you what...you don't circumvent the cuss filters as you promised, and I won't ban you...Army

[Miscue]

I believe its the personality that the marker has given a voice to. Miscue said it best...

Ha... I must have been ornery that day.

When I started playing... paintballers were the Dungeons & Dragons kind of people... computer geeks... etc. They got out there playing something that was not popular. It was expensive... the people who got into it really wanted to do it... and invested in it anyway. They were really dedicated to it. We went to a shop to get a big CO2 cylinder filled... kept it in a garage... bought a scale and fill stations... and we'd fill up our multiple CO2 tanks off of it and have enough air for an entire weekend. Sometimes we'd spend time building fields. We teched our own guns... brought our own chronographs.

We were concerned with how effectively we could snapshoot, not so much how fast we could shoot... because it didn't help much... and nobody could shoot more than about 6 bps consistently. Do the kids even practice snapshooting anymore... do they even know what it is? Or do they instead spend that time tinkering with their board settings?

They sure know all about laning though. Takes all of two seconds for a noob to figure out the concept. Sportsmanship? Eh... who cares, my gun of the week is cooler than yours!

Cheating was taboo. Friends didn't cheat each other... and if we caught an outsider doing it... even if he was a walk-on on our team... we'd all get pissed off about it and try to get him kicked off the field... rather than shrugging it off. I remember games where... we just stood up and walked off the field during the game when we caught one person cheating... and refused to play. Now... what, you get a couple points deducted? Maybe a one-for-one? There's photographic evidence of Joe Schmoe paintball celebrity cheating... and people laugh it up... keep the posters on the wall... and talk about how cool he/she is? Look how clever he/she was grinding that hit out!

Now... players don't leave until the ref pulls them. Sometimes they don't even bother to wipe anymore... and play right on while obviously gogged... until a ref gets to them. This is more controlled in a real tourny... but not completely... we've all seen it. But like many... I don't have the luxury of following the NPPL/PSP/etc. circuit around the country... and my regular play is limited to local stuff mostly... and a couple outside events a year maybe.

Mommies weren't buying little Johnny a $2500 setup that he'd use for 3 months yet... because Johnny didn't even know what paintball was. The "cool kids" didn't know what it was. Just some of the geeks. Paintball became popular... the MTV crowd took over. Not that I care... if they didn't bring their attitudes... and pollute a game to where the new goal is to see how far you can bend and break the rules without getting caught... while being as big of a dick as you can... with minimal penalty even if you do. It's entirely political why cheating does not have harsher penalties.

It used to be... paintball... paintball... paintball. Not politics... politics... politics...

I don't have a problem with the electronic marker. But like was mentioned... I have a problem with it allowing idiots to be even bigger idiots... and the large influx of idiots as paintball has been popularized. Before... you could spot those punks and kick the snot out of them every game anyway... because you and your buddies were just much better players.

But now this same idiot has a machine gun.

[dahoeb]

very well said. that sums up what most of us see happening i think.

[Miscue]

unfortunately, thats not the only experience i had like that. there have been others, but that was the most recent one. and i've seen similar experiences like that happen to other players.

One of my earliest experiences with an electronic marker was... I was playing a woods game... the game was over. I was crawling out of my hole. Kid from 20 ft away dumps his hopper on me with his Angel... He lights up my chest, I take cover... he lights up my back, and hits me in the head a dozen times... my hair is drenched in paint... I'm in a fetal position waving my arms, yelling, and covering myself with my gun. I don't think he stopped until he ran out of paint. What kept me from throwing a punch at him was... I could not see. I was completely gogged. At some point while getting lit up... I took my barrel off and tried to tomahawk it at him... I probably missed.

I bought a stainless steel Lapco barrel afterwards... kind of as a joke.

Although this was an extreme case... it characterizes what paintball became after that in my perspective.

[SCpoloRicker]

I have seen less than 10 parents out watching their kid or playing with their kid in 2 years. I only know of 2 dads that regularly play with their kid and actually teach them morals while playing. Most of the idiots everyone speaks of are 14-16 year olds that just do not have a clue.

That, my fellow AOer, is where we step in. Noone is changing the world... but the reason I play and hang out with this group is the shared camraderie (sic) amongst really different kinds of people and the fair, have-fun attitude we take on the field.

/tear
//PORCH!1

[buzzboy]

Only thing I don't like are those certain people who act like Aholes. The one person who every game overshoots/won't get out when the ref(me) calls him out/plays on/uses other's stuff without permission and brags about their paintball greatness. I have one of these at my field who will never be showing up again. They are the people who ruin it for everybody.

[benzy2]

yeah I remember the first cheater I came across. We were playing in the woods and it was one of the dad's friends. He cheated the entire time. You could watch him get gogged, wipe it, and flip you off for the hit to continue shooting. He also would shoot you after the game ended which really pissed you off. That was the last time we ever played with him and for a good year after that we only played with people we knew didnt cheat. Today you really cant play a game without it. Yeah I know there is an arguement that the cheating is done by everyone competative so it doesnt take away from the game, only changes the game. Well it does take away from the game I like to play. Also I remember the first few times I ever played paintball was with my dad and every time after that there was at least one or two dads with us that would keep us all in line. We didnt have the chance to be the dicks some of the youth are today. If you were cheating everyone hated you and wouldnt play. If you mouthed off and over shot the parents would tear you a new butthole. Im lucky that I still have most of those friends to play with making the game still fun to play.

[wispaintstyle]

I agree whole-heartedly with all of the above posts. At the birth of the sport the creators wanted to see if survival strategies for real life, both that of a stock broker and hunter, would carry over to paintball. Well now the problems of the real world have let themselves in. The first thing that we can all do is start with ourselves. Play with honor and integrity and then carry that on into your life outside of paintball (if you have one). The world must be changed one person at a time.

To quote a crappy ad for a crappy marker (IMHO): Evolve or Die.

[SpitFire1299]

I dont have a problem with cheaters. When they cheat, they simply get bonus balled.

The thing that keeps my down is the hype. Everyone talks about how fast there gun is, but no one talks about how good their team just did the last game. I like my team, but its just listening to other teams makes me sad. People want to look good instead of actually being good, and play like they look good too. Just play the game how you want, thats what i think. Get comfortable with your own team thing.

OMG.. also, just because pro's do it, doesnt mean its the coolest and the best.

Another thing i hate is ramping. I have been "ramped" before(shot like 10 times by a ramping gun). It just pisses me off.

Money isnt a problem though.

(I like the word i have created....... ramped, hehe.)

[BeaverEater]

i stopped playing tourny ball because of the people really. Most of the people around here are really cocky, and will cheat to win. It just gets old after a while. I figured i'd just take a break and go back to playing pump.

[LudavicoSoldier]

The only things I hate are bad attitudes and poor sportsmanship. Self explanatory.

[onedude36]

I think the whole thing about kids <16 is that a) their parents pay for it, this makes MOST(ie not all) kids spoiled a bit. Specially when it comes to new dm6 and a boat load of gear. These are usually the poor sports in my opinion. the other option is b) they have a job. These are more money concious and sportsman like in my opinion. but, how many kids that are 15 or younger have jobs? not very many. If they have a job, its like parents buy gun, and paint, kid is entry from mowing a single lawn(his parents') that week. I fall into the category with a job(just turned 16 ) and i dont like allot of the players my age. My team is me, some other kids who pay their own way, brandon(coaches son, always takes crap for that ) and this 30 sumthin y/o corry. I think corry is my fav player on the team. He plays fair, is intelligent and thinks before he speaks, and can actually aim. I think the guys on my team are some of the better(people/moraly, not skill)ones in my area. Now im rambling. kthxby.

[KJHawley]

Almost everyone I know has quit playing paintball because of the obnoxious behavior of children at the local fields. My favorite story is my wife's. We were playing an indoor 10 on 10 or so. She's out, so she puts the barrel plug in, raises BOTH hands in the air, and starts walking back towards our flag station. A ten year old kid, about 10 feet away, looks straight at her, and shoots her. And he's on OUR TEAM. I watched the whole thing from the bunker behind her. He wasn't shooting at anyone else, or confused- he was just a 10 year old kid who wanted to shoot someone.
Or the last time I played at some of our local fields. A bunch of guys and I were walking down a path, and two guys in some bushes starts shooting at us. We dive off the path, exchange some gunfire. Some of our guys get shot, but we get the other two guys- they both raise their guns in the air, and extricate themselves from the brushes. As they start to walk off, one of the kids totally lights me up. He says that although he called himself out, he never actually got shot, so he was still in.
Or the time a guy crawled under the tape at the edge of the field, parked himself in the neutral zone by our base. Lights us up. We yell for the ref. The ref hollers "There better not be someone in my neutral zone!" Does he stand up and apologize for being in the neutral zone? Does he apologize to us? No, he got up and ran away. He RAN AWAY, like a guy caught robbing a Seven Eleven!!
There are so many people who don't pay attention to the rules, don't care about the rules, and are there just to shoot people. It makes the game less fun for everyone.