there is a thread around here about 'Lazer Skirmish'
(coughcough*POSERPAINTBALL*coughcough)
and I e-mailed them. Here's my e-mail to them:
Dear battlefieldsports.com,
My name is Peter Turley and I am an avid Paintball player. I was on an online paintball discussion board, and your sport was being discussed. I went to your site (very nicely put togeather I might add) and I read about your sport(game?) with an open mind. I found several problems with your description of paintball, especially under the ' vs. paintball' section. Paintball was born in 1981 in the woods, and it stayed there for several years. For some time it was looked upon by the press and the rest of the world as a dangerous and exceedingly violent sport, played by ex-marines who had a thirst for blood. While this was totoally untrue, the world still thought so. 23 years later, Paintball is a huge sport played by everyone. Men and women, old and young, even the physically challeged can play the sport. There are several leagues(check
www.nppl.tv or
www.pspevents.com for some more information), Tournaments, and multi-milliondollar corporations who all contribute to the image of the sport of Paintball. As you can see, paintball is no longer the sport it was 23 years ago. The 'guns' (or so referred to on your site) are called 'markers'. Eye and face/ear protection is mandatory to play everywhere, and there are no 'killings'.
from your site:
"Favorable Legal Position
Because lasertag equipment is not considered firearms or even replicas, there are far less legal issues. In some parts of the world paintball is outlawed or restricted to people above a certain age. For example in the State of Victoria in Australia, players have to be at least 18 years old and have a firearms license before they can legally participate in paintball. In the United States, players generally have to be 10 years or older. According to USA Today at least nine US States limit the use of paintball guns by minors, with the most recent ordinance being passed by Alpharetta, Georgia, see the full story. Likewise other incidents - some life threatening have been associated with paintball weapons being unlawfully or unsafely discharged."
Paintball markers are far from weapons. A weapon is an object used to intentionally hurt, or kill a person or living animal. The paintball players who have read this also agree that you should change the word to 'markers'.
from the site:
"Paintball has really led the way until now in the combat simulation market with an annual US growth rate of 25% over the last 3 years."
True, paintball may LOOK like a 'combat simulator', but without question it is totoally different than war. Paintball is now quite different than sports/games like the one you promote. It is not simulating war, nor is it based on violence. It's the little things like that which will make paintball illegalized. Again, the many other players and i would appreciate it if you would edit this out of your site, or at least revise it.
Thank you for your time, and I hope you do well i business.
Sincerely, Peter Turley
here's their letter back:
Thanks for your feedback,
You will find that in many parts of the world, paintball markers are described legally as air guns which are weapons. The term paintball marker is a misnomer from a legal perspective. We have indeed found in many parts of the world outside lasertag can be played legally where paintball can't.
Within the paintball community there are indeed large groups of players trying to make it a normal sport, however there are still legions of players especially teenagers that see it as a combat simulator. In fact many paintball fields have Vietnam villagers and the like to do hard core realistic scenario games. We are definitely in the combat simulation category as well as we go for the computer gamers market that a brought up on realistic action first person perspective shooters. We love doing combat simulation games.
Peter Lander
www.battlefieldsports.com
www.laserskirmish.com
ICQ: 3948290
Lock and Load download
http://www.laserskirmish.com/0403lockandload.pdf
WOW, TOTOALLY BLEW ME OFF!!!
how not cool is that?