Attn:WARPIG Project
Corinthian Media Services
323 Gephart St SW
Palm Bay, FL 32908
321-549-1041

Nuff' said

ZARTHOS

Advances in paintball technology have changed many of the aspects of the game of paintball.  One thing, however remains the same - the game hinges on the player.  No amount of technology can make up for a poor player.

You need to understand that sponsorship is not "free stuff", it is a business
arrangement.  Top name professional teams have a name which has financial value.
Aftershock is sponsored by JT for example.  In exchange for JT's support, Aftershock
endorses their products.  When players see and ad where the team the won the world cup
says they won because they use JT gear,  JT sells more gear and makes more
money than what they spent on supporting Aftershock.  They get a return on their
investment.  Both the sponsor and the team benefit from their relationship.
What you need to do is find a way that you can give your sponsors a similar
return on their investment in you.  Many teams get sponsored by a field and provide the
field with referees in exchange for their field fees and discounts on paint when they
practice.

Thanks, have fun with your new mag.

It seems to me that this really falls on the shoulders of your field operator, and how he organizes his games.   At SC Village in southern California, separate games are run for different classes of paintguns.  You can move up (and I've seen some serious action when the Kamikaze Shooters have gone stock class on the open class field), but you can't move down, that way the players don't end up overwhelmed.

Range will be the same, as both must be used at under 300 fps.  As for
accuracy both are quite good.  The AT85 has a hopperless design, which
some prefer, but also has some drawbacks in a more fragile and
problematic ball feeding system when compared to the Autococker..  Some
players prefer the AT85s lighter weight, while others think it is
overpriced for having a molded plastic receiver.

Greetings
Michael
www.paintball.com.pl

Hello Michael,
Yes, animal products are used in paintballs.  The shell is made of pork and
beef gelatin.  The alternative would be perfect circle plastic paintballs.
However they cost 10 cents (us) per shell (without the paint) and have to be
filled and glued.  If your friends are environmentalists, they won't like
them, because they are not biodegradable, and the plastic shards can lead to
the injury and suffering of animals that may eat them.  Ultimately though the plastic is
also based on animal products, as it is made from petroleum which is decayed
plant and animal matter.  Ask your friends if they have a problem with
photographs.  If they take pictures they are already using the same type of
gelatin in the film and photographic paper emulsion.  The same type of gelatin
is used in the lithograph negatives used in printing magazines and newspapers
as well.

The number of players depends on the game format.  For tournaments you'll want to have alternates in case some players can't make it, or get injured.  5 player teams usually have 10 or 12 players with 7 going to a tournament, and 10 player teams usually have 20 or so, with 12-15 going to a tournament.  Then of course there are big games where teams are formed at the game and can consist of several hundred people.

Welcome to the sport.  It's good to see you getting involved as a family.

But the real reason i am writing to you is to thank you for providing a free classified section.  For if it was not for you classified sight i might have never been able to sell my paintball equipment to upgrade to better stuff. I have told all of my friends about you web sight and they love it too!!

 Thank you VERY much and please keep up the good work!!

Chris Phillips

Thanks for the letter.  We hope you enjoy our new and improved classified ads that have a more attractive layout, and shorter download times with their new indexing structure.

I have a 14 year old son and some friends of his who got in trouble with
the police for shooting paintballs and throwing eggs at oncoming traffic,
on a bridge above the trunpike. I was wondering if you could give me some
information or you know someone that can on How many animals and people
have been injured or killed from using paintball guns properly and
improperly.

To date, no person has ever been killed through the use or mis-use of a
paintgun (there have been a few cases of heart attacks during the game of
paintball, as with other sports).  I am not aware of any agency which keeps
track of animal injuries from paintguns, and the most recent stats on paintball
injuries to people I have seen are available at the Stress Shot homepage (see
our page of links in the resources section).

And how many traffic accidents assocted with paintball guns.
(And I also want to include eggs) Injuries and death and damage.

I have not seen any reports on this.

I need this information so he can write me an assay on the proper and improper use of
eggs and paintball guns. I want him to know how bad this was for him to do.
What he did could have killed someone. I want him to know that if you use
them in the right way you can "eat and have fun too". Please Help if you
can. If he wants to use a paintball gun I have no promblem with it as long
as he learns to use it right.
Thanks
Sue
 

I think the best examples to find for him would be to research the four youths
who went on a rampage in Los Angeles a couple of years ago shooting pedestrians
from a moving vehicle.  All four are doing time, as California law treats an
assault, or threat with a paintgun, or even a toy gun the same as if it were a
real firearm.  Check with your local law enforcement and they can provide you
with information on the laws in your area, or at least where to have your son
research.
 

Thanks, we're glad you enjoy it.

Frequently, five man teams in nppl put up with inferior prizes, little
or no sponsorship, no press coverage, and the event is scheduled at the
convenience of ten-man, with fewer, inexperienced refs.  For example, we
took 3rd in Pittsburgh and won MAYBE $100 in prizes per person.  Compare
that to ten-man...

Chicago was a welcome change.  Although prizes were scaled back
(significantly) due to a lack of participants in amateur a, they were
still decent.  The reffing was first-rate, with a minimum of
controversial calls and refs who were not afraid to get shot to make the
check.

Anyway, thank you for giving 5-man the attention it deserves.

For Team Illusion, the people in the photo are (from left to right):
back row:  Tom Rochenski, Jim Tanner, Jake Eldred, Rico Fernandez
front row:  Kenny Klamper, Robby (not a member of the team), and Lou
Ward.
(not pictured):  Paul Reid (captain), and Jeff Ferrara

Jim Tanner
Team Illusion

You're right, 5 man doesn't usually get quite as much attention, largely because there are often less teams playing, and because in the NPPL it's not a format for the pros.  Congratulations to team Illusion for taking Chicago.

-Johan

Thanks :-)

           Thanks for all of your help!  I really enjoy reading the information and articles that you put on your webpage.  Your site is probably one of the best in the world. I like it because you look at the entire sport of paintball, instead of just one thing, like info for newbies or links to other paintball pages.  The Warpig page has helped me choose my first 'gun, the 68 AUTOMAG.  I have been on your site ten times now and I still havent seen everything on it. I have told my friends about your great site and I hope to visit it again!
                                             ---Daniel Shain

Thanks for the letter.  I expect it's going to take more than another 10 visits to see everything, WARPIG is over 200 megabytes in size.  Hope you enjoy your new mag.

Great site. I have a standard newbie question. Have you ever heard a confirmed story of a person losing an eye while playing paintball and wearing an approved paintball mask. (I own a JT Spectra 260)I was just wondering if I should wear a pair of shooting glasses under my mask while I play for an extra measure of safety. Is this a good idea? Just wanted to ask as I have my pilots' liscense, and was planning on pursuing a career in aviation, for which one needs at least two eyes. :) Thanks.

We've not heard of any case where failure of a paintball goggle (those made by JT, Leader or Scott) has lead to an eye loss.  In every case of eye injury we've heard of, either a person did not wear goggles, or removed their goggles during a game.

Greg Morris

By calling the tournament promoter and asking.

Would it be worth going to a Bob Long paintball class for $100,

I haven't been to one of Bob's classes.  Whether it is worth $100 probably depends a lot on how much $100 is worth to you.  Personally, I think Bob is an excellent teacher and coach.  He not only has the skills and experience as a pro player but he is very good at helping other players develop their game.  Of the many people who could be putting on clinics like this, he's one that I think would teach the most.

and how many paintball tournaments should a team try to go to each year?

That too depends on your money situation, and how dedicated you are to being able to practice together and how far you are willing to travel.  There's no magic number here, it's how many tournaments you could go to, and still have fun doing it.

I love your web page.

 Thanks :-)

Thanks :-)  We want WARPIG to provide information for all players, beginners, experienced, or those that have not yet played.

Joining a team is a matter of getting to know folks on a team.  Spend some time at your local field, ask the field owner to introduce you to some of the local teams.  Play paintball with them when you can, and sooner or later, you'll end up on a team.

As for an Autococker under $200 - keep an eye out for a used one that is broken or missing parts.

i'm terribly sorry you felt it necessary to close down a very beneficial
way of paintball players to communicate. possibly you felt threatened
that the players may unite and allow their voices to be heard. I
certaintly hope this isn't true and this just isn't a feable attempt of
the NPPL to dampen the voices of the teams. If it is, let it die. you
people at the top that feel that they have all the power can run your
silly little games but what a shame it will be when there is no support
at the bottom. Don't forget the little man because he is the one that
feeds your sorry little mouth.

David Lloyd

Hi David,

Negative posts about the NPPL are not why we closed the forum.  The NPPL
is a player owned league, if the players have problems, they are to blame
for not fixing them, that's no skin off my back, as I am not a voting member of the
league, nor am I in a position of power related to it.

The position of power that I am in, is that I control this web page, into
which myself, my wife and others have put in many, many, unpaid hours of
work, for the sheer enjoyment of it.  Tourney Talk had degraded to the
level of 4th grade school yard name calling, rather than actual beneficial discussion.

By developing new forum software, we were able to re-open Tourney Talk as a
forum where players can unite, and generate change without having to filter
through the puerile garbage and slander had been getting in the way.

Hello Bill and Dawn, my name is Jeremy Martin, I'm part of the T-N-T ref core,
we met in Orlando last year.  You probably met so many people you can't
remember but thats alright.

Sometimes that is the case, as we do meet a lot of people, but we certainly remember you guys.  Building teams of independent referees will build more credibility for our sport.

Any way, on to the subject at hand.  I totaly
agree with you about tourney talk.  I hate to see it go, but it just got into
one big cat fight.  How about an area where people can post small local
tourney's?  I think you already have an area like this but I just haven't
looked for it because I always went to tourney talk to find tourney dates.

We do, the main calendar is accessible from both the resources section and the
tournament section.

The idea behind Tourney Talk did not die, we just waited to bring it back
under a level of tighter control where poster can be held accountable for what
they say.  By removing the ability for anonymous posting, it got back to serious
tournament discussion, and not the nonsense into which it had previously degenerated.
 

Well, keep up the great work, thanks for caring about paintball as much as you
do, thanks.

Thanks :-)

Jeremy Martin
Origional Paintball Hooligans
T-n-T ref core
p.s.-we'll see you at the cup this year.

You know it :-)

In a typical month, we add 20 to 100 new pictures to WARPIG.  Just because we don't remove the old stuff doesn't mean we aren't staying current.

and try making the viedos AVI OR QUICK TIME (for us that dont have real video and dont intend to buy it. I want to see some kick A** viedo's if u dont mind me saying. thanks
Paintballer,

It is just not practical us use the AVI or QUICKTIME formats, as they are not as compact as Real Video (see the letter about this below).  The Real Player software is available for free, you don't have to purchase anything to watch PigTV.

I think you have us confused with someone else.  The Brass Eagle Talon, while lacking in many features of more expensive markers, is very affordable, and has provided an inexpensive pathway for many people to enter the sport of paintball.

Yeah I can see your point...I was in a strange mood the night I sent my
thoughts. But I have talked to many paintballers and store owners and they
dont think too greatly about brass eagle.

I mean maybe its some peoples
preferance on paintball markers and eqipment...but I like to go with the good
quality eqipment and buy from paintball stores, rather than k-mart.

Same here.  Same with other sporting goods.  I'm considering getting a mountain
bike.  If I do, I'm going to go to the local bike shop, and get it well set up by a
pro, not buy it at big chain store, because I want the higher quality brand, and I want
the experience and advice of the salesmen.  Just because that is better and the
route I want to take, I'm not going to picket the chain stores and tell people not to shop
there.

I would
feel that the paintball store's profits would be better off going to a
paintball store rather than a huge chain company.

I think you'll find if you talk to a few store owners that they are making more
money because of the chain stores selling Brass Eagle Products.  Jerry Leslie, who
owns our local shop Jerry Leslie's Paintball Supplies has told me that he regularly
gets customers referred to him by K-Mart and Sports Authority.  They buy an
inexpensive paintgun, then either want up grade it, or want to buy something
fancier.  They end up going to the paintball shop.

And I just started
paintballing a month ago and am looking at different guns and parts, and what
have your experiences with buying from classefied adds?

Jordan :-)

Personally I've only bought one thing through the classifieds and I had no
problems.  You need to be careful and make sure you have contact information for
the party you deal with in case something goes bad.  Also shipping COD for a
check is good.  If the package doesn't arrive the buyer is not out money, if the
package is bad (not what promised) the check can be canceled, and if it's a bad
check, it can be traced and prosecuted.

sincerly the sappy paintball player, Charles O'Donnell

We're very happy that WARPIG was able to help.

                     I have just satrted paintballing, for a moth now I have
been investing hundreds of dollars into  paintballs. I am only 14 years old in
the state which I live in (washington) at my age,by law i cant get a job.
After paintballing for just a month now I realized how horribly priced
paintballs are. So just out of curiosity I venture the RP Scherer website
(which can be accesed in the technical page of the warpig site) and RP Scherer
is a drug company but makes paintballs from unused material that are the shell
of pills or the coating of pills, considering how much of a wealthy company
they are and the materials used to make paintballs (food dye and pig fat), in
my opinion  RP Scherer paintballs are abnoxiously priced at about ten cents a
paintball. Dont get me wrong they are very high quality paintballs but
paintball is a hobby,game and  considered sport. Why should it be a constant
investment?

Jordan :-)

To start with, RP's paintballs are not made with scrap gelatin left over from making pills.  RP Scherer has a factory dedicated to making only paintballs located in Florida.  Their lower cost brand of paintballs, "Big Ball" is made of left-overs though - the left over paint and gelatin used to make Marbalizer and Premium paintballs.  Because of that, it comes at a lower price.  You can definitely buy RP Scherer for less than 10 cents a ball, but remember when you're buying it at that price, you're paying for more than just the ball.  It gets shipped from the factory to PMI, RP's distributor, and from there to the larger dealers in refrigerated trucks so that it doesn't go bad.  If you're buying it at a field, part of your cost is going to pay for field staff, shipping of the paint, and even the lease on the land where you are playing.  You could save quite a bit of money per ball by eliminating the middle men.  Just go the the expense of licensing your own business, leasing and insuring a climate controlled warehouse for the paint, and order it several pallet (about 80 cases per pallet) at a time.  One way or another, those things cost money, and ultimately, the person shooting the paintball is going to pay for them.  It's a fact of life that leisure activities cost money, some people can afford them and some can not.  As the sport of paintball continues to grow, expanded distribution networks, and volumes of sales are going to help to keep bringing prices down (when I started playing, I paid 25 cents a ball).

Great, we're glad we could help. :-)

One thing you fail to mention is how sore a mid 30s male might feel the next day if he fails to warm up or stretch and merely runs all over the woods like a maniac for a day.

Like with anything, if you play hard, you'll feel it.

One other concern you might address is the Ghillie suit. I read the article and made a fairly decent version; it did seem to do the job and when I managed to quell my John Wayne impulses to charge straight at the foe I did have a good amount of concealment
Of course in my enthusiasm i slogged and crawled through seven types of mud which the ghillie promptly absorbed,  this added to the camo effect.
What the ghillie article did not mention was the withering glare  one's spouse would give one when the ghillie was thrown into the laundry after being carried through the house.
the burlap and mud combination was spread liberally throughout the house.
And the washing machine.

 I would urge Warpig to issue a warning about the disquieting threat the ghillie suit has when it comes to domestic bliss.

Sincerely, sore but happy

Craig Corbett
 

Hmmm, perhaps we need to amend our disclaimer at the bottom of the page to mention that the reader is solely responsible for any disruption to their relationships caused by an obsession with the sport of paintball.

Despite the fact that another web publisher has claimed to be the first in 1998, WARPIG was the first web page to feature an interactive field and store list, and we've had it since 1994.  In our resources, you can find our international field and store listings, and field and store owners can enter their listings automatically.

Basically the purpose of my e-mail was to see if Warpig would be
releasing a video for sale that would document Skyball.  I found the
RealVideo of the setup of Skyball interesting, however the grainy
quality of it does not do it justice.  I hope that something like this
is feasible because I am really amazed at how well things seemed to be
running.  My friends and I had always thought that paintball at the
'dome would be awesome, however when we first heard about Skyball I
thought it was a joke...

While we did not release a video tape of Skyball 98, Focus International did, and it is available direct from them.  For contact information, see their web site at www.skyball.com.  1999 should have PigTV coverage, as well as videos available from both Focus International and Traumahead Productions.

Anyways, thanks for the great coverage and keep up the good work...

BTW, were you able to explore Toronto at all?  What did you think?

Yes we did.  Erik Stork (who was working for Leader Goggles at the time) gave us a bit of a down-town walking tour.  The architecture was very impressive blending old stone structures with modern skyscrapers.

Chris Barton
TIP#1466

That's right.  And despite some of the trials of medical treatment, Jamie has remained in good sprits and getting out to play paintball when her health permits.  Scenario games are definitely a family activity for the McKinnons.

I have found your tech talk pages as valuable resources for finding info about a marker.
Thanks and keep up the good work,
    Stephen

Thank you. :-)

Those are various versions of the CAR-68 from Gun f/x (www.gunfx.com).  The reason they carry a hefty price tag compared to many other paintguns, is that they are designed to weigh and balance just like the firearms they simulate.  They are used as training tools for groups including the Navy Seals and the US Secret Service.  The Car-68II will be released in the not too distant future and it is actually built into a real M16 receiver, and uses a clip fed system (and will only be available to military and law enforcement units).  If you're just interested in a military style look, without all of detail needed for a training emulator, take a look at the military package Viper M1 from USA Performance Products.

Thank you.

The reason i am writing to you is because i was wondering
If it is possible can you please send me as much info as you
can on the automag any reviews, comments, articles, or anything
to my email or home address?
I would appreciate it very much

Christopher Phillips

We aren't set up to provide information by mail or e-mail.  The information we have on the Automag is found in the technical section, under paintguns.

I want to start off by saying what every one else says
"Warpig is the best paintball site on the web" I dont
think any other pages come even close to good quality stuff you have
here. Every time I look theres something new. Ok now that thats all
said heres what im writing about:

Thank you.

I just wanted to say how it bugs me when I read letters
about people critising things about your page or any thing
else on here. I know every one is intidled to there opinion
but still. Like that guy who wrote in about your name
affecting the growth of paintball (it kind of reminded
me about the thing in the february issue of Paintball 2-Xtremes
when they talked about the new scott Bad Ass goggles
on the cover and having people writing in and complaing).
When people see Warpig they thing "hey thats a cool name" not
"Thats a page about war and bad stuff" I mean come on .
Warpig is great I cant even imagine how many people have probubly
got into playing because of this page (I got into paintball from this page )
So I guess what im trying to say is that every thing your doing is geat and that
You should keep up the good work.

Thanks a lot

Thanks.  We get quite a few letters from people who started playing because of reading about paintball here, and for us, that is the bottom-line.

You have a fantastic web site. My son has literally spent countless hours on your site and I do belive that because your web page is so well informed and easy to access we have began to bound a lot more easily and enjoy the sport even more thank you again for responding to his letter and questions the last time. Good day to you Gentlemen.
                     Brad Lindberg

Thank You

I am interested in starting a team of myown, I was wondering a few things.
1a. What different positions make up a paintball team, and what are their roles
during the game?

In paintball there aren't set positions like the quarterback in football for example.  The key is to see what roles each of the players on your team does the best.  For example, most teams have front players, some that run up the center, and some that run up the tape lines, as well as back players that lay heavy cover fire for them from the rear.

1b. In reference to the above positions, what would be a few good practice exercises
to increase a person's skills?

Practice what you will be doing.  When you shoot in a paintball game, you're not shooting at targets on a target range, so why would you in practice?  When Renick Miller and Erik Felix teach player's clinics, they set up a course for the players to run, and fire at targets while moving and utilizing cover.  They also practice crawling, while staying low, and snap shooting to pop up from a bunker and shoot accurately, then get back under cover fast.  Having someone in the role of captain or coach to watch over the players while they practice these skills is a good way to make sure you aren't teaching yourself bad habits like leaving a hopper sticking out in the open.

2. What would be some good practices to improve general skills.

See above.  Also, you might want to watch the IRONMEN practice episode of PigTV in our resources section to see how they practice.

This is all I am wondering about at the moment, and I thank you for taking the time
to read this and reply.

P.S. I would like to say that WARPIG is one of the greatest sites, in the world, much
less paintball.

Your reader,
Jackie Neal Baker

Thank you :-)
 

                                                - Gerry "Baron" Senechal

Thanks Gerry, it's our pleasure :-)

i was wondering if it would be possible to have MPEG encoded versions of Pig TV available for download. the current encoding, while nifty for watching right off the web, leaves much to be desired for quality viewing. Pig TV is such a great idea and could only get better with cleaner encoding for those of us willing to download the files. anyway, just an idea. thanks for your time.-Dale

We could provide a cleaner video and audio with another format like MPEG, or with Real Video. The problem here is file size. With the level of compression we are currently using, a half hour show takes up about 5 megabytes. If we were To switch to say MPEG with little loss, we could be easily looking at a megabyte for each minute, making each show over 30 megabytes. That just isn't practical. Fortunately, modem speeds are improving, making larger files usable, and compression quality is improving as well (you'll notice a cleaner image in the third episode).

Personal_NameChandra Shekhar
From: Dr. Chandra Shekhar Sahukar, Assistant Commissioner, Govt. of India,
Ministry of Agriculture, C-376, DDA Flats, East Loni Road, Delhi-110093 (INDIA) Subject: Please send me information on Pig Husbandry, breeds, and management of pigs. I am also working as Chief Editor, Piggery India Year Book 1997, please send me information on pigs.

Uhmmmm. We're not about pigs, we're about paintball.

 Thank you :-)

Death to all Auzzies !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
you are nothing but an island of theives and murderers!!!!!!!!!

In the land down under, there are many areas where paintball is illegal. Isn't that punishment enough?

 I would appreciate it very much if you could tell me how to go into a topic in Tech Talk and then exit back to the same place on the topic list where I was before I "went in". I keep getting returned to the top of the list and then I have to traverse down again. If there is only 1 entry I have been pressing the back 1 page key but if there is a long string of entries I end up having to go through all of them to get back to the original list.

Thanks in advance for any help you might give me on this. By the way - I love this web page Thanks much for keeping it up!
-Earl

This can vary with different web browsers. I usually go to one message at a time from the main TechTalk page. If I want to read a follow-up message, I go Back out to the main page, then click on the follow-up. Neither Netscape (Win-95) or Ibrowse (Amiga-DOS3.0) looses track of where in the index page I was looking last.

Thank you. It is evident that someone spends much time ensuring that this page is so perfect.

 Thanks, but it's not just us. WARPIG is what it is because so many people have written articles and FAQs and send them in, and been active in the message bases as well.

Does AGD have an e-mail address? If so, what is it?

Air Gun Designs does not currently have a public-contact e-mail address. They do have a web page at www.airgun.com, which lists all official contact methods (phone fax, etc.). As a note, if you are ever contacted by e-mail from someone claiming to be from Air Gun Designs, don't be afraid to call AGD to verify. Some months ago, it seems someone was running a scam, contacting people by e-mail and having them send their paintguns to a bogus address for "factory updates" in an attempt to steal them.

Thanks so much for producing such a first quality web page about paintball. It is because of people like you, that the sport of paintball is furthered along in its journey to become a sport that everyone has the opportunity to play.
Thanks,
Troy Cook

 We're glad to be involved.

i am a beginer how do I make a team and select a name
-Zack

Surprisingly this is a question we get a lot.

 There are two steps, and in my experience, the second is the hardest.

• Get a group of players together that want to be on the same team.
• Get them all to agree on a name for the team.

When you want to play in a tournament, find a tournament you are interested in, contact the tournament promoter, and enter your team.

That's it, no fuss, no muss.

good morning, i posted a classified ad to sell a RT automag & nitro system here Thursday (6/26/97) at 10:15 P i had my first response within 5 minutes, sold it in less than 24 hours. Amazing! this is a great idea, works great. please remove the ad when you get around to it. (BTW i have had almost 40 responses, more then 10 were serious "ready to go" buyers)

thanks again,
marianne

 We're glad to hear that the ad worked so well for you. We've tried a few different methods for ad deletion. Originally, we had the person placing the ad enter a password they could use to delete the ad. When the ads became heavily used, this became a problem, as people forgot their passwords. Then we just had people mailing in requests for the ads to be deleted. That became a problem when people saw ads priced lower then theirs and would write in asking us to delete someone else's ad! As we have the system set-up currently, forsale ads expire in 2 weeks, and ads in the other sections expire in one month.

dear, warpig

I was hopeing you could write back telling me on how to order the, paintball WARPIG MAGAZINES. If you could I would like that alot and hope you can e-mail me soon because I want those magazines.

-Tajhoffman

This is an easy one to answer. You can't. We don't have a printed magazine of WARPIG. The WARPIG site is a compilation of information people have sent in from all over. However, if you look in our resources section, you will find ordering information on verious paintball magazines. If you get and read those magazines, you'll probably notice articles by quite a few people who have contributed to make WARPIG what it has become today.

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN,

 I was wondering why you people sell your paintball guns for such an outragous price it's not like that paintball guns are the best thing in life. Personally I would rather have a N64 or something like that. So [explicative deleted] off, because I'm not buying your [explicative deleted]!

The [explicative deleted] & [explicative deleted]

Jacob B Kenyon

Sorry Jacob, but I think you have us confused with someone else. We don't sell paintball equipment.

U've done a great job, as usual, with your latest video "I left my paint in San Francisco". Hope to be able to watch some more videos in the near future.

Thank you.

Here in Sweden paintball is still very small, but it grows bigger every year since more and more people try it out and find it to be very challenging and fun. But the media don't give the sport much room, other when it comes to people who wanna complain about something. I've never, ever seen a paintball tournament in swedish TV, and that sux! Therefore, it's great to be able to watch your videos over the net!

While some headway is being made here in the US, there still isn't much In the way of paintball on television

What I would like to see, is something like the middle part of "I left my paint in San Francisco", where you showed us the Shocker. Perhaps a special video where you only reviewed the guns out there, well perhaps not all of them but at least the most popular ones. Guns I'd like to see in something like this is the Auto Cocker, Auto Mag RT, Spyder, VM68, Tippman Carbine, Tippman F/A and the TS1 Select (don't forget this one!!).

To start with, if you want to see more like the section on the Shocker, you'll want to order the tapes from Traumahead productions (their phone number is on the PigTV page. That section on the Shocker is an excerpt from their video of the 1997 Pittsburgh NPPL tournament, which they were kind enough to share with folks on the net via PigTV. Like the rest of WARPIG, PigTV is open for everyone who wants to contribute, not just the things we produce and write here. As for what we are shooting, there are some product reviews and factory tours in the works.

Ok, that's all for now! Thanks a lot for a great site!
/Stefan Johansson, Sweden

 Thank you, and thanks for helping make it such a great site.

I know you probably are sick of hearing about stuff like this, and it is not meant as a flame.

 Not sick at all. Since we took over WARPIG completely in August of '95, we have received anywhere from 50-100 pieces of feedback e-mail per day, and answered as much of it in as much detail as possible. This is I believe the third letter we have received from someone concerned over the name.

 What I am talking about is the name of this netsite, Warpig. I have heard the story of how the page was named, and I can respect things such as that, but do you really feel that the name Warpig is going to help the sport of paintball? Of course it isn't. Paintball already has enough challenges to overcome without our own people shooting ourselves in the feet. People outside of the sport of paintball see a name like Warpig and they eat it up. All non-paintballers see when they hear a name like Warpig is a bunch of para-military psychos running around in the woods training for WWIII.

 While I don't think there really is a way to measure the impact that our site's name has on non-paintballer's views of the sport, I have to say that in all the time we have been maintaining the site, we have not received any negative feedback from non-paintaballers. Zip. Nada. We get over 34,000 hits a day. Some of these must be non-paintballers. If they were "eating up" the warlike negative image created by the name, they sure haven't said anything. I'm sure we got a decent share of non- paintballers looking at the site when the Baywatch page had a link to us (when the TV show dealt with paintball). I'm rather glad that some of the people who were introduced to paintball by the TV show had a chance to come to WARPIG, and learn how important paintball goggles, and other safety equipment are to the sport.  (Editor's note:  This letter was written a while back - the site is now receiving 5 million+ hits a month as of March 1999)

 I know by now you are probably calling me numerous names, and saying things like we don't need pansies like you in the sport, but sit back and think about it for a while.

 No names at all. It's clear that you are interested in promoting paintball as a positive, safe, and enjoyable sport, as are we.

 Do you want more people to play paintball? Wouldn't you like to have more targets?

 Absolutely.

 Or would you rather have paintball eventually wither and die? The choice is up to you. Do your part and don't give people any more ammo than they need to harm our sport. It think that you have a great web page with a lot of info, but I am afraid it will all go to waste. Remember, this is coming from a die hard paintballer and not some PC doomsayer. Think about it.

 Yes, paintball is often facing attacks from many fronts, especially legislative and in public opinion. Believe me I understand the desire to make paintball acceptable to those who see it as evil and warlike. But there are some bottom lines here. One of which is that there are some people who will allways find paintball offensive, simply because of the fact that "guns" are involved. There is no way around that. When we moved WARPIG to www.warpig.com, we considered changing the name. That brought up the other bottom line. WARPIG has become known as the place to go to find paintball information on the internet. Not because we have every bit of info here, but because we help people locate all the other places on the net with paintball info as well. The name has become known in places throughout the industry, and outside the industry (the Baywatch people pointed to us as the place - they provided no other links to the then 60 other paintball pages). Please don't take this the wrong way, we aren't on an ego trip with WARPIG or anything, I am just pointing out, that a reputation has been built up around the name WARPIG, and that would be lost if we changed the name.

 I honestly think that people looking to bash our sport have much stronger things (in reality, or in their eyes) to point at than our name, and if they have found our name, they probably found our site, where they can learn that paintball is not a bunch of wackos training for World War III.

 So are we helping paintball grow, or single-handedly causing it to wither and die because of the WARPIG name? Take a look at the two letters following this one, they were the next two we received after yours. I hope they are a decent indication of what we are doing.

 Later.
Dave

 As and interesting side note. The California Department of Motor Vehicles denied our request for a WARPIG license plate. The computer system would not allow the name to be entered, because it was tagged at "offensive" Not because of "war", but because it said "pig".

 -Laurie

 Thanks, we don't have a mailing list, but check out the Cybersports homepage (check our list of links to other pages under internet resources, for the URL), they have a mailing list about Northern California paintball events, and one about paintball in general.

 We passed this through the PigTech(tm) universal BBS-speak translator and got:
Your site is cool, don't change a thing.

 Thanks for the compliment, but expect changes, like PigTV and a multiplayer on-line game system to come.