fabien Posted April 8, 2011 Report Share Posted April 8, 2011 hello guys, i play my first day light airsoft game on wednesday after 8 months of airsoft at night in UA, and in parallel i have being playing airsoft scenario/guerilla game for a year. I love CQB and prefer airsoft for it But for more open field or forest game i still prefer paintball. I know that some of you are doing both or have tested both, what are your pros and cons. Airsoft +: light weight, tracer at night (),awesome CQB, light pain airsoft -: ability to see your shot during the day, people not taking their hit, look to serious Paintball +: visibility of the ball, technology, more accepted paintball-: painfull, heavy load on the vest, very limited access to cqb Link to post Share on other sites
FireKnife Posted April 8, 2011 Report Share Posted April 8, 2011 I can see this not ending well. It is like asking what is better, a PC or a Mac on a Windows Forum. Hopefully we can have a reasonalbe discussion about them this time though. Personally, i see no pro with paintball myself, no proper full auto, guns all look pretty much the same, paintball cost x10 what airsoft does and to attend a game cost much more too. The lack of variety and decent places to play lead me to find other things, hence why i airsoft. 'FireKnife' Link to post Share on other sites
clay77 Posted April 8, 2011 Report Share Posted April 8, 2011 I feel the same as fireknife I must confess that it was paintball that brought me to airsoft world though and i have not played paintball since my first game of airsoft Link to post Share on other sites
ratboy44 Posted April 8, 2011 Report Share Posted April 8, 2011 most electric markers are capable of full auto, various sites have different themes, though none seem to use built up areas. like airsofting there are different variations of paintballing, from milsim, filmsim to scenario, reccie or tournament. each variant has different rules and regs and most apart from tournament use similar kit to airsofters (surplus kit etc) where tournament players tend to wear team kits (jerseys, trousers et al) so each has its pros and cons. one thing i dont like about airsoft is the lack of showing a hit. in PB if a marshall see's a paibtball splat against a player, then they are eliminated. whereas airsoft relies on honesty (of which i must admit there appears to be a fair amount of) each to their own! Link to post Share on other sites
FireKnife Posted April 8, 2011 Report Share Posted April 8, 2011 whereas airsoft relies on honesty (of which i must admit there appears to be a fair amount of) Unfortunatley at the three games i have been paintballing it is just as likely that you would find someone shirking a hit. Using the old line of 'that was there from a previous game, i haven't washed it off etc' seems to get by at the sites i attended. Then again it is the same in all sports and hobbies that you will find cheats etc. One thing i don't get, and this may just be me, but it is when they try to make a paintball marker look like a real gun. I have yet to see a single good attempt at this. If you want realism in your guns then airsoft rather than mash together some parts to make what doesn't even look like a gun at a glance. However all the ones i have seen are home-made and badly built, perhaps there are some decent ones out there. 'FireKnife' Link to post Share on other sites
sigma3 Posted April 8, 2011 Report Share Posted April 8, 2011 Airsoft vs. paintball. Interesting idea. Assymetrical warfare! Does superior range win out over no visible markings? Who will cheat the most? Let's find out! Link to post Share on other sites
danielsilva Posted April 8, 2011 Report Share Posted April 8, 2011 Airsoft +: light weight, tracer at night (),awesome CQB, light pain airsoft -: ability to see your shot during the day, people not taking their hit, look to serious Paintball +: visibility of the ball, technology, more accepted paintball-: painfull, heavy load on the vest, very limited access to cqb Reading your negative points about airsoft i believe that your problem is that you're still trying to play paintball with/on airsoft ... Why i say this is because you're giving negative points to aspects of airsoft that are actually regarded as "positive" to most who chooses airsoft over paintball. The inability to see the rounds coming at you ( although a bit subjective since unless you're using weird *albatross* color BB's or insane fps on the gun, i can see them perfectly fine ) is inherently more realistic than to see huge bright balls coming at you ( no sexual innuendo here ) and the "look too serious" issue, again, makes airsoft more "realistic" than paintball, which is one of the top reasons why people choose airsoft over paintball. And about the "people not taking their hit", i've seen MUCH less cheating on airsoft than when i played paintball ( funny thing is, this reason is why i actually left paintball and started to play airsoft ). On casual paintball games, where people were there just to have fun, cheating was no more of a serious problem than airsoft but once you started to played competitively .... ohhh boy. I've seen such ridiculous scenes like having matches with 1:1 player/marshal ratio on some sites, which to me was completely ######. ** My post isn't to say what is better, airsoft or paintball, nor i'll gonna give my opinion on that regard because well ... you're trying to discuss "paintball VS airsoft" in an airsoft forum, see the flawed logic here ? Disclaimer: I played paintball for over 10 years - 12 if you count the few times i went casually with co-workers - before i started playing airsoft ( hence my fixation on GBB®s ). ** This is highly subjective cause it varies a lot depending on location so my experience can and/or will be different from yours Link to post Share on other sites
j33v3s Posted April 8, 2011 Report Share Posted April 8, 2011 What do you mean by technology as a plus point for Paintball over Airsoft? Airsoft has everything Paintball has (gas guns) and then some. I have to agree with the majority opinion here, I prefer Airsoft over Paintball. Not least because the expense of attending a day is cheaper (even if renting), it looks more realistic, most games I've been to allow use of more tactical moves etc whereas most average Paintball days almost always have a Stag Do group or a little kids birthday who cheat, shoot you at point blank (even though you're on their team), mess about and the only real tactic is to run at them shooting as much as you can and hope one of your shots actually hits someone. That and the masks, such a PITA, I absolutely hate those sweaty fogging up things (that, unless you go enough to warrant your own have been sweated in by everyone else who's used it before you) Link to post Share on other sites
ratboy44 Posted April 8, 2011 Report Share Posted April 8, 2011 Unfortunatley at the three games i have been paintballing it is just as likely that you would find someone shirking a hit. Using the old line of 'that was there from a previous game, i haven't washed it off etc' seems to get by at the sites i attended. Then again it is the same in all sports and hobbies that you will find cheats etc. One thing i don't get, and this may just be me, but it is when they try to make a paintball marker look like a real gun. I have yet to see a single good attempt at this. If you want realism in your guns then airsoft rather than mash together some parts to make what doesn't even look like a gun at a glance. However all the ones i have seen are home-made and badly built, perhaps there are some decent ones out there. 'FireKnife' My guess that they make them "realistic" to try and suit their playing styles (ie milsim/scenario) and to suit a particular look they are after, I agree that most do look like an out cast from star wars prop department, but there are a few that look good (tiberius arms are one) most probably adapt because its cheaper to buy a £60 gun and add bits to it than it is to buy £600 worth of gun looking the way you want it, also by adding to a cheaper gun you can make it suit whatever style of play (similar to a RIS system in some ways) By and large though i think tournament paintballing is a sport whereby the only kit worn is the teams kit/sponsored package and markers to suit which makes it more "sporty!" like. as opposed to full cammo, ghillie suits and ak lookalikes for those who wanna do warfare style gaming. having said that there are a few paintballers who airsoft and vice versa! Link to post Share on other sites
Seraphim989 Posted April 8, 2011 Report Share Posted April 8, 2011 Bob Saget, why is this thread here again? Search, this argument has happened over and over here Link to post Share on other sites
FireKnife Posted April 8, 2011 Report Share Posted April 8, 2011 Bob Saget, why is this thread here again? Search, this argument has happened over and over here Because like all good arguments you just can't put this one down. I have to agree with the majority opinion here, I prefer Airsoft over Paintball. And as this is an Airsoft forum that is how it is going to be, kind of hard to have an impartial discussion on a site that is 99% airsoft players (1% accounts for the non-playing chairsofters ) 'FireKnife' Link to post Share on other sites
ctres94 Posted April 8, 2011 Report Share Posted April 8, 2011 One of the things that I really just cannot understand about paintball is the fact that you can be hit by a paintball, but if it dosen't pop and get paint on you, then are still in the game. To me, this really dosen't make any sense. In war games of any type, hit usually equals dead, and a policy such as those present in paintball seems to promote cheating to me. Because of this rule, I have heard that wearing silky slick clothing (bright colored jumpsuits ftw!) sometimes allows the a ball to slide off without popping and therefore people use this to their advantage. To me, that is just plain ridiculous because if they are really going for realism, then I'd like to know what type of shiny clothing makes real bullets slide of like that. Anyway, to me airsoft guns/gear are better than paintball guns in every way. realism: there is no paintball guns that look remotely like anything real if they are compared to actual rs firearm. The rapt 4 gets the basic look, but there are still HUGE visual flaws that can be easily seen by anyone who has every even seen a picture of a real ar. Also, paintballs are .68 cal, which is bigger that the legendary rs barrett. that is a huge lol to me b/c the barrels are always way to thick. range and accuracy: a heavy round w/ out hop up inherently falls short when compared to airsoft bb, and even with a flatline barrel system or something, I know that a bb will float farther out, no argument about it. Although paintballs aren't effected by wind as much, there accurate range still isn't very far because they don't go very far to begin with, not to mention we are comparing a solid sphere with a jelly/liquid filled one. Oh, and lets face it, the best performing paintball guns don't even have sights, or the option to mount any. gear/magazines: pb guns either don't have magazines, or they are totally out of spec compared to the real deal and could definitely not fit properly in real military pouches, at least not two mags in a standard double mag pouch. This factor leads to another unrealistic part of paintball. Real gear just isn't feasible because 1. The mags don't fit 2. paintball games are almost always short rounds and no hydration, radios, etc. are needed 3. the guns are already so unrealistic looking that no one really tries. Now, I constantly hear paintballers arguing the exact opposite about all these things, but the funny thing is that they have never seen a decent airsoft replica, and they are comparing their $150+ gun to a $20 clear pistol at walmart. Now at least us airsofters have seen/used decent paintball guns before we go trashing talking the entire sport. (btw I have used/handled high quality pb guns and I don't believe that I am trashing the sport in any way, simply stating the facts) It really just bugs me when I hear ignorant people ripping on airsoft when they have never experienced it, and I have no problem if they prefer paintball, but I can't stand the lies. In fact, there are a lot of good reasons for people to play paintball here in the US, but none of them are the reasons that paintballers claim they are, but they just don't realize it. For instance, I am pretty sure that paintball is way more popular here, meaning that anyone can attend a game on the weekend and have a lot of people show up, or even get a good game going just with friends. Also, decent paintball guns are much more widely available than decent airsoft guns, which leads to the ignorance displayed my nearly all paintballers. (at least here) I believe that this situation is completely the opposite in nearly every other part of the world, especially in HK and the UK. The final, biggest reason that I think people play paintball is because it is almost always just one big shoot 'em up action game, just like the ever popular call of duty. For people that don't care about realism and just want easily accessable real life COD (which, I hate to break it to those who don't already know, is also unrealistic) paintball makes perfect sense in the United States. Don't get me wrong, this is not meant to be a bash on paintball, I'm only trying to point out some of the major flaws that exist in paintball, and also to refute the ludicrous allegations that I hear paintballers making all the time. Anyways, for those who maybe didn't know all of these things, or haven't used paintball guns, maybe you have gained a broader perspective from my rant. As a final not on the realism of airsoft, I would like to point out how airsofters often get excited when some cool new real steel gear/accesory comes out, or some new shooting technique etc is invented(magpul dynamics). This showcases the already obvious parallels between real shooting and airsoft, which definitely do not exist in paintball. Link to post Share on other sites
Joshua_Rose Posted April 8, 2011 Report Share Posted April 8, 2011 ... +1 In full agreement. I too started with paintball, tournament, league, etc., and just got fed-up with it. Had to take a long break. When I found airsoft, it all made so much more sense. The "realistic" kit is a huge plus too. Link to post Share on other sites
clay77 Posted April 9, 2011 Report Share Posted April 9, 2011 all the post seams to be on two things first is realism and the second honesty so i pose a question. If paintball had our level of realism and the same level of consistant fair play and honesty (however ther are forums on here about our honesty at games) would any of us be playing that now? Link to post Share on other sites
FireKnife Posted April 9, 2011 Report Share Posted April 9, 2011 If paintball had our level of realism and the same level of consistant fair play and honesty (however ther are forums on here about our honesty at games) would any of us be playing that now? Me, no. It isn't just the guns and the honest that gets me, it is the way paintball is played the sites i have been to compared to airsoft. Most paintball sites seem to be someones little cash cow and run for a profit and while we get that in airsoft there seems to be more passion and commitment in airsoft. In the UK we are pretty much in the middle of the two, we have paintball from the USA and airsoft from Japan and Hong Kong giving us that choice. I bet in the USA paintball is more popular and in the Far East it is an airsofting majority. However here we have both and they both seem to have equally large communities. 'FireKnife' Link to post Share on other sites
blind_marksman Posted April 9, 2011 Report Share Posted April 9, 2011 Airsoft cons - Public image (at least in the UK). When a teacher found out a few years back, he was convinced I was in one of those extreme deep-Texas anti-government people's militias, only a few hours away from trying to bring down the government. Paintball has the advantage that whilst it's still a little frowned upon, it doesn't make people assume you're the next Crossbow Cannibal and Acid Bath Murderer (hilarious for me as I went to their old school...) Cost of the shiny guns. But not all of them - one needs only look at the JG market to see nice, cheap, affordable and usually reliable guns. Airsoft pros - Cost of ammunition. There aren't many paintball sites near where I live - but the ones I've been to a stupidly over-priced. One site asked £100 for 100 rounds of paint. You couldn't bring your own supply, or save ammunition from previous days. Fun was not had if you turned up with £15, especially since the accuracy of the markers was awful. The players. Yeah, I know we all complain about the geardos, the cheats, the CoD obsessed fanatics and so on - but I've never been part of a community that is so open, friendly and great to be around. You can go up to people at airsoft sites, without knowing them, and talk with them, have a laugh. The few times I've tried that at paintball sites, the players look at me like I've just questioned their parentage... Finally for me, its the firearms. I like to look at them. Hang them up on a wall. I don't quite think the average paintball marker could be hung on a wall as a work of art... Link to post Share on other sites
ratboy44 Posted April 9, 2011 Report Share Posted April 9, 2011 I have to say I can see where your arguments lie, however As someone who spent time playing paintball (of the tournament) variety I can see that there are enough differences for them too be different hobbies, I think if i was more of the woodland running around type paintballer i may have aa different argument to present but alas i dont. I do know though that one of the UKs largest paintball manufacturers(biggest brand of PB gear) the owner of which does indeed play and enjoy airsoft aswell!! So i cannot see why both cannot go hand in hand and be brotherly! Link to post Share on other sites
FireKnife Posted April 9, 2011 Report Share Posted April 9, 2011 So i cannot see why both cannot go hand in hand and be brotherly! Elitism. You will always have the people that propogate that their hobby or sport is better than the equivalent, like the people that argue over rugby and football. I have tried paintball didn't like it, someone i know though prefer paintball to airsoft, really it is each to their own and to be honest any argument about the two is really pointless. 'FireKnife' Link to post Share on other sites
ratboy44 Posted April 9, 2011 Report Share Posted April 9, 2011 fair point. I would just like to point out about pricing, there are upteen hundred "ballers" who are also against the prices some sites charge, there have even been scams uncovered whereby someone pays £15 for a day to arrive and find out that the £15 was just a deposit on a playing spot, extra costs to include equip hire, food, etc etc on the other hand there are some sites that for £35 a morning you get all in everything needed for a good game. paint can cost from £15 + per 2000 (outside of sites) so similar to airsofting, different sites, comapnies etc have different systems/rules and pricing. elitism as fireknife put it, exists in all hobbies and sports, shame it should go so far as a bit of friendly "rivalry" is always a giggle, but to take it to the ends of elitism is just pure idiocy as it can ruin reputations and spoil things for all. think I've blabbered enough now lol Link to post Share on other sites
FireKnife Posted April 9, 2011 Report Share Posted April 9, 2011 fair point. I would just like to point out about pricing, there are upteen hundred "ballers" who are also against the prices some sites charge, there have even been scams uncovered whereby someone pays £15 for a day to arrive and find out that the £15 was just a deposit on a playing spot, extra costs to include equip hire, food, etc etc A site i attended did it this way round: A friend of mine won a £750 voucher for a local site. That was for 25 people at £30 a head. Then we had to pay an extra £10 'deposit' for which they gave us a few old cheap smoke grenades for when they didn't pay it back. Then they told us that is was going to be £10 for an extra 50 balls and £15 for an extra 100. Finally to cap it all off i put up my hand (one airsofter among 25 people that had never held anything gun shaped) and asked what the range was and got promptly told that it was about 125 metres, accurate to 75 metres. It lead to a day with everyone except me paying about £40-50 for ammo. On top of this they did serve lunch which was a bit of soup with some pasta in it. Now lets say i go to my local airsoft site. It is £15 to turn up, £15 to hire and that includes 3000 rounds of ammo. My old site was £40 for a full hire and 3000 rounds of ammo. That is one of the big reasons i looked into airsoft. However i am not adverse to attending paintball, just i spend most of the time tagging people out so i don't have to buy paint etc. As for Elitism it is never going to go away and while i encourage the sport to grow some people don't deserve to be airsoters with the attitudes they have. But again i bet that occurs in all things. 'FireKnife' Link to post Share on other sites
RWJP Posted April 9, 2011 Report Share Posted April 9, 2011 paint can cost from £15 + per 2000 (outside of sites) so similar to airsofting, different sites, comapnies etc have different systems/rules and pricing. Only airsoft ammo I can think of that costs that much per 2000 rounds is Tracer ammo, and that isn't exactly common use... As a general rule of thumb, £8 can usually get 3000+ rounds, dependent on brand (I used to buy ICS .2s at £8 for 5000). I've yet to come across any paintball ammo that is that cheap! Link to post Share on other sites
FireKnife Posted April 9, 2011 Report Share Posted April 9, 2011 I've yet to come across any paintball ammo that is that cheap! Cheapest a mate found UK side was 1000 for £10 but they looked rough quality. I find that £7 for 3000 .2's and £9 for 3000 .25's is the average price. When i had an AEG a bag of 3000 lasted me 2.5 days so it was less than £3 a day for my ammo, then again i was conservative with my ammo and even if you spray a bit 3000 lasts more than just one day. But it makes sense, a little white plastic ball compared to a hollow plastic ball with a liquid in it. 'FireKnife' Link to post Share on other sites
ED-SKaR Posted April 9, 2011 Report Share Posted April 9, 2011 You're paying too much for airsoft ammo. My last order was 5k rounds per £9.50. (not including postage) EDIT- this ammo is .25 and good enough quality for TB barrels. Link to post Share on other sites
FireKnife Posted April 9, 2011 Report Share Posted April 9, 2011 Where from, i only run .25 however, prefer the heavier round to the cost difference. 'FireKnife' Link to post Share on other sites
ED-SKaR Posted April 9, 2011 Report Share Posted April 9, 2011 Where from, i only run .25 however, prefer the heavier round to the cost difference. 'FireKnife' I was talking about .25 Link to post Share on other sites
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