Will we shake this image?

[TJ Lambini]

a gun is a gun is a gun, but...

A javelin is no longer a spear (but it is)
A discus is no longer a weapon (but it is)
Boxing, Tae Kwon do, Judo et al are no longer fighting (but they are)

One day, maybe a paintball marker won't be a gun (but it will)

peace

 

[TheRo0sTer]

Originally posted by Duncster
If anyone *EVER* brings up the old "Paintball is just playing soldier" lark, simply point them in the direction of an Airsofting website.

These guys are well over the top!! Their "Weapons" are almost identical replicas of the real things!!

This makes us look like a proper sport, if nothing else does....

Point WELL made Dunc!

 

[SPARKLIE CHICK]

We had a nice change this weekend

One of my regular juniors has just finished saving up for his first marker and was also asked to join the junior team his mum was happy for this, his dad not so he had to get some real good grades, nothing new here.

Bright lad managed to persuade the whole family plus their freinds to come down and play

The real clintcher for me was when bright shinny new marker was chewing O rings and needing fixing there was mum with this evil sparkle in her eye "right lets talk tactics team". You could tell she was sold, hock line and sinker. They all went away happy and had a far better idear what it's all about an even though the supair was not up we explainrd that's what the bare feild was all about and got piccys out.

It will all help eventually, if we can't get the TV coverage then we need to get the people to the tourneys to watch.

I played war as a kid and paintball is nothing like it!

Boxing is fighting but its contrioled and the sport of boxing is not the bear knuckle stuff that still goes on.

It has structure and regulations just like paintball, I suppose we should all be glad paintball started in the states with their more laid back gun laws if it was an eastern block country I dout we would have got this far or mabey not even known about in the first place.

sparklie

 

[Buddha 3]

Hey RePete,

Asking people from the military if paintball looks militaristic will not give you the perception that you are after. Ofcourse a military type person will not think it looks military, because they have far less trouble spotting the differences.

 

[Wookie]

True...

But, I think that the military will see some big similarities and also some big differences between our sport and their job.

One blinding one is that we both use projectile weapons, but we (paintballers) do not really have to watch how and where we shoot (to some extent). We walk on the field with far more ammunition than they do and "waste" an awful lot of it. Also, when we get tagged, we are out and walk off. They don't have that luxury.

Having said that though, some of the tactics are similar, but more so in Woodland games.

The one thing that strikes me about the whole thing is that people come to play because it looks like playing war, but keep playing because it's fun and good excercise. Like a martial art in some ways: The more you play and the further you get in the sport, the less you associate it with violence. Think of how many serious pros play a regular woodland game and how many serious martial artists _want_ to use their art....

Wookie

 

[KillerOnion]

None of the above mentioned things stick out in the public's mind for any other reason than that they haven't personally witnessed paintball being played except for the occasional neighbor or friend going out to rental fields and playing rec ball, which guess what is played in camo in a militaristic fashion. They just don't know better. If woods fields and so forth would STOP GETTING PUBLICITY FOREVER (and to a similar extent scenario games, but hey, some people in here like them so I won't attack them too heavily though I think them to be a sustaining factor of the whole image we don't want to maintain) and tourneys getting mega publicity and extensive marketing, then this perception would be reversed in as little as a year.

No more f@#%ing Disneyball. Show tourney paintball as it is and you rid us of the whole camo and "sniper" image. Period. No contest. Do it.

The best example I've seen first hand was Toulouse last year. We should do exactly what Mr. Hamet did and (hopefully) at least that well for every Millenium and NPPL erm, excuse me, PSP, along with IAO and the like, and the problem will be solved, no ifs ands or buts. This is not at all a complicated matter. Sitting here and making excuses and thinking of problems instead of solutions is what has been done for the last 10 years and that is the sole reason, yes THE SOLE REASON why such has not been done.

 

[Skywalker]

war like

I just like to point out the one thing that gets brought out, ( my point) your more likley to be injured in certains sports ( tae-kwon-do etc) than p8ntball, so who's war like.
My girl friend comes back from her various martial arts classes with HUGE brusies, i think its a matter of public perception and exposure for the sport , i beleive we will gain acceptance in the same way other 'X' sports have. I look forward to that day, but been waiting since i started at 11yrs old. ( now 25)
I think we need to sell it as an entertainment in the same way people go to see ice hockey or football, as we started to make it more viewable with moving away from the camo in the wood, which even when you stood at the tape you still could'nt see anyone, wheres the fun

 

[Duncster]

Sooooooo...are you basically saying we should kill recball? Sorry about the big post, I for one HATE big posts with a passion, but please hear me out here, and read the words........

Personally, I'm a modern tourney player (....at least, that's what I would have people believe...), but I still kinda enjoy playing the odd woodland event (STONE HIM!!), not for the rambo thing, but because it's a whole different way of playing (hands up if you've ever crawled....), and I guess it's where I started off.

Don't diss me.... I'm all for the sport becoming mainstream and gaining a more favourable image in the eyes of the general populace, but don't forget that Paintball won't become mainstream for a good few years yet, and until that time arises, site operators will have to provide *good* woodland sites for "weekend warriors" to play "Hunt the Stag" and "The Medic Game"(!!!) and other such malarky.....

Please note, also, that these veritable 'Nam recreations provide the feeding ground for tourney players, and indeed the vast majority of the income for the industry, without which most of the bigger companies would probably go belly-up and we'd be out in the evening, making the "Megasplatrambomaster Turbo 2010" in our sheds with Blu-tak and Sticky-backed platic and using toilet role tubes as barrells!!

The truth is, my friend, that at this moment in time, and for the admittedly not too distant future, we NEED rec-ball. Besides, I wouldn't really want to lose it in the first place.

The sport is still in it's infancy. We're still bickering about how it should, or shouldn't be played for Dude's sake. However, despite the relatively young age, we're currently putting on full blown Stadium gigs in the likes of Crystal Palace and the Torronto Sky Dome and we're even starting to get some media coverage!!!

Bide your time Grasshopers.....our time will come....and soon....

I for one don't think we need to abolish the trees in favour of the Bouncy Castles.... Both can exist in perfect harmony. Once the latter becomes "big", the former will just appeal to a different audience.....

hmmmmm.....I feel kinda serene after that........

d.

 

[KillerOnion]

The Millenium Series is billed as entertainment, and has achieved a respectable degree of success, godlike success compared to anything in the US. If people weren't too chicken to tell all the anti gun, anti responsibility, liberal slimeball complainers in the US to keep their garbage to themselves and promptly leave the world of the living in a manner least disruptive to the rest of us and not let their pathetic ilk be an influence, such would be an even bigger success story in the US, where people are entertained by ANYTHING. Yes, ANYTHING. NASCAR, for example, where people drive in a circle for 300 laps or more, is a top selling entertainment form. Pathetic? You betcha. The brain rot displayed by that fact is absolutely shaming, and I lament that such occurs in my country.

 

[Duncster]

hmmm...interesting....

....you know, I was gonna use the word "ilk" in my post, coz I kinda liked the sound of it.... but then I realised I didn't know how to spell it....

.......hmmmmm....... a moment of perfect clarity just ran me over in a huge drock-off truck......

d.