airsoft pisses on paintball

[rancid]

ok, ok bit provocative, but I need to get some response.

Check this out. The publishers of pgi also produce mags in the gun market. One of these mags has a healthy section on airsoft. Thing is, there's an amount of interest by advertisers/airsoft manufacturers to tap into the paintball market and there's even more interest for pgi to run a special airsoft section! (I also have it on good authority that many sites up and down the country are doubling up: one week maddo rambos re-enacting the battle of the bulge shouting **** like 'take that fritz' and the next week a perfectly sensible 8 hour airsoft game. )

So, where do we stand? (Hotpoint, let other people have a say before you kill this off.)

Right, so I'll kick it off with....

Airsoft is bigger than paintball in this country by far. As a business it would make sense to include airsoft advertising in pgi.

And.... if we did have airsoft in pgi, it would mean that we could produce a 'Brit-only' mag in addition to the international version.

Ok, time to flame. Give me your worst.

 

[Flash-Bugout]

Maybe if instead of splitting into an international and a Brit mag, split into a tourney mag and a rec mag.
Glancing through a couple of recent pgi's most of the adverts seem to be showing the tourney side of the sport/game/hobby - obviously the mag is read more by tourney players, but would the current advertisers like to be more associated with airsoft?

Paintball is currently trying it's hardest to be recognised as a legitimate sport, and those of us who play tourneys already have a huge obstacle in the public image of paintball just being wargames, we don't need to be associated with airsoft right now.

Obviously there are commercial decisions to be made, in which I have no say, but I want the tourney side of paintball to be fully legitamised, and recognised for what it is, not held under the shadow of "rambo's, weekend warriors, and wargames" for the rest of time.

(please note, I have nothing against rec-ball, and do not think that rec-ballers are all wannabee mercenaries - after all, it's not to long since the only ball I was playing was "bomb the enemy base" in the woods and I do still marshal rec-days now and then as well)

 

[Inferno]

As long as you have been on these forums, I know you notice people wanting to move from the woods to the supair fields in order to get noticed by the general public as a "real" sport. However, you could argue that this transition might lose some of its edge in the process. It seems that airsoft still has it, and this alone would bring in some readers, who might even start to play paintball. At first thought, including airsoft in the mag would make perfect sense. Especially since advertising, from anyone, helps pay for the magazine. Even so, this inclusion leaves me with a sick feeling. Call it what you want, but I just don't want to read about it in my beloved PGI.

 

[Buddha 3]

Well...

Given the amount of money made in proper firearms, why not put in some ads for those? I'm sure there's a good proportion of 'ballers (particularly in the US) that have a real gun or two at home....

 

[Collier]

Hell yeah put it in PGI, don't read it anymore anyway

Paul.

 

[Billy No Mates]

i personally think the problem arrises from the sport of paintball already being tarnished by a public view of it being a war game.
is the placement of airsoft alongside paintball in a magazine not going to further inflame this problem??

airsoft is seen as a war re-enactment game. with replica weapons, which are prided by how closely the resemble the real things.
does have some players who see it as war enactment, however the greater majority of people see it as a sport and the more i personally get into it the more tourny style play comes out of the sport. not war games.

i dont want to sound like some little kid shooting off his mouth, but we always strive to minimise the comparison to war, and then you want to co-publish a war game (airsoft), and a sport (paintball)

 

[Collier]

Originally posted by Paul_collier
Hell yeah put it in PGI, don't read it anymore anyway

Paul.

But if I did and I was stilla subscriber it'd piss me right off and make me feel that paintball being viewed as a sport had been given a serious set back!

Paul.

 

[Hotpoint]

Originally posted by rancid

So, where do we stand? (Hotpoint, let other people have a say before you kill this off.)

Okay I'll stay out of this one for now... I'm going to love to see what some of the Tourneyball purists have to say before I weigh in with my own brand of idealistic crusading anyway

Only one thing though... who's rattled your cage recently Rancid? You've been even more controversial than the norm of late (which is really freaking saying something)

 

[Fleisher]

Yeah lets have airsoft in PGI,and articles on big shiney knifes,top land mines and reviews on black balaclava helmets .
then again why don't you give `em their own mag ,should sell if its more popular than paintball(which isn't difficult).
It does raise the disturbing question of would paintball be more popular if we still played in woods with camo's etc?

 

[John Molloy]

I have had a go at air soft games and it's a lot of fun however it's not realy tourney oriented, more akin to rec-ball than tourny.
I feel that the inclusion of air soft in PGI would (in the long run) have a detrimental effect on the campaign to get this sport recognised. That is not to say that air soft doesn't have its place, it is just as valid as a fun pastime as rec-ball.

One reason why it is more wide spread than paint ball is its cheaper to get set up initially than P-ball and (sadly(in my opinion )) because it looks more like the real thing. Markers don't (on the whole) look like guns air soft stuff does.

All that aside their is a market for a mag for air soft perhaps on the lines of the more rec oriented apg