Much to serious a post...

I wish I could laugh at and blow off stuff like this - 12 very disturbing paintball teams - but like it or not, this is what mil-sim is doing to the game of paintball. There was a time, back in the day, when the industry took steps to nip this kind of image in the bud and thank heaven they succeeded. Paintball moved away from this kind of nasty, para-military nonsense and became a game church groups and birthday parties could associate with. Soon after paintball became the "fastest growing action-adventure sport in the world."

Today, at a time when paintball is floundering and looking for a new foot hold, it pains me to see the old nastiness creep back. Even worse it pains me to see that no one is remembering one of the really good things we did in the past to actually help paintball grow. Instead the industry is embracing the mil-sim rage hoping they can hang on just a little bit longer while watching the life blood get sucked out of the game.

On the horizon the buzzards are circling, looking to pick off the last few bits with .50 caliber paintballs and 27 different tournament options. Players are being driven off in droves while the meager few die-hards stand around ringing their hands waiting for a new Messiah to come along and show Kingman and Tippmann and Smart Parts and etc. the error of its ways.

I'm not sure how to end this post. I can tell you I doubt paintball will ever again see the numbers and popularity we enjoyed in 2004. I've always believed paintball was just an odd little hiccup anyway - man's last dance with his caveman roots before trading it all in for virtual reality electrodes and vitamin D deficiency induced arm chair adventures. I suppose as long as there are two people, somewhere in the world, each with some sort of paintball gun, that the game will survive.