Drop Zone limits recreational paintball play to gravity fed hoppers only

[pbalien73]

I am also in agreement with the majority of the responses. I feel this is a move to get more people out to the field, which i'm sure is getting harder to do as the economy and extra money dries up. I reffed at this field for years in the late 90's and even then it was beggining to be an issue, pushing potential newcomers to the sport to call it quits after taking 2-3 hits. The wanna be pro-players "tearing up the newbies" as I would hear them bragging about in the parking lot ruined a lot of return customers.
Seperating groups is an option until the numbers get short as any reff. of this sport would know. Vets know to play easy with new players, but these kids rocking and rolling with their $150.00 sprayers aren't as understanding of proper recreational editcate and quickly use firepower to overcompensate for there lack of skill.
Ken runs a very nice field with a very friendly, skilled staff and I am sure this measure even if not fully understood by all will be copied by many fields around the area. However even if it isn't, players should take note that if this becomes a problem it maybe the only option to keep the sport growing. For those of you that are actually effected by this it sound like you will get rec time to shoot your hearts out once a month and the occasional scenario event to wale on the occasional newbie.
You could of course use this opertunity to realize the beauty, grace and skill of pump play.

[the boss]

I think it can work both ways, you have to keep the newb separated from the pros or it's over!! As for big games half of these people will never see one, I live with in 12 miles of camp blanding mount site and most woods ball players have never even heard of the place as far as paintball goes they play in back yards and small fields. I had one group try to shoot down a few newbs last year on the beginner field, we told them to change fields and if they wanted to shoot fast we would send in one of our house teams, it lasted about 5 min before they felt like newbs. Now some of those same players have learned to lay of the trigger. every body is a good player till they meet someone better.

[Silverback]

Originally Posted by scpaintballer01

new cap is 13.3, everybody's slowing down.

Actually that's only PSP and Millenium so far. How many Rec fields are limiting Ramping or BPS... and can ENFORCE it.

Originally Posted by scpaintballer

Seriously, if you're such a good player then why are you bitching about this change? If you had to play here you could still bring out your stuff at their scenarios, tournaments, and any practice days they have, but during rec ball you wont be able to. BallBusters has this same rule for all tournament players and staff- we MUST either use a pump or rental if we're going to play a game of recball and it's fine.

First, I've been listening to the same crap about, "The games getting too fast, we have to slow it down, we're losing the true sport of the game." BS sense the first direct feed went on a Nelspot 007. It was usually from whiney babies that couldn't play the game, so they were relegated to playing with new players and rental PGP's.

Second, I have a 13 year old daughter who is just learning the game and i am VERY careful where I let her play and when so she doesn't get shot by one of those "awful" 15+ markers (even though she walks out on the field with an Ion, set semi, with no ramp) I want her to learn the tactics and skills of the game, so I take her where she can learn without un-due pain, or her Dad kickin the crap outta some ass, who loves to bonusball on a recreational play field.

Field owners need to control the games on their fields, by controlling who-plays-whom, not by giving a false sense of security to new players by limiting experience to only gravity feed loaders. This is a LAZY way to try and solve a problem that has existed since the sport started modifying equipment.

[/soap box]

[Silverback]

Originally Posted by gfgjester

Hopefully, they'll come back to this forum to see the results of mature and experienced players discussing the problem in an intelligent manner, (STOP giggling! ), ...

Oh...Jester, You've cut me to the quick.....

[scpaintballer01]

Originally Posted by Silverback

Actually that's only PSP and Millenium so far. How many Rec fields are limiting Ramping or BPS... and can ENFORCE it.

we've been able to enforce 15 easily, 13 will be just the same.

First, I've been listening to the same crap about, "The games getting too fast, we have to slow it down, we're losing the true sport of the game." BS sense the first direct feed went on a Nelspot 007. It was usually from whiney babies that couldn't play the game, so they were relegated to playing with new players and rental PGP's.

i wont take that as a personal attack...but you're wrong in the fact that decreasing ROFs will decrease the speed of the game. it will increase it as people will be able to make larger more bold moves.

[Saludapaintballer]

I bet they have a record breaking profit year once the word gets out.....

Parents will roll out the credit cards for thier kids when they are having a good time and not getting shot to pieces....

Yesterday we had a large group here for a birthday party. I would say average age was 14-15 so not young young kids. Had 6 others here with shockers and so forth. All the kids from the party had rentals. When they saw the shockers in the chrono the question of the day was, "Do we have to play on the same field with them?" Parents were quick to point out the fact that it wasnt fair to have them all together. The group of 6 wanted to play speedball so I hit the woods with the birthday group and some other walkons for some woods ball. They ended up having a great time and already booked two other parties from that one group.

now if i had of put that party with the other 6 players and even if one of those kids got ripped up i would likely not ever see any of that group back again and would have not booked two other parties from it also.

SO IN LUE OF THAT...I bet DROP ZONE sees a great increase in business this next year from groups...

they said that they would still have tournament ball and all that for those wanting to shoot fast and also scenarios so they didnt say that no electronic hopper would ever be allowed back on the field.....

oh yea...last weekend there was an "experienced player" with an angel fly here playing and he got owned about 6 times by this little sneaky 13 year old with a sniper 2. It was a great day. the "experienced player" ended up having "gun problems" (cough cough) and had to leave...he was just tired of getting owned by a kig with a gravity fed hopper...

just a little idea.....(this is a joke so no one get all edgy) what if everyone had to play with pumps for a while and then everyone that got stomped by another pump on a consistent basis got a rental gun...and then those those that still got stomped with a rental gun got a higher end gun and then if they still got stopmed by lesser guns they stepped up until they had the fastest gun ever made and then when they still get owned they have to never play paintball ever again......remember this is a joke....

[gfgjester]

Originally Posted by Saludapaintballer

Yesterday we had a large group here for a birthday party. I would say average age was 14-15 so not young young kids. Had 6 others here with shockers and so forth. All the kids from the party had rentals. When they saw the shockers in the chrono the question of the day was, "Do we have to play on the same field with them?" Parents were quick to point out the fact that it wasnt fair to have them all together. The group of 6 wanted to play speedball so I hit the woods with the birthday group and some other walkons for some woods ball. They ended up having a great time and already booked two other parties from that one group.

IMO, this is the rule and NOT the exception. My own experiences, and other field owners may agree, is that parents spend their money on paintball for their kids to have fun. (DUH!) If ONE kid is intimidated by "Intimo-Marker X" and won't play, then the whole group is dulled. Especially if it is the center of attention, (ie - birthday boy/girl). MOST of the time I've seen the party play contained for a few games, then move with the general population. But in many cases, they don't WANT to join the group. If you encourage a hesitant group and some little one gets peppered, you know what will be said.

"Hi Marge! Little Jimmy said that you had Bobby's birthday party at Paintball Gazoo in Jonestown. We're thinnking about doing the same thing for Jimmy. Tell me about it, please".

"OH MY GOD! We THOUGHT it was going to be nice, BUT..."

You know what comes next. She tells one, and she tells two, etc. And if a field gets a bad rep with the parental community, you can look for lost revenues. And remember, those kids/newbs will form their lasting opinion of paintball on that first experience. Everyone was new at one time.

we've been able to enforce 15 easily, 13 will be just the same.

That may be valid at most fields. Keep in mind there's lots of other fields out there that don't hold as high a standard for refs and rules. No, "lots" is a bad word to use; "more than a few" is better. There are also fields that have no way of measuring ROF. (Not many, but some.) Here on Junkie, we are also more experienced and more attuned to the paintball world, especially rec and scenario. We are not a bunch of knuckle draggers, as demonstrated by this thread's intelligent discussion, (giggling again?). This thread is certainly yeilding a lot of great stuff...

[crooked butt doctor]

way too much to read at work- i'll catch up tonight, but i'll post my immediate reaction now.

first- ROF has NOTHING to do with advantages or disadvantages in general. i benched my ego7 in favor of my ss25 and sniperII... i'm getting more kills.

second, overshooting is not a gear issue, its a player issue. thats why we have refs.

third- i played at an indoor facility in dallas back in Nov. they had 3 colors of wristband. they fully explained the 3 wristbands and their corresponding divisions. beginner, intermediate and advanced.

they had 2 fields and rotated out. it was great. i actually started out intermediate, found myself maybe a little too experienced and bumped myself to advanced, where i happily got my ass smoked.

it was simple, and easy. i saw nothing but smiles that day.

i fully understand the concept of newbs, parents, and general consideration for the inexperienced player and their impressionable opinion of paintball, based almost solely off their first experience. i think that when you can, break them into skill level-based groups. when you cannot, then refs just have to enforce rof caps, but i do not think that banning all non-gravity hoppers is the answer.

[Shrub]

Seperation of skill levels is an effective way to limit the overshooting that happens as is the method that this field chose to use, though their way is still limited in the effectiveness. By that I mean that if little Johnny with his brand new Type X marker and his gravity fed hopper decides to shoot up some other poor hapless child it could still be accomplished. It only takes a few extra shots to make it Bonusballing. Even though it may not be intentional, cause as I am sure we all know once they are in the air you can't take them back. Seperation may be a better way to handle this but as has been stated before if only a few players are in attendance this becomes a problem. Then you should go to the gravity fed hoppers to control the issue. I am sure most of us on this forum have been overshot more than once. I have found that most time when I receive a few extra it is usually the inexperienced players that have not learned trigger control that are the culprit.

ROF limits as stated earlier in the thread. Ok suppose you impose a mandatory ROF cap of 5bps on your field for Rec play. If say I just went out and dropped over a grand on a new DM8 do you think that I would come to your field to play? The answer to that question is NO, why you may ask? Well most if not all of the higher end markers' stock boards are not capable of being set that low and a lot of the after market boards for that matter are in the same boat. So if that is the issue then how is that situation going to be handled? Are you then going to tell me I can't use the marker I just dropped over a grand on? Instead I will be forced to use a rental. That will drive more customers away from legitimate fields where there is no supervision or safety precautions. Just adding my .02...

[ace007]

Originally Posted by crooked butt doctor

way too much to read at work- i'll catch up tonight, but i'll post my immediate reaction now.

first- ROF has NOTHING to do with advantages or disadvantages in general. i benched my ego7 in favor of my ss25 and sniperII... i'm getting more kills.

second, overshooting is not a gear issue, its a player issue. thats why we have refs.

third- i played at an indoor facility in dallas back in Nov. they had 3 colors of wristband. they fully explained the 3 wristbands and their corresponding divisions. beginner, intermediate and advanced.

they had 2 fields and rotated out. it was great. i actually started out intermediate, found myself maybe a little too experienced and bumped myself to advanced, where i happily got my ass smoked.

it was simple, and easy. i saw nothing but smiles that day.

i fully understand the concept of newbs, parents, and general consideration for the inexperienced player and their impressionable opinion of paintball, based almost solely off their first experience. i think that when you can, break them into skill level-based groups. when you cannot, then refs just have to enforce rof caps, but i do not think that banning all non-gravity hoppers is the answer.

What he said (Minus the Dallas thing since I haven't been to Dallas, but the system sounded very good)