If you can get thru this, I'd like some feedback. it's Due in 8hours ... scratch that, 6 hours.
EDIT: I've edited it with the suggestions down to chairchimp saing "make sure you note that you edited your original" so that's with I'm doing
Working title…
Paintball, since it’s inception has -- for some pretty obvious reasons -- had a certain reputation about it. Images of men running around in the woods with guns shooting at each other are often the first thing to come to mind. The other being, “what? Pinball?” The latter not being of any importance, I care to discuss the former. But first, the exposition.
Paintball’s first recorded happening was back in 1981 when a New York Stock broker and a buddy were looking thru various forestry supply catalogues. Presumably doing research on potential stocks, but no one really knows why. In the back of one such catalogue Noel Hayes found a “Nelspot marking pistol” as well as the marking pellets for said marker. The Nelspot was used by the parks service as a quick and easy way to mark trees with a permanent oil based paint. Some how or another this made the man think that it would be a good idea to go out into the woods with a group of people, each armed with a tree marker and hunt each other to see who had the best natural instincts or something like that.
The first game was played over several acres and it was many hours long. There were 12 original players and each one started with their own flag some where out in the designated area. The winner would be the player who could collect the most flags by the end of the allotted time and any players marked by any other player would be eliminated from the game. The winner of the game ended up being a park ranger who ended up not firing a single shot.
After this first day, the players knew that they were on to something marketable and they created the “National Survival Game” (NSG) and began to order as many markers as they could and set up various sites where the game could be played. For the NSG, players would be divided up into two equal teams with one flag on either end of the field. Fields were kept large, and games long. Since the games were played out in the woods, it became quite obvious in the minds of many of the regular players of NSG that wearing camouflage would be advantageous. This however, quickly linked NSG to the paramilitary separatist organizations that were becoming fashionable at the time.
Many people viewed running around in the woods with a gun, wearing camouflage, as a way for these organizations to train their members to kill people. Let me take this opportunity to say for the first time (certainly not the last) -- there have always been crazy people and there will always be crazy people. Just because they participate in a certain activity, does not mean that they will become crazy because of it, but that they were crazy beforehand and the participation in said activity simply stimulated the craziness – thank you.
As we move into the late 80’s and early 90’s there is a trend away from the NSG name that was so predominate in the early days of paintball and to the game simply being called ‘Paintball.’ This is, as a movement of it’s participants to attempt and move away from the “crazy people training for anti American activities in the woods with guns” image that NSG had and more into an attempt at a legitimate game that sane people played for fun. Also coming into popularity at the time were organized tournaments. Games were played on much smaller fields than Paintball’s recreational counterpart and were often much shorter. Teams of 5, 10, or 15 would compete against other teams of the same size in an event to see who was the best. The standard “capture the other teams flag and bring it back to where you started” format was the most widely used, with points being awarded for being the first team to get the other teams flag, for each player from the other team eliminated and for each player on your own team remaining. All the teams would play the same number of games in the tournament with the team that scored the most total points being declared the winner. This is where the “paintball as a sport” idea began to come into popularity among its participants.
Nothing however was done to try and improve the image of paintball to the outside world. In fact this is when teenagers (usually) would drive around using paintball guns to vandalize property and/or torment or assault innocents, often videotaping the crimes for later enjoyment or ease of arrest and conviction.
Here again, I’m saying, crazy people doing crazy things. Not because they played paintball, but because they one, had too much time on their hands. Two, had access to the paintball equipment – many times participants of such acts had never actually played paintball in any organized form. They simply purchased the products in order to wreck havoc. And three, whether they were just crazy and some how were able to justify in their own minds that driving around shooting people who were not in on their little game would be a good idea and/or they were improperly supervised by their parents. Easy examples of similar types of behavior would be, 10 year old children who light stuff on fire because they saw it on MTV’s “Bevis and Butt Head” or children who attempt stunts performed on MTV’s “Jackass” despite the clear and present warnings by the shows not to. Those acts my friend, are simply the product of *excellent* parenting.
But I digress. As we move into the mid to late 90’s we see larger and even more well organized tournaments being put on. The money form said tournaments being provided by companies with in the paintball industry, which has grown to hundreds of millions of dollars a year by this point. So, much like one would go to a Nascar race and see the banners of oil and engine companies along with various other car related products (out side industry excluded) you would see banners and booths and such set up by companies selling anything from the latest and greatest paintball gun to the newest, best paintballs to small upgrades for existing paintball guns. With the exception of in Europe, all of these tournaments were tucked away either at existing paintball sites or built up just for the event on some unused cow pasture in the middle of cow country, no where, USA. Tucked away from the eyes of the public.
So what then is seen by the public is the news cast of teenage vandals running a muck, laughing hysterically at the bicyclist they’ve cornered and proceeded to “light up” with paintballs. Not the internationally run tournament that portrays paintball in a positive light. The news of course, can be blamed for many of the problems in America today. I, personally, don’t want to open that can of worms.
Just recently paintball as an industry has been making an attempt to shed the images of paramilitary yahoo’s running around in the woods shooting each other. The weekend of February 8th 2003 saw host to a paintball event on the sands of Huntington Beach California, Surf City USA. The event took place 20 yards north of the Huntington Beach pier and was visible from the Pacific Coast Highway. For the first time in the United States, non-paintball oriented companies such as Black Fly sunglasses and Fuji Film had trailers on site to hawk their wears. Their first attempt to get a piece of this multi-billion dollar pie.
With the event being held so close to neighborhood businesses frequented by the citizens of Huntington beach and neighboring communities, this was a major test of the maturity of the paintball community. Most who came to visit the HB Pier that weekend were surprised to see the event going on (believe me, I asked most of them myself) and even more surprised to find out that NOTHING had been vandalized by the paintballers and no one had been injured by paint pellets traveling just shy of 200 miles per hour.
I’d like to take this opportunity to throw some numbers out at you. In the number of estimated injuries per 1,000 participants, paintball had the LEAST NUMBER OF INJURIES of all the listed sports. The number of injuries for paintball is less by far than bowling, golf, tennis, archery, basketball, and many other sports. It is the second largest “extreme sport” in the world, skateboarding being number one. There are currently 16 major paintball magazines circulating approximately half a million copies per month. And there are currently over one hundred and twenty colleges and universities that have recognized paintball programs.
Now that I’m done spouting statistics, I’d like to say once again. It’s not a game or a sport that is going to make someone violent. That person must have something in them that makes them willing to go that extra mile. Of the millions of people who watch the Sopranos weekly, only the 2 boys thought it would be a good idea to copy the show and cut off their mothers head and hands to prevent her body from being identified. But the Sopranos shouldn’t be canceled or even forced to change because of the actions of two obviously troubled boys. My need for entertainment, and possibly more importantly my disposable income just wouldn’t have it.
Football (American football, not proper football) has long been a favorite in America. I can’t think of a more violent sport. Players in what is essentially armor smashing into each other, often trying to hurt opponents. But this behavior is widely accepted and in many places encouraged. Madness I tell you. But what comes from playing the sport is easily considered more valuable that the risk taken by the athlete. Teamwork and communication are taught out on the field. Players work together to achieve a common goal. Which in this battle of the gridiron is more like war than paintball.
In many ways, paintball teaches the same values as any other team sport. It places players in a stressful situation and thru the use of negative reinforcement (being tagged with a ball) and positive reinforcement (winning) teaches players to communicate and coordinate with his fellow players. A great deal of hand eye coordination is also required in order to successfully tag an opponent. Many corporations have been using these features that paintball brings to the table for team building outings and the like. Paintball outings have also been used to identify strong leaders; People who are able to coordinate others and function well under stressful situations. Paintball offers a “Safe danger” as it puts its participants into a situation where they must act or face negative reinforcement that is built up by the brain to be more than it really is.
Now it’s true that little Johnny all American kid could sprain his little ankle playing paintball, and I know mom, you’re going to be worried about this. But it’s no more likely to happen playing paintball than it is out on the soccer pitch. And paintball. Unlike AYSO or Pop Warner football, is completely non-contact. Players never come in contact with each other so there’s no spike wearing kid sliding into little Johnny’s knee or flying at him wearing 60 pounds of padding. So set your mind at ease. With paintball the Referees are going to make sure everyone stays safe and keeps their masks (which offer full eye, ear, face and temple protection) on at all times. And that everyone’s barrels are plugged for safety when they’re not on the field being used.
It’s true that there have been some indiscretions made by a few stupid individuals in the past. I’m not denying that. In fact I feel that those people should be dealt with as harshly as possible. Made an example of if you will. I also believe that laws should be stronger in keeping potentially dangerous (if misused) paintball equipment out of the hands of immature minors is a great idea. But to ban paintball out right would be a mistake. Not only because of the entertainment value found in it by hundreds of thousands of participants, but also in the billions of dollars spent on paintball each year.
Not only are kids out side getting fresh air and exercise when they go and play paintball, it also helps keep them off drugs. If not by the values instilled in them, then financially. I started playing before I developed an interest in drugs and I haven’t have the money for drugs since.
There you have it. Does it sound too much like I'm preaching to the quior? Do I have any obvious logicial flaws? Does it jump around too much?
EDIT: Oh and to answer the Popular questions: I'm a 19 year old first year college student writing an infomal argument paper against the banning of paintball.
Thanks.
-Micah
EDIT: I've edited it with the suggestions down to chairchimp saing "make sure you note that you edited your original" so that's with I'm doing
Working title…
Paintball, since it’s inception has -- for some pretty obvious reasons -- had a certain reputation about it. Images of men running around in the woods with guns shooting at each other are often the first thing to come to mind. The other being, “what? Pinball?” The latter not being of any importance, I care to discuss the former. But first, the exposition.
Paintball’s first recorded happening was back in 1981 when a New York Stock broker and a buddy were looking thru various forestry supply catalogues. Presumably doing research on potential stocks, but no one really knows why. In the back of one such catalogue Noel Hayes found a “Nelspot marking pistol” as well as the marking pellets for said marker. The Nelspot was used by the parks service as a quick and easy way to mark trees with a permanent oil based paint. Some how or another this made the man think that it would be a good idea to go out into the woods with a group of people, each armed with a tree marker and hunt each other to see who had the best natural instincts or something like that.
The first game was played over several acres and it was many hours long. There were 12 original players and each one started with their own flag some where out in the designated area. The winner would be the player who could collect the most flags by the end of the allotted time and any players marked by any other player would be eliminated from the game. The winner of the game ended up being a park ranger who ended up not firing a single shot.
After this first day, the players knew that they were on to something marketable and they created the “National Survival Game” (NSG) and began to order as many markers as they could and set up various sites where the game could be played. For the NSG, players would be divided up into two equal teams with one flag on either end of the field. Fields were kept large, and games long. Since the games were played out in the woods, it became quite obvious in the minds of many of the regular players of NSG that wearing camouflage would be advantageous. This however, quickly linked NSG to the paramilitary separatist organizations that were becoming fashionable at the time.
Many people viewed running around in the woods with a gun, wearing camouflage, as a way for these organizations to train their members to kill people. Let me take this opportunity to say for the first time (certainly not the last) -- there have always been crazy people and there will always be crazy people. Just because they participate in a certain activity, does not mean that they will become crazy because of it, but that they were crazy beforehand and the participation in said activity simply stimulated the craziness – thank you.
As we move into the late 80’s and early 90’s there is a trend away from the NSG name that was so predominate in the early days of paintball and to the game simply being called ‘Paintball.’ This is, as a movement of it’s participants to attempt and move away from the “crazy people training for anti American activities in the woods with guns” image that NSG had and more into an attempt at a legitimate game that sane people played for fun. Also coming into popularity at the time were organized tournaments. Games were played on much smaller fields than Paintball’s recreational counterpart and were often much shorter. Teams of 5, 10, or 15 would compete against other teams of the same size in an event to see who was the best. The standard “capture the other teams flag and bring it back to where you started” format was the most widely used, with points being awarded for being the first team to get the other teams flag, for each player from the other team eliminated and for each player on your own team remaining. All the teams would play the same number of games in the tournament with the team that scored the most total points being declared the winner. This is where the “paintball as a sport” idea began to come into popularity among its participants.
Nothing however was done to try and improve the image of paintball to the outside world. In fact this is when teenagers (usually) would drive around using paintball guns to vandalize property and/or torment or assault innocents, often videotaping the crimes for later enjoyment or ease of arrest and conviction.
Here again, I’m saying, crazy people doing crazy things. Not because they played paintball, but because they one, had too much time on their hands. Two, had access to the paintball equipment – many times participants of such acts had never actually played paintball in any organized form. They simply purchased the products in order to wreck havoc. And three, whether they were just crazy and some how were able to justify in their own minds that driving around shooting people who were not in on their little game would be a good idea and/or they were improperly supervised by their parents. Easy examples of similar types of behavior would be, 10 year old children who light stuff on fire because they saw it on MTV’s “Bevis and Butt Head” or children who attempt stunts performed on MTV’s “Jackass” despite the clear and present warnings by the shows not to. Those acts my friend, are simply the product of *excellent* parenting.
But I digress. As we move into the mid to late 90’s we see larger and even more well organized tournaments being put on. The money form said tournaments being provided by companies with in the paintball industry, which has grown to hundreds of millions of dollars a year by this point. So, much like one would go to a Nascar race and see the banners of oil and engine companies along with various other car related products (out side industry excluded) you would see banners and booths and such set up by companies selling anything from the latest and greatest paintball gun to the newest, best paintballs to small upgrades for existing paintball guns. With the exception of in Europe, all of these tournaments were tucked away either at existing paintball sites or built up just for the event on some unused cow pasture in the middle of cow country, no where, USA. Tucked away from the eyes of the public.
So what then is seen by the public is the news cast of teenage vandals running a muck, laughing hysterically at the bicyclist they’ve cornered and proceeded to “light up” with paintballs. Not the internationally run tournament that portrays paintball in a positive light. The news of course, can be blamed for many of the problems in America today. I, personally, don’t want to open that can of worms.
Just recently paintball as an industry has been making an attempt to shed the images of paramilitary yahoo’s running around in the woods shooting each other. The weekend of February 8th 2003 saw host to a paintball event on the sands of Huntington Beach California, Surf City USA. The event took place 20 yards north of the Huntington Beach pier and was visible from the Pacific Coast Highway. For the first time in the United States, non-paintball oriented companies such as Black Fly sunglasses and Fuji Film had trailers on site to hawk their wears. Their first attempt to get a piece of this multi-billion dollar pie.
With the event being held so close to neighborhood businesses frequented by the citizens of Huntington beach and neighboring communities, this was a major test of the maturity of the paintball community. Most who came to visit the HB Pier that weekend were surprised to see the event going on (believe me, I asked most of them myself) and even more surprised to find out that NOTHING had been vandalized by the paintballers and no one had been injured by paint pellets traveling just shy of 200 miles per hour.
I’d like to take this opportunity to throw some numbers out at you. In the number of estimated injuries per 1,000 participants, paintball had the LEAST NUMBER OF INJURIES of all the listed sports. The number of injuries for paintball is less by far than bowling, golf, tennis, archery, basketball, and many other sports. It is the second largest “extreme sport” in the world, skateboarding being number one. There are currently 16 major paintball magazines circulating approximately half a million copies per month. And there are currently over one hundred and twenty colleges and universities that have recognized paintball programs.
Now that I’m done spouting statistics, I’d like to say once again. It’s not a game or a sport that is going to make someone violent. That person must have something in them that makes them willing to go that extra mile. Of the millions of people who watch the Sopranos weekly, only the 2 boys thought it would be a good idea to copy the show and cut off their mothers head and hands to prevent her body from being identified. But the Sopranos shouldn’t be canceled or even forced to change because of the actions of two obviously troubled boys. My need for entertainment, and possibly more importantly my disposable income just wouldn’t have it.
Football (American football, not proper football) has long been a favorite in America. I can’t think of a more violent sport. Players in what is essentially armor smashing into each other, often trying to hurt opponents. But this behavior is widely accepted and in many places encouraged. Madness I tell you. But what comes from playing the sport is easily considered more valuable that the risk taken by the athlete. Teamwork and communication are taught out on the field. Players work together to achieve a common goal. Which in this battle of the gridiron is more like war than paintball.
In many ways, paintball teaches the same values as any other team sport. It places players in a stressful situation and thru the use of negative reinforcement (being tagged with a ball) and positive reinforcement (winning) teaches players to communicate and coordinate with his fellow players. A great deal of hand eye coordination is also required in order to successfully tag an opponent. Many corporations have been using these features that paintball brings to the table for team building outings and the like. Paintball outings have also been used to identify strong leaders; People who are able to coordinate others and function well under stressful situations. Paintball offers a “Safe danger” as it puts its participants into a situation where they must act or face negative reinforcement that is built up by the brain to be more than it really is.
Now it’s true that little Johnny all American kid could sprain his little ankle playing paintball, and I know mom, you’re going to be worried about this. But it’s no more likely to happen playing paintball than it is out on the soccer pitch. And paintball. Unlike AYSO or Pop Warner football, is completely non-contact. Players never come in contact with each other so there’s no spike wearing kid sliding into little Johnny’s knee or flying at him wearing 60 pounds of padding. So set your mind at ease. With paintball the Referees are going to make sure everyone stays safe and keeps their masks (which offer full eye, ear, face and temple protection) on at all times. And that everyone’s barrels are plugged for safety when they’re not on the field being used.
It’s true that there have been some indiscretions made by a few stupid individuals in the past. I’m not denying that. In fact I feel that those people should be dealt with as harshly as possible. Made an example of if you will. I also believe that laws should be stronger in keeping potentially dangerous (if misused) paintball equipment out of the hands of immature minors is a great idea. But to ban paintball out right would be a mistake. Not only because of the entertainment value found in it by hundreds of thousands of participants, but also in the billions of dollars spent on paintball each year.
Not only are kids out side getting fresh air and exercise when they go and play paintball, it also helps keep them off drugs. If not by the values instilled in them, then financially. I started playing before I developed an interest in drugs and I haven’t have the money for drugs since.
There you have it. Does it sound too much like I'm preaching to the quior? Do I have any obvious logicial flaws? Does it jump around too much?
EDIT: Oh and to answer the Popular questions: I'm a 19 year old first year college student writing an infomal argument paper against the banning of paintball.
Thanks.
-Micah
