Paintball?!

[PhillipR34]

Hi, so I went paintballing today for the first time and well...I was disappointed. I thought that there must have been a reason why some people choose it over airsoft, but having tried it I simply can not see why? (I'll not go list reasons as you'll probably already know). I was just wondering if any of you guys out there know anyone who does paintball and why?

[toanjuice]

Lack of sense

[Monty]

I don't play paintball because it's expensive and some of the people I've met while playing paintball are rude/arrogant. I had a kid come up to me and cuss at me because I tagged him a few times.

None of my friends play paintball because of similar experiences.

[Lordanem]

I don't play paintball because it's expensive and some of the people I've met while playing paintball are rude/arrogant. I had a kid come up to me and cuss at me because I tagged him a few times.

None of my friends play paintball because of similar experiences.

I have had a similar experience this is why I have started getting into airsoft

[SheriffHD]

I play paintball a fair amount. depends on the season. its a jock game I guess.
You have those who like the more tacical feel and use megfed or tac cap markers. they play well.

 

then you have the COD guys who think they are the bomb run about as fast as they can spraying hundrends of rounds as they can and roid rage after every pod or every time they get hit.

 

For me though, i rather airsoft due to funding. I go balling less and less this year as its just to expensive.

[bigshep]

Advertising. Paintball is advertised everywhere. There are hard sell teams in shopping centres, universities and the like. It is aimed at kids birthday parties, stag do's and so on. My son wanted to go, but was too young for airsofting, so we went paintballing. The site was clean, well set up, the games were short, but quick and there were around 800 people there. That site brought in nigh on £32,000 that day, just based upon our expenditure, which was quite low to be honest (about £40 per head). If airsoft sites want to get this big, then there has to be some sort of aggressive advertising campaign, which would involve a lot of money, which most sites just don't have. So it relies on growing slowly, word of mouth and staying under the radar as for some reason it seems that running around the woods with a gun that looks real is somehow undermining society, whereas running around the woods covering each other in paint, does not.

[Bottledtorment]

Advertising. Paintball is advertised everywhere. There are hard sell teams in shopping centres, universities and the like. It is aimed at kids birthday parties, stag do's and so on. My son wanted to go, but was too young for airsofting, so we went paintballing. The site was clean, well set up, the games were short, but quick and there were around 800 people there. That site brought in nigh on £32,000 that day, just based upon our expenditure, which was quite low to be honest (about £40 per head). If airsoft sites want to get this big, then there has to be some sort of aggressive advertising campaign, which would involve a lot of money, which most sites just don't have. So it relies on growing slowly, word of mouth and staying under the radar as for some reason it seems that running around the woods with a gun that looks real is somehow undermining society, whereas running around the woods covering each other in paint, does not.

Here ! Here!

[QuadMachine]

Advertising. Paintball is advertised everywhere. There are hard sell teams in shopping centres, universities and the like. It is aimed at kids birthday parties, stag do's and so on. My son wanted to go, but was too young for airsofting, so we went paintballing. The site was clean, well set up, the games were short, but quick and there were around 800 people there. That site brought in nigh on £32,000 that day, just based upon our expenditure, which was quite low to be honest (about £40 per head). If airsoft sites want to get this big, then there has to be some sort of aggressive advertising campaign, which would involve a lot of money, which most sites just don't have. So it relies on growing slowly, word of mouth and staying under the radar as for some reason it seems that running around the woods with a gun that looks real is somehow undermining society, whereas running around the woods covering each other in paint, does not.

Couldn't agree more.

 

When describing airsoft to those that haven't come across it, I frequently lose people when they ask "How do you prove you hit someone", and the answer is always, "You can't" Then I mention honesty and marshals etc but this lack of plausible accountability seams to diminish the game when describing it. The paint in paintball is it's saving grace, as the uninitiated don't have to make any mental leaps when imagining themselves playing it.

[Triplespeed]

Speaking from experience in paintball you cannot prove you have hit someone if they have wiped it - who can prove they had not wiped it off after going out?

But paintball is expensive with a box if 2000 balls coming in at about £30 at events you easily get through a couple of boxes and in addition to a typical £50 entrance fee it can start to become costly. But each to their own and if you can afford it why not.

For myself I left paintball due to no local sites,cost and the amount of time I could commit just wasn't working out

[SheriffHD]

Yeah at events the cost of ammo isnt bad, its the local sites that get you. they charge £50 per 1000balls. making a tidy profit of about £70 per 2000box of ammo. but its the only way they get their money really as alot of sites now days will charge pittance for walk on fee just so that they can get people to use their ammo.

 

I think the only way airsoft will grow is from all the paintball players who dont like all the money they are spending on their paintball games.

 

But I do like to say that all football/rugby thing about paintball and airsoft.

 

Paintball is a game for men, played by boys, while airsoft is a game for boys played by men.

[adam bussey]

maybe we (as in the forum) could do a community advertising campaign?

[TPI]

I came to this thread expecting to see a Majority Bitching & Moaning

 

I Saw it i Sighed because i've been saying this the whole time Airsofter's Whine & Moan about Paintballers but Paintballers rairely bother to whine moan or be a little bitch about airsoft

 

I Go Play Speedball (Thanks Sheriff i Love you too you Big Goat!) i play it because i had a Team and thoroughly enjoy showing off and the pain when someone rarely charges and gets me from -2M great fun especially getting Bounce's of your hand and into your mask!

 

And i PLAY every 3 Week's!

 

I Play airsoft because it look's more realistic the guns the kit

 

i Also regularly go Play every Month

 

Get this though I can go to a Paintball Field with which none of them Bitch & Moan about airsoft maybe the Price of Ball's but never walk on fee (Shock Horror it's £20!) and they Prefer you to bring your own Ball's so they have more than enough for rental's!* (We can chew through the stuff like it's bubblegum FFS!)

 

*They usually choose to go off and play woodsball!

 

i go to an Airsoft field People bitch & Moan about a LOT of things mostly Paintball, Kit, New Guy's & Cheat's

 

I Jump on a Paintball forum anywhere nobody moan's about airsofting not even the Hyper realistic Mag Fed guy's! they do about cheats, Price of buying balls in less than 100,000 though

 

I Jump on Airsoft forums around the Globe Geuss what Whineing, Bitching & Moaning! about? yup all of the above!

 

I've had my usual Splurge on that bit so Campaining anyone?

 

Shop's could easily pay for Jumper's shirts or hats which have their name or logo on (I Fcuking have 2 Different team Hoodie's that Clearly say Airsoft & Paintball Team Admittedly they are my own team's though ) and advertise airsoft Hell start Wear your Forum Patch outside when your not softing (In More civvie friendly clothing though you dingbat's!) I Do it comes off my Helmet and onto my Jacket! it's that hard!

[cdog9800]

I've been paintballing a couple of times and its very frustrating:

 

 

1. You cannot bring any paintballs onto the site that aren't the site brand

2. I got a good number of faulty guns

3. I got shot in the arse by a 9 year old from one or two meters away. Which really hurt.

[TacMaster]

I've been paintballing a few times, and what really stings me is the cost. Not just the walk on, as craig said it may differ massively between sites, however the smaller airsoft sites tend to be around the £20-£30 marker, usually no more unless you're 'softing at any of the bigger sites like the Mall, or Bunker 51 etc. the site I was at charged me £40 for a walk on with a mask (it wasn't even a good site anyway). I only had about 200 paintballs there because they were about £20 per 100, and I had to borrow £30 off my uncle to pay for most of them.

The site hire guns were rubbish as well, and worse than an airsoft site's hire guns usually are. I've never seen site AEGs malfunction too badly, however the paintball gun I was given immediately malfunctioned and I think the sear or something broke (these guns were locked to semi, and the weapon started firing in full auto and wouldn't stop)

Either way it's down to preference and thickness of wallet, however saying that people on this thread are bitching is a massive exaggeration. I mentioned to one of the guys at the site I went to that I was an airsofter and I immediately started to get dirty looks and remarks behind my back, so it does indeed happen on both sides.

[sp00n]

i have not been paintballing in 5+ years now, for 2 reasons

 

1)my local site closed down (really suddenly, just disappeared over night)

2)the cost of paint balls, iirc i was paying £10 per 100, or £70 for a box of 1000

 

paintball it is alot more well known than airsoft (never heard of any skirmishes until this year, and i have had bb guns for 13 years!), but that might be for a few factors, like not attracting the plods attention etc

 

If its a question of popularity, i think the answer is just the speed at which painball spread through the country (i am talking about back in the 90's), and the fact that its so well know now, so most people assume airsoft is paintball.

[TPI]

I've been paintballing a couple of times and its very frustrating:

 

 

1. You cannot bring any paintballs onto the site that aren't the site brand

2. I got a good number of faulty guns

3. I got shot in the arse by a 9 year old from one or two meters away. Which really hurt.

1. Where do you Play because they are in the minority of sites! especially worthwhile one's!

2. Return it and don't buy the Cheap Chinese Shite

3. i got shot in the hand from the other side of a Knuckle by a 26 Year old! shot in the hand by an U18 at an airsoft site (While entering THE SAFE ZONE) aswell as received a Full Auto burst to the face while playing

 

I've been paintballing a few times, and what really stings me is the cost. Not just the walk on, as craig said it may differ massively between sites, however the smaller airsoft sites tend to be around the £20-£30 marker, usually no more unless you're 'softing at any of the bigger sites like the Mall, or Bunker 51 etc. the site I was at charged me £40 for a walk on with a mask (it wasn't even a good site anyway). I only had about 200 paintballs there because they were about £20 per 100, and I had to borrow £30 off my uncle to pay for most of them.

The site hire guns were rubbish as well, and worse than an airsoft site's hire guns usually are. I've never seen site AEGs malfunction too badly, however the paintball gun I was given immediately malfunctioned and I think the sear or something broke (these guns were locked to semi, and the weapon started firing in full auto and wouldn't stop)

Either way it's down to preference and thickness of wallet, however saying that people on this thread are bitching is a massive exaggeration. I mentioned to one of the guys at the site I went to that I was an airsofter and I immediately started to get dirty looks and remarks behind my back, so it does indeed happen on both sides.

True unless something is brought up repeatedly with the same sound (you know the Airsoft Beats Paintball boring old shizz that it is) maybe Belly-Aching is the Phrase you Prefer?

 

Agreed Airsoft QC is better because Airsoft IS a Smaller market than Paintball but Airsoft rifles cost £120* and people buy Cheap Chinese Paintball Mech's that really are Luck of the Draw! for £70**& Less

 

*Think that's the new lowest for an Airsoft Rifle?

** Lowest i Remember seeing one is £50!

 

Edit: sounds Like your all allowing yourselves to get Rimmed £10 for 100 Paintball's! your either Lying or getting Screwed by the site!

[TacMaster]

I think it's just the popular paintballing sites which are frequented by beginners which have these extortionate ammo prices. AEGs and other airsoft weapons are damn cheap to run at £12 for 5000 decent BBs, and the amount of electricity used in charging costs about the same amount as running a TV and games console for a few hours. The only common running expense the sports/hobbies share is the cost of gas, and i believe that the large 250g C02 cylinders used by paintball guns cost about £20 a pop unless you give your old, empty canisters to the shop for a discount on a new one. Green gas and other gases are quite an expense as well, I think.

[Airsoft-Ed]

Craig, get off your high horse, it'll hurt when you fall off. Every time I see paintball mentioned, you're there, bitching about airsofters and how they bitch about paintball. Guess what? You're being a paintball bitch yourself by doing that.

I have never heard anyone, whilst at an airsoft game, give any thought whatsoever to paintball.

Let alone bitch about it.

When paintballers walk past there's a bit of banter thrown about, but it's from both sides. Not just one.

 

How many topics are there on here about people bitching about it? How many topics on ZeroIn? UKAZ? Arnies?

 

This is hardly a bitch fest and it's not like every other topic is about paintball, is it? They're different games, played by human beings. One is always going to bitch about the other, stop making it so one sided.

 

If you see it happening one way more than the other then that's more to do with the crowds you hang around with, not the majority of players overall. You can't generalise an entire community of 20,000+ based on your own experiences.

 

My view:

 

I have been paintballing about 5 times in my life, enjoyed it before I was old enough to question why they did certain things.

 

Firstly, I've never been to a site and seen anyone with their own gear. Which makes me feel as though there are two tiers of paintball players, the ones who hire and the ones with their own stuff. Is there actually any cross over? Once you have your own kit are you not allowed to play with the hires anymore or something?

I think it seems a bit elitist separating hires from non-hires - if that is what happens. It'd be like Systema users having their own sites or something.

Secondly, there have always been stupid boundary limitations. Bearing in mind I've never been paintballing since I started airsofting, so I wasn't trying to play paintball like airsoft - I wanted to flank the enemy team wide, but the second I tried to move out of the perfectly linear game area, the marshalls told me to come back... Why? If there's a massive bit of woodland over there, why can't I just go into it? They extended the same area for other games, like they'd play the same area but head in another direction.

It's all set up to make people sprint at each other and fire all their ammo, it just seems to be all about the money. If I want to play my way, I should be able to. I paid to be there after all. I shouldn't be forced into situations where I'll get demolished, just because going 2m further around a tree is out of the game area. It got me so pissed off.

It was shit.

 

Also, they asked who hadn't been hit yet and I was the only one, so the marshals spent the whole game trying to hit me... Really? Punishing people for being good?

I just hate every aspect of the game, the style of play, the cost, the guns, the way they value moronic rushing without a care for getting yourself knocked out of the game...

If I had the choice of switching to paintball, or never playing an outdoorsy game with guns ever again, I'd go for the latter option. Playing fps games is more enjoyable to me than paintball.

[beermonsta]

I guess before some people on here were even born I was into paintball in a big way. It was fairly new to be honest in the UK and was a great thing to do they you 17-18 (44 next week OMG)

 

I had all my own kit, I got the state of the are pump action guns like the Phantom and the UK made Terrier that I had the factory make me an extended barrel with mirror polishing inside for sniping it was amazing. Our little posse entered all sorts of events and tournaments all around the UK and a good time was had by all, we even won some stuff from time to time. On the discovery of woman and extreme volumes of beer we all kind of went our own ways, I sold my guns off to someone at work and that was that.

 

The reason I ended up on here was I decided it was good fun at the time and would be good to get back into now I am a little older and fatter and thought the exercise would do me good I mean why pay a gym to torture you (Other than girls in lycra). Things have moved on so much in paintball that the cost of getting your own kit is bordering on my mortgage costs so a friend tells me all about airsoft. Yes kit can be expensive but as a gun enthusiast or as much as you are allowed to be in the UK it looked awesome, older wiser players in a lot of cases, more relaxed, life like weps, not having to sell my car to buy ammo and then having to use it before it goes off (If that's still a problem in the 21st century?)

 

So I guess without paintball all those years ago there would be no airsoft today? who knows, but given a choice I chose airsoft, all we need to do is get more girls in lycra and the gym will be a thing of the past.

[M_P]

Wise words from Ed (as usual)

No one in the entire thread has slated paintball over anything Craig, far from it. From what I can see its just been a reasoned discussion judging both the pros and cons. (Mainly the price, but its been a fair discussion nonetheless)

 

Even if people were speaking down on paintball, would it matter hugely? Its an Airsoft forum, if people thought paintball was better, they'd be on a paintball forum instead.

[PhillipR34]

When I went paintballing the guns were pathetic too. The paintballs hit the floor within 25ft! I thought that the performance of the guns would be the reason people chose paintball over airsoft but clearly not. I went to Delta Force in Newcastle and it really commercialized too, they were constantly trying to get money off you with adverts everywhere, not to mention that it was £70 for 1000 paintballs. I'm sure this isn't the case with all sites but it was certainly enough to put me off from going again.

[Richard65]

Hi, so I went paintballing today for the first time and well...I was disappointed. I thought that there must have been a reason why some people choose it over airsoft, but having tried it I simply can not see why? (I'll not go list reasons as you'll probably already know). I was just wondering if any of you guys out there know anyone who does paintball and why?

I think the answer is very simple. Paintball has been around for many years and far more people have heard about it than about airsoft.

 

As others have said, the paintball community works hard at promoting their sport - had a stand at our local tesco for a week or so.

 

I had friends who got very into painball - own guns, gear etc and had their own team. travelled around playing against other teams but gradually gave up when wives/kids came along.

 

Airsoft seems to be a sport where you can turn up and play as a solo player and still have a great day out. Not sure this would be the case for a serious paintballer.

[Baz JJ]

Ive never been paintballing so cant comment on direct comparisons from experience.

 

However, having mentioned Airsoft to a few friends, Ive received some strange looks.

 

It seems that paintball is generally regarded by the people Ive spoken to as a rough macho game played by stag groups, birthday parties and so on. Many of them have done it (usually once or twice with a group) and talk about pain and fun, but it is regarded as harmless.

 

Few have heard of Airsoft and when you explain the differences i.e. people dressing in military clothes, realistic looking assault rifles, pyros etc, people seem slightly shocked - I think they have difficulty in understanding why grown people do it.

 

I originally saw Airsoft as a way of keeping fit while indulging an interest in militaria. I enjoy it immensely but struggle to explain why.

 

Dear Deidre, do I need help? lol

[deldalton]

I discovered airsofting when I was 22 (I'm 24 now, by the way). Before then, I'd only ever gone paintballing five times. I cannot think of any reason to go paintballing ever again.

 

I wouldn't mind if airsofting was a slightly more known, for retailer and site competitiveness, but I'm definitely glad that paintballing is around. Otherwise, we'd end up with the stag and birthday groups that have never played in their life, and never intend to play again, cramping out style ...

[snuff]

I've been paintballing a couple of times and its very frustrating:

 

 

1. You cannot bring any paintballs onto the site that aren't the site brand

2. I got a good number of faulty guns

3. I got shot in the arse by a 9 year old from one or two meters away. Which really hurt.

Same as airsoft use their guns use their bb's..you got spanked by a 9 year old....ha,ha...