Mainstream acceptance of paintball is still a long way off

[Mark]

A short while ago in an issue of PGI a small piece of editorial mentioned the "effect" that "Hunting for Bambi" has had regarding the understanding of Paintball to the wide world (yes we now know HFB was hoax but the damage has been done) I have just bought the current issue of .NET a computing magazine ( www.netmag.co.uk ) and found an article I will reproduce below as I couldn't find it online..must be as it is the current issue? Read all of it closely and not what you think you read, it is paintball related.

9/11: the game

NEW UNREAL MOD IS GUARANTEED TO OFFEND

>> A new mod for Unreal is causing controversy by putting you in the shoes of someone trying to escape the World Trade Centre on 11 September. the developers - whose site is currently down - explain: "9-11 Survivour is a game project that examines the role of media in our culture..[and] raises questions regarding how and why popular media forms, such as games and movies deal with tragedy, conflict and violence."
The developers' justification sounds like self-serving guff, but the unreleased mod has indeed sparked discussion about whether 9/11 is a suitable subject for video games - and if it isn't, whether it's acceptable to play hypher-real war games based on real events.
However, some Net users have rather different opinions on the mod. As one poster put it: "It'd be better if you got a paintball gun and there were big breated naked 'bambis' running through the burning wreckage"

>>CLICK HERE
URL removed (it is in the mag if you really want it I was being fair by replicating the entire article )

Now thats the article and I agree with the idea that Sept 11th isn't a good subject for a video game but then the arguement "could" be applied to many war based sim games but each to their own...but the fact of a Paintball quote in the same subject and the Bambi reference just goes to show that we have a long way to go until mainstream understanding of our "sport" is achieved.

 

[JoseDominguez]

you are entirely right mark..........I don't want to threadjack........ but do you have the addy for the mod website? as I'm truly offended by that...I'd like to organise some highly irritating e-mail activity for them. Truly disgusting, then we get dragged into it too.

 

[ChiZZerS]

if you send an argumentertive email
they just wont read it.....

 

[JoseDominguez]

their ISP will though, and as they are modders........a vast amount of promised help with skins etc..... that never materialises will cause them lots of problems

 

[ices]

Why do people keep on seeing every tiny bit of a negative view towards paintball as a disaster?
WOW it was in the newspaper...sure but i doubt that it would be remembered over the other information in that article dont you?

The poster who was quoted is stating his own opinion, so what let him state it, not everyone will know what hes on about.

Paintball has a long way to go before it is mainstream but do you think these opnions wont exists when it is?
Take football for example, a lot of women think its a stupid pointless game, men say this too.(no really)

They see football as a reason to cause damage on a mass scale and even death yet does football take a hammering?
No.

I think baseball as a sport sucks, so what?
My opnion, yet Bb is mainstream isnt it?

This was in 'The Express' newspaper but i didnt see the bambi reference, possibly because it wasnt important enough, possibly a waste of print to them or it wasnt "hyped" enough to be put in the article.

I would be more concerned about the mentality of the game makers than the bambi quote, wouldnt you?

 

[Mark]

Ices you have missed the point...the 9/11 tie up is way wrong anyhow but as put in print in PGI (I didn't quote it as I figured it had been read by all) but the guist of the PGI article was that when some paintballers went to check in for a flight they said we play paintball and the check in staff member said "oh HFB" now if the general person in the street sees us a wannabe hunters any references to paintball and HFB is always going to negative. Sure some positive results have happened, Transworld Sports and news bullitins and to some extent They think its all over (I say to some extent because I find it as portrayed on that programme as not the greatest thing they could have done despite Jonathon Ross probably needing to be shot on the arse). I would sooner no-one had any idea what I do for fun rather than jump to conclusions. The Express and just about every major newspaper carried the Bambi story...so thats what I am saying the damage has been done...it was a case of in so far as another fortunately small article was perpetuating the myth...I could be accused of perpetuating it as well but as this is a paintball forum no outsider is going to be under any illusions as to what this forum and main website is about.

 

[TacticalMayhem]

Okay a little interest raised my eyebrow for a moment here...

I once did maps for Serious Sam the game parts 1 and 2 and was <---- WAS creating a mod that caused some attention that was not wanted. But at the end of the day a Mod is an add-on for a game and cannot really be stopped by any one. As it simply is some one doing it at home for free and is not for commercial sale.

Now what you may find has happened is that one every one herd about the mod being made the web site would have been hammered with complaints and his ISP would have picked up on this and then ripped the web site off there servers.

Chances are this mod may still get released and will hit the Internet in the Warez scene even bigger then thought of in the first place because it is controversial content. Once again this is human nature taking its course and once again an outrage has been caused. If no one talked about it, and no one did any thing about it, then the mod would just fade away into the forbidden darkness of Flops!!!

Things like this will always come around look at World War 1 and 2 I don’t here any one complain about haw many Germans were shot or how many English were shot when they makes games like 1942 and many others. Look at the Films esp. the USA there always making heroes out of people who really are just murders and killers on a high and what do the public do they go a watch them.

Every one always say’s Paint balling is brought into a bad light because of bad press well every sport is brought into light through one sort of press or another. You cannot just have good press. You cannot have your cake and eat it at the same time.

 

[JoseDominguez]

not bothered, I'm personaly offended by a 9/11 mod for the game and would like to stop it......... that's my opinion.... I don't feel it's something that should be made. There are still 5 year old kids who's parents died there and bodies that haven't been identified..........a little soon don't you think? In time (a long time) it will become something "historical" but now it's still just a horrific tragic massacre. Yes there are WW2 games, but I don't see anyone rushing out to make Sim-Belsen do you?
BF1942, counterstrike etc... are no different to what kids have done since we got the opposable thumb..... kids play soldiers (and we are just big kids). When I was 12 we had the Falklands, kids played at soldiers, my dad did the same at the end of WW2, but I never wanted to play "escape from the burning Sir Galahad".

Oh, and I believe you just called US servicemen murderers and killers on a high. Brace yourself.

 

[headrock6]

Originally posted by JoseDominguez


Oh, and I believe you just called US servicemen murderers and killers on a high. Brace yourself.

Its become the norm Jose..Sorta getting used to it by now..But as not to threadjack

I may be a little biased but a 9/11 mod is dispicable and in no way compareable to war games that have and will always end up on game systems..Can anyone name me one war game where the enemy doesn't get to shoot back?? Maybe this guys next mod will be to avoid bombs placed tactically by IRA members..Or how to escape a Bali nightclub before terrorists get you..Maybe even 3000 Iraqi's dodging errant US bombs..Either way,theres no comparison to modern day war games so lets get that out of the systems now..Point is,innocent civilians dying and playing Ikari Warriors on Nintendo are just a tad bit different..The opening pic on the website has a guy freefalling from the burning towers and this is educational how??


To the original point...Doesn't anyone think that as long as markers are made,no matter what thier intended use,someone will always use them for ill purposes and will always somehow manage to give us bad press until mainstream finally hits??To be honest,it's up to US to keep doing what were doing in regards to promoting paintball safely because no one else will..We don't have the advantage of TV yet and until we do,were the only one's who will take the flak for peoples stupidity or ignorance..The only thing you can do is keep explaining to as many people as possible our wonderful world of paintball and everything it brings to the table..The Hunting For Bambi thing would have been a complete joke had Dick Clark or the Gravity Games had come calling a few years earlier but we have to make do with whats given to us..Just thank god that HFB got more press than maniacs doing drivebys,gang bangers returning live fire for being shot at by hooligans with markers,and people assaulting each other on the streets with markers..And HFB will the least of our worries if someone decides to go an a Holy Crusade about the much worse incidents I mentioned above..TV can't get here quite fast enough

 

[TacticalMayhem]

when i sort my sellping out ill post a good response to it but my mind is out of it atm.