What are we doing?

[NewbieMagMan10988]

[ZEROte]

compare the sport of paintball to soccer. pro soccer players get very much upset especially outside of this country. look at the sport of basketball. they get very much upset. have you ever seen the footage of charles barkley knocking someone out on court? look at pro football. heck pro hockey they used to be allowed to fight. the cursing swearing foul play is there you just cant see it cause your so far away from the players. you blasted "pro" paintball without looking at it from the opposite angle. you werent overshot you actually walked into a stream. its doesnt matter how fast the person was shooting because i could be shooting 9 bps and if there are 9 balls in the air then you can walk into all 9 of those balls. and ive seen worse fights break out on recball fields. i once saw a guy go after a little kid who was at least 20 years younger than him who was ten. he was ten shooting a tippmann. so why dont you flip around the situation. drop the kind of cash on a tournament that these players pay and see if youll keep a cool head when people wipe when things go wrong etc etc etc.

[Cow hunter]

i find it hard too see the other side....... i totally agree with NewbieMagMan it is all focused on the pros, but whats really important is what YOU think.... sure people MIGHT see this and be discouraged but most players are recruited by other people or by hearing how fun it really is!.... the way i see it, when i go play i use 500 balls a day, lose some win some and i have a great time..... thats all thats important, oh and i bring a new person every time so there are always new people joining the sport

[NinjaoftheNight79]

You have a great point, but its not pro-ball that needs to go. Its either the mentality behind these people that do that, or those people themselves. These people get paid to win. I would get POed too if I lost. That means less money for me and my family. It works that way with every sport, whether its shown or not.

We just had a similar thing over at Spec Ops. People saying how their marker owns others. The Tippmann lovers and ION lovers are always going at it. Finally it has gotten to a point that an admin said we are all becoming idiots. I took the time to quote it and state just how true it is. All of these people bash others markers and styles of play instead of understanding the true meaning of paintball. Paintball is like christmas, it isn't supposed to be about recieving, its about much more. Paintball needs to stop the Santa scam. To me Santa is a scam and a half. Telling you kids about Santa and then they learn the truth. Santa is like "the best paintball gun". All these kids (maturity wise) believe in this quietest, most accurate, and fastest marker. Then they finally get told the truth and want to deny it until they get proof. Then when they finally snap into reality, they go on and become like me and many of other people. Christians and paintballers alike need to be more like the Jewish. Instead of inventing a fictional character, people/kids need to be taught the truth from the start. I mean come on, how many Jewish people do you see thinking about "Hanuka Harry"? They dont. They teach their young (as soon as they are old enough to understand whats going on) exactly what the holiday is about. Thats how paintball should be. Paintballers should be taught that it isn't about winning or losing, or what marker is the best, or who owns who. Its about friendship, rivalry, fun, recreation, skill, and just having a good 'ol time. Paintball is one of those things that you hold in your heart. Something that lets you forget everything else and come together. Though paintball has gained a lot of segregation, we should all respect eachother, learn from others, teach others who arent as skilled, make friends, make (healthy) rivals, and have a fun time. I am very tired of people acting like paintball is always a contest of who is best and whos marker owns. Its about the fun, adrenaline of the game, and the people. Its about the stories you gain, tell your friends the next day, and all of your non-paintballer friends think your obsessed. That is what paintball is about. We all need to learn that.

[NewbieMagMan10988]

[NinjaoftheNight79]

Hey man, your heart is in the right place, but its nothing to get mad over. Its all a good time

[NewbieMagMan10988]

Thats how paintball should be. Paintballers should be taught that it isn't about winning or losing, or what marker is the best, or who owns who. Its about friendship, rivalry, fun, recreation, skill, and just having a good 'ol time. Paintball is one of those things that you hold in your heart. Something that lets you forget everything else and come together. Though paintball has gained a lot of segregation, we should all respect eachother, learn from others, teach others who arent as skilled, make friends, make (healthy) rivals, and have a fun time. I am very tired of people acting like paintball is always a contest of who is best and whos marker owns. Its about the fun, adrenaline of the game, and the people. Its about the stories you gain, tell your friends the next day, and all of your non-paintballer friends think your obsessed. That is what paintball is about. We all need to learn that.

Ninja, you rock my socks!
Thank you.

[pachytriton]

While I can completely understand where you're coming from, I have to disagree. I was just about to post something similar to what zerote said, good points there. Pro paintball also has to try to be widely watchable. Hopefully, tournies will be televised sometime soon. The whole point is to bring paintball up there with other pro sports. While pump play rocks wicked hard, people watching it who don't know much about paintball probably won't find it too interesting. Watching psp and nxl matches are fast paced, exciting, loud, and crazy. Watch other pro sports-do the players look like they're really enjoying themselves? Because pro paintball is very new, it strikes a lot closer to home than other pro sports. Legalised ramping in tournies makes the matches more fun to watch and makes cheating harder. I don't think ramping should be allowed at fields, that's too much.

Basketball started out wiht no dribbling and baskets with no holes in the bottom. Instead of dribbling, players threw the ball up into the air and caught it. Paintball is a new, growing sport. It is evolving from what it used to be into its final form. It's not quite there, but it is getting closer. I think we'll see some major changes in rules in the next 5-10 years that will hopefully make cheating harder.

Again, where do you see media covarage for any other sport-little league baseball and street basketball? What else would you expect?

My problem with current pro paintball might be similar to yours-the distance from the average new player and the pro. Look at other sports - the equipment matters much much less. To an extent, your gun defines what kind of player you are, widening the gap between new and experienced players. The ion, which I dislike for a number of reasons, might be a step in bringing paintball to a more level playing field. It makes a gun comparable to the pro's available for a low price. While I dislike smart parts marketing and business policy, they are looking to the future of the sport. With pro paintball being more widely advertised, the need for a gun that will let newbs compete is there. The worst part if this evolution is when the old meets new-like your experience with "mr. ramping." I'm kinda leary about the next couple years of painball myself, hopefully fields will not start allowing ramping all the time. I'm truly sorry you feel this way, but paintball is such a strange, new sport that there are going to be some hiccups along the way.

[NinjaoftheNight79]

Ninja, you rock my socks!
Thank you.

Thank you. I try to be as helpful as possible. Its a lot easier to get something like this heard here than on Spec Ops. While the respected members all agree, it seems the people who the message was intended for never even wanted to reply...

[Recon by Fire]

It certainly appears to be going down the crapper, more and more. When I see the appearant majority of our players are teens/early 20's and display such low quality of sportsmanship or just general personality....it makes me just want to sell everything and not even be associated with it.

I try to keep in mind that I mostly play with closed groups so that this is not a problem. But it is a hard thing to ignore even when i'm not getting to play at all.


(Note: I know we have lots of good young layers out there who are a credit, but they are unfortunately not the ones who we see and hear).

[NewbieMagMan10988]

[magman007]

paintball isnt going in the tubes, you all need to get over this stuff, it is still growing leaps and bounds, this year is just seeing a small slump in profits, because the market is flooded, and we need to wait for it to catch up a bit.

Also, too bad you got shot 9 times, it happens, and get over it. it doesnt hurt that much anyways.

Equipment not making a difference? is that so? how come pro hockeyplayers dont use rentals? or pro baseball players dont use crappy cheep gloves and bats? exactly. equipment does matter, can a pro play ok with a spyder? yea, can they play better with a gun of higher callibur? ofcourse!

at the moment the sport is at, pro paintball is necessesary for survival. Without it, the market has even less of a chance of growing, and we will see alot of companies die off, more so than the ones already dying.


Dont play on a competitive field, if you dont want the competitive attitude, or play with the noobies if thats what you want.

[pachytriton]

That's kinda what I was getting at towards the end. I am guessing that markers like the ion are going to be the tippmanns of tomarrow, but the pro guns won't be too much better than they are now. An ion with an aftermarket trigger plus a nice tank and hopper can certainly hold its own on the field compared to the pro guns, even if the quality sucks. Yes the ion has pissed a lot of people off, including me, but now I really think that smart parts is considering their investment in the future of the sport. I might be wrong, we could have some innovation that will change everything.

'night

[RusskiX]

The biggest issue with the "professional" mentality that has come to pervade the rec scene is that it is not appropriate at an open day at a recreational field. If the pro wannabes want the aggressive play during tournaments thats fine. I can understand the competitve nature if money/prizes are on the line. But NewbieMag stated it was just an open day, which usually entails a mix of player levels by definition. I don't want the hard fouls if I'm playing pickup basketball; I don't need to get lit up if I'm playing on any give Sunday. I don't have a problem with professional paintball getting more television/national coverage and acceptance, just like other professional sports. But by the same token, I'm not playing in the NFL when my buddies get out the nerf and we start a game of flag football. Everybody knows that one guy who takes it a little too seriously.

I think the other sore point is the decline in numbers of fields that cater to the entry level player. I would normally suggest that NewbieMag stick to well known fields that have a more laid back crowd, except those are getting harder to find.

[SpitFire1299]

The biggest issue with the "professional" mentality that has come to pervade the rec scene is that it is not appropriate at an open day at a recreational field. If the pro wannabes want the aggressive play during tournaments thats fine. I can understand the competitve nature if money/prizes are on the line. But NewbieMag stated it was just an open day, which usually entails a mix of player levels by definition. I don't want the hard fouls if I'm playing pickup basketball; I don't need to get lit up if I'm playing on any give Sunday.

I can agree and disagree with that statement. I can disagree because of this quote- "Play your best or dont play at all." But, on the otherhand.. im also sick of watching some open play games after tournaments were people are like.. "Lets go bonus ball all the noobs in open play!!" What a terrible motive.

Ok.. now the main idea. I think paintball is not going bad, but it just simply isnt always "good." Its rather un-supervised for kids; "Where are the parents to yell at that kid!??" Someone here will get what im talking about. There are just those people that are ruining it for the rest of us.. but whocares, what am I going to change by posting my rant in a thread?