I tell him that was there in the Good Ol' Days and believe me I like the sport better the way it is now. Contary to the fact that I'm right, the old fart started rhyming off how you had to use stealth and cunning and you had to be a marksman and you had PLAY. I cleverly retorted that there's a reason for that because the paintmarkers SUCKED (the stupid thing didn't even have a pump). Additionally, if these paintmarkers were so wonderful (as the senile and flatulent Good Ol' Days pundits claim) why then did someone invent constant air and direct feed and bulk loaders? Hmmmm?
Just to further the point I specifically expressed that inventions I mentioned were all invented by enterprising PLAYERS. They were picked up by the industry after players saw the need for them (they were not devices thrust onto us my a money grubbing industry).
The players in question (there were thousands who felt this way) obviously didn't like the paintmarkers of the Good Ol' Days because they did everything they could to make them shoot faster and hold more paint and stuff like that. It may be fun for some folks but most (not all) find "sneakin' and peakin'" around the woods as boring as all get out.
The other problem was that, in the Good Ol Day if you had no natural ability as a woodsman or a hunter you were toast and most people were reluctant to play. To most it was an alien experience (the closest most North Americans get to the woods and hunting is walking through the park on the way to "hunt and gather" at the grocery store). All the stalking and woodsmanship that was required scared off most potential players.
To make matters worse paint sold for about twenty cents (and sometimes up to twenty five cents) a ball (what's so 'good' about that you antiquated derelict?). You HAD to make every shot count. Including the CO2 used you were spending a quarter a shot and how many shots do you get out of a dollar now old man? (More than four I would imagine.)
In the Good Ol' Days the few people (in the industry at the time) could ask whatever price they wanted for their stuff because there was little competition. For example a fully loaded Line SI Bushmaster went for around $700 US. (I owned one and granted it is a fine piece of machinery but seven bills was a bit too much.) Now the grandchildren of the venerable Bushmaster (ie: the Trracer) retail for about one quarter of that. You can buy TWO decent semis for the price of one Bushmaster.
To top it all off they also sold a lot of (what I refer to as) "garbage guns". You weren't sure if the new pump or semi out on the market was good or not. You actually had less than a 50/50 chance on randomly picking a reliable and well built paintmarker. Usually the reliability was DIRECTLY PROPORTIONAL to the price players paid. So $700 for a Bushmaster was justifiable because the paintmarkers that were being sold for any less than that were better off being used for boat anchors and door stops and wheel chocks (and that's pushing it). I bet you your odds are BETTER than 90/10 that you can BLINDLY PICK from today's market and get a dependable paintmarker.
Back then (when you had walk-on play which was what we mostly had) you had folks with Nelsons and Snipers and Bushmasters and SMG-60's and 68 Specials and that mix of technology led to a bewildering array of restrictions (on the local field level). This was so everyone could play in the same game. Some fields restricted loader size some tried to balance the teams. Some just plain outlawed semis. Nowadays most everyone is equally armed. To this the pedantic antiquated and self appointed patriarch of paintball started saying we have gone the wrong way that the game has lost it's need for skill.
I said that if it was THAT BAD the sport would be dead right now but people are still having fun despite the lack of skill required. Know why? It's specifically because there is less skill required to play with a semi and that makes the game popular for newer players. This is because one player has the firepower of ten from the Good Ol' Days. You just have to load a semi with paint and screw on a tank and hand it to a newbie and say "pull the trigger to shoot".
So I tell the addled old coot what my dad used to say "never try to teach a cat to sing it's a waste of time and it annoys the cat". (Which is exactly what all these old timers are attempting to do they're trying to give all us cats singing lessons).
So I explain to him that there comes a time in your life when you must realize that you can't change the world (at least not back to the way it was). You can't stand in front of the Speeding Locomotive of Progress and expect it to stop (just because you want it too). After some careful thought (about then and now I and how the old farts are complaining and sounding like cawing crows) I realized that presently anybody can come out and play paintball (regardless of their personal experiences). Anybody can master the rudimentary skills and play effectively with their peers (in less than two hours).
I told the old crone that the reason why he doesn't like all this technology is that ANYONE can master the game now. THIS is why the grey-haired old fossil is so annoyed because now he is no longer part of a hard-earned ranking system in an exclusive club. I also point to his new semi and say that if you are whining about the Good Ol' Days and you're NOT still playing with a bolt-action Nelspot then brother you sold out too. If you're not part of the solution -- you're part of the problem.
All of the articles in the website "www.DURTYDAN.com" are free to use for webpages, school projects, reference and to promote paintball to players and the non-playing public. Please give
credit where credit is due and (where possible) provide a link back to the www.DURTYDAN.com
website.
© Durty Dan 2000. All rights reserved. All works contained in the website known as "www.DURTYDAN.com" are under copyright of the author Durty Dan. While the Terms of Use are broad they do not include the right to
republish this work in any publication (hardcopy or electronic) for the purposes of personal financial gain.
