From: john@kennel.FIDONET.ORG (John Hamilton)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.paintball
Subject: Get off the Combat  Thing
Date: 13 Oct 92 16:26:02 GMT
Organization: Fido's Kennel, Cupertino CA

Tuesday October 13 1992 08:11, Alexander Franklin Rose wrote to All:

 AFR>         I am not trying to tell anyone what to post on billboards I
 AFR> would simply like to see the comparison of killing and paintball stay
 AFR> aas far away from eachother as possible and this format is just as
 AFR> public as a national publication.  If I saw the same type of comparisons
 AFR> made in those publications  I would send a letter to the editor, and
 AFR> indeed I have. On the note of the Ironmen's combat techniques being
 AFR> borrowed from anything I beg to differ, none of us have ever received
 AFR> any military training, and I think that the utilization of military
 AFR> tactics are what kill a lot of teams.   The fact that everyone on our
 AFR> team can think instead of having 99% mindless pawns as in military
 AFR> stategy sets us eons ahead of any war this country has fought since the
 AFR> Revolution.  Besides all our stratagies were originated out of playing
 AFR> Paintball every week and whether or not they bare some likeness to
 AFR> something done in the past or present by the military is indeed
 AFR> irrelevent.

This is an uninformed, closet view, Zander. While I agree we should not draw
open reference to the relationship of paintball to combat in national media,
that does not mean they are not related. What military tactics "kill a lot of
teams"? The fact none of your team have military training means nothing. The
tactics of combat teams have been reinvented by unconnected groups of peoples
hundreds of thousands of times across the planet because they work for the
nature of the "game".

That you call the members of the military "mindless pawns" is arrogant,
egotistical, and unfounded, if not unkind. You are pretty high on
generalizations, but short on specifics, and show a lack of understanding
of the universality of the concepts of military maneuver, leadership, and
indivdual roles and responsibilities in a "combat" unit. If your team
demonstrates many of the tactics of a modern or even ancient military unit,
are you so arrogant as to say there is no relationship, that the crucible of
conflict in the game of paintball has not brought forth strategies and
tactics that may be as old as mankind, because they are effective? If
something looks and smells and feels like a rose, is it logical to deny the
likeness?

 AFR> "Football, soccer, chess, hockey, paintball, the list goes on and on.
 AFR> All share common threads which require the defeat of the opposition
 AFR> within the constraints of the rules of the game."

 AFR>         This is very true J.H. and by your own logic this sets paintball
 AFR> and these other sports further from war because in war there are no
 AFR> rules, as is clearly depicted by our last war where we killed hundreds
 AFR> of thousands without ever even looking into their eyes.

To say there are "no rules" demonstrates a severe lack of knowledge of the
military history, indeed, the history of the world. The rules in combat are
rules which govern how far a unit is able to move in a day, at what range
they are able to engage the enemy, what level of losses they are able to
sustain and still be effective, what objectives contribute to the strategy,
and on and on. Do you not see the logical similarity? In combat, the rules
are "self-enforcing" (obviously), in paintball, we have judges. By the way,
I've seen tape of the Ironmen, and your team marks oppossing players more
often than not without "looking into their eyes" given the limited range of
the markers we play with. So what? Your moral and emotional beliefs cloud
your judgement and logic on this issue, sir.

 AFR>  As far as
 AFR> corperate sponsorship goes the more cash pumped into the sport the
 AFR> cheaper it will become.  There are already several amateur circuits
 AFR> around including Lively's new division at each tourny that allows
 AFR> amateur teams to essentially play it out for the sponsors that will get
 AFR> them to the pro-circuit.

It is not getting cheaper for those of us not on national tournament teams.
Marker prices are going up (for state of the art markers). Paintball prices
are NOT coming down. I say this as a retailer as well as a player.

 AFR> as a firm believer in the First Amendment I do agree that you may write
 AFR> anyhting you want I simply think that those types of things
 AFR> are potentially harmful to the sport that we all love.  This is a simple
 AFR> question of timing and placement not censorship.  Just like it would be
 AFR> out of place and would cast the wrong impression if people posted their
 AFR> sexual fantasies on this board.

The concept of UseNet newsgroups is unmoderated posting (mostly) which
conforms to the charter of the newsgroup. If you go back to the news.announce
post on the formation of .paintball, you will find it is about paintball and
related subjects. Not what you think paintball is about, but what anyone
thinks about it. You may disagree with points I raise (your argument will
stand or fall on its own merits, nothing else), but you cannot limit the
scope of the discussion. To attempt to do so throws poor light on you and
your team, since you are so careful to make sure we know who you are.

 AFR>                                 Zander of the IRONMEN

John

--  
John Hamilton                  uucp: uts.amdahl.com!kennel!john
DoD #0327   ToT #11            internet: john@f8.n143.z1.fidonet.org
ZX-11 From Hell.               arpa: john@kennel.FIDONET.ORG
She said, "Its either me or that ZX-11!" Too bad, I'll miss her.
Newsgroups: rec.sport.paintball