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Anti-coagulating bellend stabbing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Duncster

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Jul 7, 2001
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Ahaaa.....got your attention didn't it!!!!???!!

This post has nothing to do with genital piercings ("ALAS!", I hear you cry...), I'm probably about 6 months out of date in the whole 'scene' thang. Been hiding, and making mini-me's and stuff....so please hang with me here....

OK, most people seem to be dead keen on getting Our Beloved Sport accepted by the media, the sports federations of the world, and, ultimately, the public, as a "proper" mainstream sport alongside the likes of basketball, soccer, rugby, etc.. Has anyone ACTUALLY thought about the implications of this??

I'm probably VERY out of date here, but I've heard that in the US, u can actually walk into your local supermarket and buy a low-end marker striaght off the shelf, along with your CO2 and paintballs. Am I alone in thinking that this is a wee bit too much like tempting fate?? I mean, as kids growing up in a rural area, me and my friends used to go around with catapaults, and once in a while boys will be boys and take a shot at another.... If an uneducated mother gets pestered enough by her sons to buy them a pair of Talon pump's, it's only gonna be a matter of time before an eye gets shot out.

Before you say I'm being a bit on the paranoid side here, please think about it....I was a pretty normal kid (..ish...), but when some other kid brought a hard-air pistol into school one day, we spent a whole lunch hour in the CDT workshop shooting cans off of each others heads from the other end of a 40-foot room!!! Imagine if paintball became as big as everyone wants it to get, kids all over the world would be crying out for the latest new "Blast-tastic, Super-Splatomatic 2002" paintball marker. Let's face it, it'd be a hell of alot cooler than the latest Nike Air trainers!! And parents would buy them! It's just a posh pee-shooter isn't it?

I guess what this post all comes down to is the simple question: Does everyone actually want the sport to get THAT big so quickly?? It's kind of a nice size just now...but growing VERY fast!

We need to learn (FAST!) how to control the safety aspect, or we'll all lose Our Beloved Sport to a simple, uneducated government ruling. Hell, Paintball is *STILL* seen as a wargame. Even in it's flashy colours and bouncy bunkers, we're still shooting eachother with what can only be classified as guns...sorry, but it's the truth!!

Besides, do you really want Tyger and his posse of rec-ballers to say "I told you so?"..hehe...

Over to you....

PS. Full-On are about to be relaunched....watch this space.....

Luv and Hugz,
Dunc.
 
Manning26

Manning26

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Hey Duncster, those guns sold in our local stores have goggles in the kit. On top of that they've got the literature inside, stressing safety. It's up to the parents after that. You definitely have a valid concern though, atleast at the fields you have constant supervision, but these kids buying this stuff could be any age, and playing anywhere.Very scary, but I've yet to hear any horror stories since they've become so available.:(
 
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Duncster

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Cheers for that info Manning

It's just that there are only really two issues regarding the success of the sport.

No 1, the acceptance of the sport as a *sport* (yawn)
No 2, the saftey aspect not getting out of hand and getting our hard-earned sport killed before it gets started.

BUT, the other thing I was thinking....

Imagine if the sport of Paintball does make it big, and the saftey aspect was all sorted, and everyone in the world loved it, wouldn't that make it less exclusive? I mean, I enjoyed taking part in Campaign Cup (last year...missed out this year :( ), I felt as though I was part of something special and was getting my arse spanked by the best players in the world, and I loved every second of it!, but if the sport went mainstream, that would all stop unless I was amongst the best. and I'm not.

I was looking forward to being able to take part in the World Cup one day, but by the time I'm there I'll be nothing better than the equivalent Sunday Soccer league Pub team player (no offense guys!)

I think I know why people are so desperate for Paintball to be accepted by the masses, it's simple. I was the same. When people ask us what sports we play, and we say "Paintball", they go "riiiiiggggghhhttt.....okaaayyyy....." and look at us kinda funny. Is it important? As long as you're playing the game and loving it, does it matter?

I'm not suggesting that this is the way I feel about the subject, but it's an interesting thought.....

d.
 
Buddha 3

Buddha 3

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Valid points. I now we all like to feel special, or part of an 'elite' (oh, never mind him.....he's 'special' :p )
But consider this; if paintball somehow goes 'pop' (mainstream), that would mean that all the stuff we use is purchased by a far larger number of people. Which in turn would mean that the 'fixed' costs of things like research and development will be split over a far greater number of items sold. Let's say a company spent, I dunno, erm....$500.000 on developing a new marker. If they sell 1.000 copies of this marker, that means that the price of each marker will be $500 (500.000/1.000) plus manufacturing costs, plus profit. Now, if they would sell 10.000 of these babies, the price would be $50 plus man. plus profit. You've just saved $450! This would not only apply to the cost of markers, but to everything! Paintballs, hoppers, whatever! If all the companies would be able to spread their fixed costs (R&D, rent for their facilities, and so on) over a lot more items sold, you would be able to play more often, because it would be cheaper! So you might just end up as one of the top players :D .
However, I don't see this utopian image happening real soon. It's (amongst other things) the cost that's keeping people off paintballing. So in order to make it easier for people to pick up paintballing, companies should make a price drop, but that would mean they might just go tits-up, because at the moment they can't afford to do that, and even if it would become a lot cheaper to play p'ball, people might still not pick it up! Which would spell certain doom for every company that lowered their prices in order to draw more customers.
Therefor I think that the transition of paintball from underground to mainstream would have to be a slow, but steady one. But once it gets going, we'll see if paintball turns out to be a juggernaut on a roll, or if it forever will remain that game played by 'gun totin good ol boyz wot shoot eachuvva wif paint'.
 
Buddha 3

Buddha 3

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Me too, I didn't mean I'm not. It's just that I don't see it happening. The reason paintball won't get any cheaper soon, is because it's expensive right now! (Am I making any sense......:confused: ,that was one weirdass line....)
Then again, I'm not for $50 Angels, since I already got one. However $50 tricked out cockers though........with $7 Boomsticks......Yummy........
 
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