"And thank you for sharing"

I was going through my youtube comments today. What a lot of people may or may not know is that when you post a video, and someone comments, youtube sends you e-mail. Well I've been hella-buzy for the last few days, so I haven't had to check until now. And on the video for FPS 5, someone left this lovely comment.

chaimy49er

wow ur a fucking jew whos gives a shit if someone says ur coming up thats only illegal in toynament and that movie suck and u suck at paintball... i work there

...

You know, I have more than a few ways to go with this, but I'll simply say this. History has proven to me that if you ignore people who hate based on religion that they only tend to get louder and more violent until you pay attention to them. And I'll also say that this isn't the first time that I've had to deal with people in this sport who bash based on religion. And reading the feedback left for this guy is enlightening.

And I would like to publicly let the people at Chicagoland Paintball know that they have someone on staff who seems to hate Jews for whatever reason.

So "Chaimy49er", thank you for sharing. You can go back to your desk now.

The modern attitude

I'm going to chalk this up to a generation gap.

I was going through the vids I maintain over on myspace, and found that in my several weeks absence someone actually found a video on there and commented. The video was FPS 5, the one that's still controversial several years after it was released. The commentary was, well, rather rude.

" hahaha congrats faggetu got blown away on a runthroughby danny tiljak...... . ITS PAINTBALL!! people will wipe like all sports people CHEAT... doesnt meanu have to go around bitching about every little mishap that rapes you..... get fucked"

This from a 17 year old player named "-=Tom Plays russian Roulette=- 68 StaTe".

Has the game really gotten that screwed up? Everyone knows I'm old school, I've been playing longer than this kid has been alive. But, well, being told that it's "ok" to get "raped" on the field, and being told that it's expected that opponents cheat? I'm still amazed to see that, even though it's nothing new.

It's funny, actually. The game of paintball had been, for a long time, a sport of self-imposed honor and integrity. When it was underground, the only way to get into the game was to know a guy, so everyone knew everyone else. Most people played clean, and if they didn't they were quickly shunned at best, lit up by their own team at very best and simply not invited back next time. If you were accused of cheating, you worked to clear your name. I remember the fun of Oh Pawlak trying to defend himself on Rec.Sport.Paintball when ESPN aired video of him playing on with an obvious hit on his goggles. This was 1995.

Now, it's almost frowned upon if you don't cheat. "If yer not cheatin' yer not tryin'!" Hell, players are celebrated if they can actually injure other players in the process of playing, and the slang has changed to inflect violence. I find it funny in a way that players claim I got "raped" when, in reality, he had to receive off-field help to know I was coming. And "bitching"? Hardly. What happened was what happened, I simply posted the video of it as it happened.

What I see here is people will defend disposable heroes because they're defending an ideal. The industry has given open permission to the younger players to do what they want on the field of play. Let's face it, there's money in giving people what they want over what they need. Sell the image, let the players beat the crap out of each other, and even when they leave the sport in 3-5 years it doesn't matter because "we'll get more players". And that image is what's being defended by people who respond like "Tom" has.

And the response by "Tom" is fairly typical of any given paintball player who takes the game too seriously. Hell, PB2X published in its pages "Cheating is here to stay, get over it." The attitude is loud and clear to anyone who steps back and listens. "Cheating is ok in paintball. Cheat and you'll get ahead." That's what the players want to hear, and want to do, and the industry is more than happy to oblige. Anyone who thinks differently? They can go to hell, right?

If you don't think cheating is a big deal, let's play "follow the money". Where's Coke? McDonalds? Budweiser? PepsiCo? ANY of the office supply chains? ANY tech store chain? They're still not advertising in paintball after 15+ years of trying to attract them and there's a good reason. They want nothing to do with the attitude. Oh sure, TEAMS may get sponsorship but that's more of a "who you know" situation. But as far as the league goes, you'd think that after 15 years or so, and millions of participants, paintball would do better for itself than buying 60 minute time slots on ESPN to be aired opposite of larger venue events? Thats not a sport, it's an infomercial.

No, major companies will not sponsor a serious sporting event that condones cheating by its participants or supporting industry. Nor will they support any sport that uses terms that are outright vulgar to Mr. and Mrs. Middle America. Tell me, when was the last time you heard a player in the NBA say "Oh yeah, we totally raped that team! We made them our bitches! And yeah we cheated like bastards but you know it's what you can get away with right?" You won't. Plain and simple. Paintball should learn this lesson, but it won't.

What happened in that video speaks for itself, as it always has. The commentary to it speaks even louder.