Since it's the weekend I'ma try something a little different. I'm going to propose a topic and let y'all have at it. More amazingly, the subject is paintball gear. Guns in particular. (I know! I never talk about gear. And I'm not gonna start now. You are.) While I don't talk about gear it is a subject some people (who will remain nameless) that I talk with do talk about. Every damn chance they get--or so it seems. That being the case I'm (vaguely) aware that in recent months there's been news of some new guns coming to market; Zodiac (blah blah blah) Renegade, Machine Vapor and a gat from Thin Air Sports. Feel free to toss in a GOG gun too or whatever else strikes your fancy.
Say whatever you'd like but I'm (vaguely) interested in pricing, perceived value & perceived marketplace considering the Crome kids called it quits recently. (Yes, somebody told me that too.)
That's it. It's all yours now.
Saturday, January 7, 2012
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13 comments:
I am thoroughly unimpressed by the $1000+ guns that I have shot.
paintball companies should stop coming out with new guns every year.
yeah
Damn! I wish I gave a damn and had a relevant comment.
But yeah, for some people gear is what the sport is all about. It's like that in every hobby/sport.
When was the last truly innovative paintball gun launched? Now that ROF is limited by the powers that be and not the marker/user combo, that's not an issue. Accuracy has a lot less to do with the marker and more with the user, grade of paint, and proper barrel selection. Shot-to-shot consistency (velocity) is very good with pretty much all of the markers (and again likely has more to do with paint than the marker). So, where is the next phase of innovation going to come from? Pretty much all the markers we see today are cosmetic retreads of technology that's 3+ years old. The coolest thing I've seen lately is the new Virtue chronograph... that's the sad thing.
Thin Air Sports is going to rock your socks. Just watch..
As asked/implied above the next step in evolution has got to be the method of projection, every thing else now is just minor tweeking. PE's slide on/off is about as inovative as I've seen of late (not that I'm looking) as I'm shooting a 4 year old marker and have yet to find a reason to upgrade; which in part explains the reason the industry is in such a state!
The actual paintball marker pneumatics are about as far as they can go. The math behind how much air it takes to shoot a ball to 300fps is not a mystery anymore.
The next logical step is to do something with the electronics. Look at the technology in our phones today, so why are the boards in our guns the same as they were 10 years ago?
And I have to respectfully disagree with Stu H. If we change how we shoot the ball, than we're playing another sport (Airsoft? Laser Tag? Dirtclod wars?).
Stu H, I think you are right that one of the reasons the industry is in the state it is in now is that there is no longer a need to get new gear regularly to keep up with technology (and the playing advantages it gives you). We went from infancy to adulthood in the technology department during roughly the same period that we also had tremendous participation growth. The decline of the participation growth rate is the other reason the industry is in the state it's in. Both happened to come almost simultaneously. It happens in almost every industry. Now it's adjustment time. Too many sellers for the amount of product needed/wanted.
Anon 01/12/2012, I don't see how changing how a paintball leaves the equipment we are carrying will change the sport much. If it leaves at 300 fps, what does it matter how it got to that point?
Empire has some new stuff coming out that should open some eyes from what i understand
Mask Technology could be a lot better - Integral comms for the woodsball guys would be a step forward. Ball-delivery has never really been mastered (but is a nasty can-o-worms to take on). The single biggestthing to tackle is the paint. The Hydrotech guys promised a lot in this area but havn't delivered - I was struck at the cup by how many top pro teams were using flamethrowers. This had to be the single largest issue for people at the event. Imagine if your team didn't break a ball the whole time - the advantage at that event alone would have been enormous...
I disagree with missy q the mask game was mastered years ago by jt. I think the g6r was a pretty big step just by the pure volume of paint you can shoot off of one fill. Which I used to be one of the cock suckers that said just top your shit off after every point but the field I play at never fills over 3k and if there a ton of rental kids out there it is usually closer to 2500 so that efficiency is a big deal.
i think there is a fair amount of room for continued development. I think marker/hopper ergonomics can be taken to the next level to really get a truly balanced feel. Possibly new ways to direct the air flows in the markers to make them more efficient, quieter, and kick less. There is always room to improve.
maybe figuring out a way to make the first strike rounds a lot cheaper and figuring out how to load 140 of them into a hopper that will load them consistently
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