Screw the "good old days"

[shartley]

[BigEvil]

I didn't come to paintball for the technology. In a heartbeat I would take the above conditions if it meant I would be playing with honest mature people. Even if the equipment evolved to where markers were accurate out 100 yards within 1 inch and a 68/45 tank allowed for 4000 rounds between fills, what does it matter when dealing with cheating? I play paintball for the people I play with. If the best there is is pumps, ok. Having my old SFL in hybrid mode bouncing out low 20bps on cheating swine is no fun because..... THEY CHEAT! My good old days are the days I played with the NorCal crew no matter what markers and equipment I used.

Well said Zman, and I also agree, but I think everyone is missing a big part of my point:

There are enough fields to choose from now that you can pick and choose with whom and where you want to play. Where in the past, there were few fields and your choices were very limited if you wanted to play paintball at all.

There will always be cheaters and bad attitudes, and yes, alot of the culture sucks. There are more than enough good guys playing, and still many owners who take good care of their customers.

With every thing said, if it is so bad, why do we all come back? If there are so many cheaters, immature players, bad attitudes and bad buisinesses they WHY do we still play? It isnt all bad now, and I still think the good greatly outweighs the bad.

Yes, I know - it takes one bad apple to spoil the bunch. Negativity is what you will always hear the most about. unfortunatley.

Yet there are alot of great people out there. Look around. How many friends have you met through AO? Even if just casually. I can easily think of about 12 or so. Even played with a few of them.

Not everyone can be a superhero and police the world. Thats not out jobs, well unless we are refs. All we can do try and set a good example for others, and keep good company. Its ahrd to have a bad time when you are playing with a good group of people.

I guess in my old age (LOL) im learning to chill out and see the glass half full instead of ranting about it being half empty.

[thecavemankevin]

Funny. I read this as we took the best players available and stacked teams so that those opposing us had no chance, and after awhile those paying a lot of money to play a game left because they could no longer have any fun without having a chance. But it was ok because we did not approve of how they chose to play the game.

that brought a smile to my face, thank you

[cdacda13]

The game got bigger.
Someone stated above that back in the 'good' old days, a few people cheated. Now that the game has more people playing, more people cheat. Its all percentages. If 10% of 100 people cheated back in the 'good' old days, then only 10 people cheated. Not a high number at all.
Now, since more people play, even if the percentager stays the same, there are more cheaters.
You can't really compare now and then. The sport has grown. Everyone looks back on the 'old' days as better times. It has to deal with peoples sense of nostalgia. Most people hate change, so they tend to look at the past as a 'better' time.
10 years from now, current newcomers will look back and say the same thing. "I remember when all I needed was a (insert gun here) and only (instert number of paintballs used here) and I could play all day. With all these new fangled guns, its not fun anymore."

//If that didn't make sense to anyone, I'm sorry.

[dahoeb]

BigEvil,
I see and respect your points, but i also disagree with you on this one.

1. the attitudes i see at my local field SUCKS. plain and simple. i see a ridiculous amount of cheating, whining, and just badmouthing. Sure, we can go tell the refs; but more often than not, those kids cheating and causing problems, are buddies with the refs; or the ref is just as bad as they are when they play.

like z-man said, i play for the comraderie (sp?) and for the atsmosphere, not so i can shoot my 1200 dollar marker at 30bps. i get a lot more pride out of outsmarting people: today if you get frustrated, you can just light up their bunker until you get a lucky hit...psshh they wipe half the time anyways.

i would much rather play a 5 on 5 against honost, good, players, rather than a 40 vs 40 filled with cheaters and bad attitudes.

i think back and i had a lot more fun playing those small games, where every elimination counted. in those games, if you were eliminated, it was because someone used their skill to mark you, it wasn't because there was just so much paint in the air that a random one was just bound to hit you, regardless of skill.

2. Though there are a lot more fields out there, there still isn't THAT many. Its not like going down the street to a burger king instead of a mcdonalds. my nearest field back home is 30 minutes away, after that, the next closest one is about 1 1/2 hours. thats a pretty good drive that i don't feel like doing every weekend or every other weekend. especially with gas prices....

and unfortuneatly, where ever you go, your bound to find the same snotty, cheating kids with their moms credit cards. if youre lucky enough to have more than 1 field nearby, and you do switch fields because of the bad attitudes, then what do you do when that field starts getting the bad apples? the attitude problem in paintball isn't getting any better incase you didn't notice....

i hate to say it, but sometimes it feels like the good honost players are getting herded out.

honostly, i do miss the days of 8bps. things were simpler and there was more emphasis on using your head rather than firepower.

[BigEvil]

BigEvil,
I see and respect your points, but i also disagree with you on this one.

Hey man I hear ya - it sucks to waste your hard earned money when a bunch of schmucks ruin it for you. I see your from Camp Pendelton, I think thats in CA? There has to be a better place for you ro play at? I have never been to Cali, so I cant speak from experience. Back in the day when we didnt want to go to fields (too far, too expensive, whatever) we played tons and tons of outlaw ball. If we played 30 times a year, 25 of them would be outlaw. I dont know if thats an option, but if you are getting hosed where you play then you really gotta try to find another option.

Linkage fo Dahoeb

[Jaan]

"'Kid on Christmas morning' feeling" ...

It's funny you should mention that, since last Saturday was the first time in a long time I felt that way playing paintball.

One of my local fields, Fox 4 Paintball (who's hosting AONE this year btw) put together a private pump game. I know what you're thinking, but this isn't going to be a pump guns are better rant ... what made the day so enjoyable was the quality of people who chose to show up and play.

To me, the good ol' days are all about the people who played, when it was an underground hobby more than anything else. That sense of camaraderie and fun is what I've been missing for a while now playing with all these punk AGG 14 year olds.

It was nice sitting down with them after a game comparing what just happened and congratulating your opponents. It was nice too when you shot someone from the other team and they actually called themselves out.

I think there was one moment that stood out in my mind as defining the difference between us ol' timers and the AGG kids ... I was taking a picture of "Pyrate Jim" from the Paintball Marshals and from behind me I could hear some kids talking about what the designer of their bandannas were ... I kid you not. Prada I think it was. It was strait out of ***** Eye or Sex in the City.

EDIT: Maybe I should include a picture of Pyrate Jim and his deuce to illustrate exactly how anti-AGG he is lol:

[dahoeb]

Hey man I hear ya - it sucks to waste your hard earned money when a bunch of schmucks ruin it for you. I see your from Camp Pendelton, I think thats in CA? There has to be a better place for you ro play at? I have never been to Cali, so I cant speak from experience. Back in the day when we didnt want to go to fields (too far, too expensive, whatever) we played tons and tons of outlaw ball. If we played 30 times a year, 25 of them would be outlaw. I dont know if thats an option, but if you are getting hosed where you play then you really gotta try to find another option.

Linkage fo Dahoeb

there are a few places around sandiego i know of to play, but i'm talking about my home in indiana, thats where i do the majority of my playing. i'm pretty busy here working so i don't get to play quite as much as i do back home.

i appreciate the link though.

[punkncat]

I am not sure that I can even wax nostalgic about "good old days".....I mean how far back is good old?

There were not "readily available" electronic markers when I started, but there were a lot of really well designed semi's available. Cockers and Mags were king. Oh Angels and Shoeboxes...the EM1 the first Trixes came out in my first few years, but geez none of us thought we would ever need or be able to afford one of those. The revi was a godsend. And oh man...you were Mr It if you had a Nitrogen system...much less access to have it filled.

Technologically the good old days weren't all that...but it weren't that bad either. What I really miss is the attitude. The comeradere, the honor. I miss how when you walked on field and saw a really nice looking cocker everyone was just in awe.....I mean hey! someone was shooting something other than a clone or a Tippy....

I guess the biggest difference I see is that I have replaced my squeegie with pods.

[tyrion2323]

Everyone talks about how in the "good old days," there was far less cheating.

nobody ever mentions that in those days, there were also far fewer players.

[Grey Goose]

Im 34 now, alot slower than I was

Hell man, half the fun of playing at our age is showing the punk kids you can still make the 50 on the break.

[BigEvil]

Hell man, half the fun of playing at our age is showing the punk kids you can still make the 50 on the break.

LOL I wish. I can come close though.. It also comes in handy if there is an oxygen tank on the sidelines. In a pinch I can use my HPA tank...

[punkncat]

LOL I wish. I can come close though.. It also comes in handy if there is an oxygen tank on the sidelines. In a pinch I can use my HPA tank...

Right there with you guys. I tend to act a little more decrepitated than I really am. That way I can suprize the little jokers while they underestimate me cause I'm old.
(I just pay more the next few days)

[quasimorte]

The first thing i do when hitting a new field is to go without playing and see if i can work on my gun on sight. This lets me sit there and see how the refs act, how the sales guys act, and sometimes how the owner acts. This is what tells me if i want to play there or not. Its all a top down approach, if the owner is there only to make money, then that sets the whole tone for the field. but if the owner or sales guys are there to help you and like their jobs then the field will be worth playing because the refs will feed off this and only let the guys who play right accually stay. BTW, i have see a couple times where the refs themselves have stacked the teams to shaft some big talking kiddie, it was hillarious. I've also seen a team of walkons just abandon a guy they have been playing with all day just to shut him up. that was the best because some of them came with him for the day and they totally let him hang.

[Pballwizz]

I wasnt around long enought to experience the "good 'ol days" but I sure as hell miss the days when I first started. On old 3 man airballs fields, drops were all the rage, a classic timmy was a gift from god, an you were happy with owning a nice looking jersey, forget the pants, bandanas, etc. I still wish I coudl relieve those days sometimes "sigh". But taht is why I am getting a mag an getting back into the woods! YEA!!!