expanding our sport?

[radishboy]

ok, everyone says that they're glad that paintball is "expanding", with more people playing and paintball being on TV and what not. i personally like paintball just how it is. i like being in the small group of kids who play paintball at school, i like wearing my dye hoody and only a select group of people know what it means. its like skate boarding.skate boarding exploded in the past few years, 90% of the population probably owns a skateboard, even if they cant skate. and what happens? it gets banned. everywhere. i cant think of a place that doesn't have a "no skateboarding" sign somewhere on their property. i say the smaller paintball is, the safer paintball is, and i think right now its just the right size. i don't really know why i made this thread, i guess it just dawned on me. in order to make this thread not totally useless, i guess i'll just throw the generic "so, what do you think?" at the end

[PartySquirrel]

i actually do like the "elite" few vibe of paintball, knowing insanely too much on how things work (the mechanics of paintball teach you about other things too) and you cant be a wuss and play... got lit up yesterday huge bruise on my neck, i hate getting bunkered...

[Mc Turd Implode]

Hear hear!I agree we should keep paintball to a select few.History has taught us time and time again stupid people ruin everything.Everything.Video games.Beavis and Butthead.Existance.Just a few things the mass has already ruined,and the day i see every other richie,dumb,sexually repressed 14 year old with a autococker,its time i drink a case and go on a rampage in the race mart with a claymore dressed only in a kilt.Every poser with a paintball gun,my blood boils just thinking of it...........fortunatly,paintballs flying at 270 fps tend to sting(particuraly in winter) and most jabroni's would rather do what MTV tells them to do rather than going through the effort of upgrafing or getting thier painball tolerance up(Everybody loves super swirls to the neck!).

[Cadet2005]

I agree but disagree at the same time. Paintball needs to expand, BUT unlike skateboarding and so on, it cannot afford to lose that sub-culture that sets it apart. I think it is good to have lots of people playing, it opens the sport to new advancements and ideologies and so forth, but I think that those players who do play must keep the individuality of the sport alive once the world begins to assimilate it and attempt to "pacify" or "codify" it.

[Alexi1337]

Let's keep in mind that PB isn't for everyone. I don't know if I agree with the 'keep it small' attitude, because there's always going to be that core group of guys at the field who know each other by name and can sniff out 95% of the BS that the newbies and posers produce. All it takes is to get lit up once after you talk trash and can't back it up for you to realize that you are either going to

A) Quit paintball
B) Work and practice and eventually become a core member

And its good for the field (at least the field I go to, its small and in a rural area, so there are usually just the core members out there anyways) to get money from newbies.

[Blacksheep]

I sorta agree, I liked the underground idea of how it was when I was in middle school. Nobody knew what the heck it was and we were "outcasts" etc. Then it boomed and in high school, everyone knew what paintball was, or a lot of people, but not many played so it was still exclusive. Now, everyone I know has played once.

[Hoplon]

Originally posted by radishboy
its like skate boarding.skate boarding exploded in the past few years, 90% of the population probably owns a skateboard, even if they cant skate. and what happens? it gets banned. everywhere. i cant think of a place that doesn't have a "no skateboarding" sign somewhere on their property.

That's for safety reasons. If you bunker each other in the wall mart parking lot then you will start to see no paintballing signs up too.

The larger the sport becomes the safer it is actually. The more people understand what paintball is about the harder it would be to ban it. Not to mention the fact that paintball companies would be able to afford better lawyers.

I doubt paintball will be outlawed. When you see bbguns and airsoft banned then start to worry. You might live to see the day that you have to be 18 or older to own a paintball gun though.

[Laue]

The key phrase is paintball isnt for everyone. Because its not. Not everyone can afford to play paintball. Paintball gets really expensive. And some kids cant take it. I've seen people who just dont like to be hit. Paintball can hurt and some people dont like to get hurt. Paintball will grow but it will always be a small community. Thats the way I see it.

[LAMANTEthePBguy]

I like being in a small group of pple who know what it is, but i do see the need to expand. The only thing is i hate it when people join and give it a bad name. Some loser in school is always talking about it and then people become predjudice and label all paintballers to be bad pple, to the point where youre ashamed to play.

[radishboy]

Originally posted by Hoplon


That's for safety reasons. If you bunker each other in the wall mart parking lot then you will start to see no paintballing signs up too...

i didn't literally mean seeing "no paintball signs", i meant that the more people that start to get into something, (something that can be used for vandalizing especially) the more idiots there are that will break the rules, and the more people that break the rules, the better chance there is that restrictions will be put on it; which is something that none of us want.

[Blacksheep]

Why Wal-Mart is a mixed blessing.

Great, gets people into the sport, bad is for $20.00 you can have a marker and vandilize. We need a balance.

I just never understood what was so fun about vandilizing things unless it was TP...

[Cadet2005]

Let me give you a little heads-up: when soembody vandalizes, they look at the cause, not that which is used. If that were the case, do you think minors could buy baseball bats? How about toilet paper? There would be MANY more regulations, it isn't what is used as vandalism, it is the user that is questioned.

Don't believe me, read a sociology text, you will find that the manner in which deviance is committed is irrelevant, it matters why the deviance was committed. Besides, vandalism is a misdemeanor offense and more than likely you won't see the world rise up with their pitchfork and lantern over it.

[punk1o1]

ya i like the idea of having it small too, ya getting it bigger has its advantages but overall keeping it smaller is more fun for the rest of us

[camoman5000]

I like how in our school only like 6 of my friends and I actually paintball, everybody seems to be impressed with us because they are eager to learn more about this "alien" sport. I like the idea of expanding, but not too much. Last year I showed one popular dumb kid a welt from a paintball, and this year he and his friends have loaded up his Jeep with Talons and Spyders, and now go around harrassing us players. I like the idea of expansion, I just wish we could limit it to the guys that are actually willing to be nice and play by the rules, instead of a bunch of hippies with money getting a few laughs, the bizatches.