TOP 100 PAINTBALL SITES
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| Underage Paintball A few years ago on Thanksgiving morning I went out to play some pre-turkey paintball. I was playing on an outlaw field up in the mountains so there weren't... paintball.about.com |
New Site Helps You Find the Best Deal on Paintball A new site, www.QPainball.com, is now available to help you find the very best deal on paintball equipment. Its target audience is the savvy paintball shopper who wants to... paintball.about.com |
The Brand for Beginners I frequently get asked which brand of paintball gun a beginner should buy. While it always depends on the individual person and the situation, I do have a general answer. After talking about paintball.about.com |
Paintball Predictions for 2010 You never know what a new year will bring, but that doesn't mean it's not fun to guess. In this column I will make five predictions on what will happen in paintball during 2010. I'm not going to make any predictions based on insider knowledge (those wouldn't be true predictions) - each of these predictions is based on gut feelings and hopeful speculation. In a year, we'll see how I did.A new $1000+ paintball gun will hit the marker by a new manufacturer. The existing super high-end gun manufacturers haven't changed much in the past few years and it's about time for someone to step up (especially if Smart Parts is out of the equation).68 caliber will still be the standard. I predict that 50 caliber will come and be adopted by some people in some circumstances, but it will be a passing fad that doesn't catch on with the larger community. I personally hope that it is as good as its backers claim, but my gut feeling is that it will disappoint and not catch on.A major community will ban paintball because of fears that it is used to train terrorists. This could be a major American city, but my hunch is that it will be an entire country. Germany failed to ban paintball in 2009, but I wouldn't be surprised at all if another country succeeds in banning it for completely illegitimate reasons.No monthly or semi-monthly print paintball magazines will remain. The print media industry has been struggling and many magazines are going to online-only versions. I will be surprised if there's still a print paintball magazine that comes out more than quarterly by 2011.Paintballs will cost about the same. There have been many discussions about the price of paintballs and whether higher prices are coming to combat fuel costs and to provide store owners with better returns, but my prediction is that a $40 case of paint today will cost about $40 next year. I wouldn't be surprised, though, if more expensive paint does increase a little bit - such as paying $70 for a case of paint you can currently get for $60.Well, those are my predictions. We'll see if any of them come to pass in just 365 short days. If you want to add any of your own predictions or you disagree with mine, feel free to post in the comments.Paintball Predictions for 2010 originally appeared on About.com Paintball on Thursday, December 31st, 2009 at 14:25:16.Permalink | Comment | Email this paintball.about.com |
Paintball in 2020 Where will paintball be in a decade? It's never easy to predict the future, but that doesn't mean we can't try.My first thought is that paintball, for the most part, will be a lot like it is today. During the first two decades of paintball's existence (the 1980s and '90s) there were substantial changes in the equipment, the playing style, the manufacturers and the mentality of what the sport was supposed to be. In the past decade, though, the game really hasn't developed that much. Sure, the equipment has improved and the cost of electros and paintballs has dropped, but the basic paintball experience is much what it was ten years ago.I imagine that the lines between committed speedballers and woodsballers will be just as pronounced as they are today and I seriously doubt there will be any sort of coming-together between the two sides in terms of a common format to play. People will still be drawn to one form or the other and, for the most part, stick with that style of play.I'd like to hope that more people will play the game in general, but I'm not convinced that will be the case. It seems that for every new paintball player, an older player quits playing. I expect there to be a larger percentage of people who will have played paintball, but not more that are currently playing.I do have one, slightly odd prediction. I bet that within a decade there will be a paintball gun that doesn't require a compressed air or CO2 tank (or even a propane tank). Whether it shoots by having a built-in, battery-powered compressor (something rumored to be in the works a few years ago) or being powered by springs or by pumping I won't speculate on, but I bet something will come out. I doubt anything like that will become mainstream, but it will give some variety to the sport.I really don't know what's going to happen and my speculations surely reflect that. My general theory that it won't change might be based more on a hope that it won't rather than a true belief. There's always the possibility that government regulations will hit the sport hard or that manufacturers simply go out of business, or a new variation of the sport will become hugely popular, but I really hope it stays how it's been during this past decade. For all of its ups and downs, paintball is still about the best way to spend a summer morning with friends.Paintball in 2020 originally appeared on About.com Paintball on Friday, February 5th, 2010 at 20:23:26.Permalink | Comment | Email this paintball.about.com |