http://cyberbuzz.gatech.edu/airsoft/tac2prac.wmv

Unless of course you'd rather run around in a flashy yellow wetsuit shooting expensive goo from a pipe with a big tumor on top.

Agreed. Airsoft is much better.

'Softers unite!

/me unites

Paintballs are fun and they don't really hurt much, but I've been told airsoft bb's hurt like a beeotch.

Theres just one big problem with Airsoft, as FeTT pointed out to me.

Its based on a trust system, you opponent isn't marked as far as I know. So they could just lie about it if its not obvious.

Flashy yellow wetsuits? I'm a paint ball fanatic and I've never seen that. What planet are you from? :p

Any day of the week.
Paintball>Airsoft

More people play it.
You can win stuff.
More places to play it.
More selection of equipment.
More customizabillity of equipment.
You can use your HPA tank to make super powerful Tato guns.
Harder to cheat.
.. I could go on all day. Paintball clearer is better, the only downside is the cost.

Does airsoft cause your friends to have big fat bruises like paintball does? If so I'll jump on a bandwagon (it's been ages since I've been on a wagon!).

They're about the same. Airsoft shoots at higher speeds but BBs are lighter so they hit with less force.

Either way I found both are effect enough to make you feel them for a few hours after impact.

If you lie, people will find out, and you'll be banned from attending any games.

This also ensures that only mature and responsible players get to play, which makes it all the more enjoyable.

http://www.bluedawgdiscount.com/search.asp?7=airsoft&1=Go <-- That's where my friend shops, I guess stuff is cheap there :/

momentum :p

More immature people too!

You can win stuff in airsoft games

Airsoft can be played on any paintball field

umm, what?

again... what?

1. Not quite, but more advertised.
2. Same for Airsoft - there are tournaments and team games
3. Just because you cant see them doesnt mean theyre not there, See 1.
4. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAH. Try again.
5. See 4, with more "HA"
6. Er, what?
7. Yeah, we *trust* our friends we play with, ysee?

That's what they nicknamed 'softair', or the cheap worthless version of airsoft. It's basicly children's toys.

Those guns shoot just as well as broken straws you blow air into, and those BBs are pretty worthless too. They're made of cheap plastic that breaks at anything.

Basicly, if your gun doesn't cost you at least 300$ used or ~500$ brand new, it's not real airsoft.

CORRECTION! If you dont have a gun you can mess with settings on the paintballs dont hurt. I have a paintball gun and if I turn it up it hurrrtttss... I got a big whelp on my back from being shot really close.

Airsoft doesnt hurt anywhere near as much as paintball. Even when I had some tosser shoot a 400fps AEG into my head from 4 feet, it hurt less than a single paintball.

Did you have anything on? I've been shot from further with a springer and it penetrated my skin. (high end springer, that is)

It was my HEAD. It hurt a fecking lot, but not as much as paintball hits I've had.

It was bleeding, and lumpy. But hitting the hair prevented too much damage.

Not to argue with you, but I beleive your points are false.

1. Yes, actually, more people do play this. And it is more advertised for a reason, bigger audience. http://paintball.about.com/cs/thebasics/a/aa092903.htm
Where's your stats?

2. That's cool, I didn't know that. But... in an attempt to proove paintball>airsoft, paintball has higher prizes. And if your good enough, sponsership so you don't waste money.

3. Alright. Some hidden society. I've never heard of any places to play, or people that play. How the heck is the sport supposed to attract new players? I'd like to play it.. if it was more advertised I'd probably get into it.

4/5. My point is so true, I'd rather not going into it as I would be wasting time. Explain to me how airsoft has more selection and even better, customizability.

6. See picture.

7. SO true :p Cheaters suck. But they get lit up, so it's all good.

Well, I've never played airsoft, just a few rounds of paintball. I can say it doesn't hurt to much if you've got the proper gear. I wore some long underwear under my jeans, it didn't hurt to much, except when I got shot in the...... you know the drill. And I was fortunet to have some of that Dirtibike armor stuff.

Paintball is more expensive, but it makes for a better "game".

People get kicked out of paintball places for being dishonest too. There's no ground there for airsoft - except that it becomes he says she says. I wouldn't want to be banned from airsoft because 2 people think they hit me, when really all they hit is air.
As for playing with people you trust - I don't know anyone who plays airsoft. I wouldn't be playing with people I trust.

As for customization, airsoft is undoubtably better if you are trying to go for a realistic approach.

Technically, I bet Squirrel is right about the selection though. There are SO many different types of paintball markers, as far as I've seen the selection for airsoft is much less broad. Could be wrong here, but I'm 99% sure.

You've got to be kidding me if you think the contests/tournaments/prizes in airsoft are on the same scale as paintball. This is completely NOT TRUE, I'll elaborate if necessary.

I guess it's down to subjectivity - when I'm playing paintball, I'm not trying to recreate a war. I play paintball because it's... well... paintball. Hard to explain.

Places to play : Airsoft is kinda rare here in Toronto, I know there are a couple of places but they are by no means convenient. And using paintball fields for Airsoft? ROFL. No chance in hell they'd let us do that here.

Nearly every firearm that has ever existed (and then some) exists, or has existed at some point in airsoft form. As for the gear, no limits exist, so you can't say anything has more selection.

Example, just the MP5 has at least twenty different versions available.

Is there anything for us sissies that don't want bruises, blood, or holes in our bodies? I have some friends that play paintball CTF on private property out in the country, but I've heard horror stories, and have avoided going when invited. I used to love playing manhunt (what we called hide and go seek with wooden sticks that we used to beat eachother with), as a kid, but as an adult, feeling pain when playing a game doesn't sound like much fun. Where am I going wrong?

Also, are the paintballs environmentally friendly? For instance, if I shot a tree with a paintball, what would be the effect?

You can play airsoft on any paintball field? While I'm sure its true that you COULD do it, will they actually LET you do it? Because none of the paintball fields that I've been to in three different states will let you. And I've never even seen an airsoft field, nor even a listing in the yellow pages for one.

Having played and worked at a paintball field for over 6 years, I've learned that getting into a battle of PB vs Airsoft is never worthwhile -- its like religion or politics. But I'm stubborn and love a good debate.

Yes, Paintball is much more popular. Theres no denying that, its one of the most played "Extreme Sports" in North America and Europe. In the past few years Speedball has become huge, and is on TV now; while its all flashy markers and colours, its still good for the sport.

Now for that video that you posted Flexor, you'll have to note the following:

A) Rarely does a woodsball team play in Yellow. Its called Camo, and most of the time REFEREES wear yellow.

B) That was shot in the same way most TV shows do it, putting speedball teams in the woods courses and let them shoot thousands of rounds at each other to get the right "footage".

Fortunately for most of us, thats not how paintball is played.

The footage of airsoft is more of how Woodsball is played. Whether its straight elimination or objective based, you sneak around in the woods and work as a squad to complete your tasks.

And the gear?

OK so most of paintball's newer stuff is in flashy colours. But thats not to say that "real" stuff doesn't exist.


The Zeus and WG-series are made by Armotech, a company that makes both Replica and Speedball-type markers. I own one of those pistols, but I also own a bright blue Autococker (jokes all around, folks).

Airsoft is certainly not a "booming" business in Nova Scotia. There are no public fields, let alone much of a community for it. But all of the PB fields have said that no Airsoft markers are allowed, period. Its a shame, I'd love to try Airsoft; but paintball is still my first love and probably will stay that way.

The Customization battle is something I won't argue about because I don't know enough about Airsoft to be able to properly talk about it; but I know that almost every little piece of my Autococker can be replaced to make it function better and more efficiantly. That goes for just about every marker on the market.

Cheating is something that is going to happen no matter what. I see it every day I ref, and theres only one way to deal with it, Ejection. Airsoft probably has less of a cheater base than paintball does due to its close-knit circles, but thats not to say that there isn't a huge player base of honest paintballers.

Major events, well Paintball has at least 5 D-Day games all over the States that draw in 3000+ players every time so I don't know how that competes with Airsoft events. I know that our field pulls in around 250+ for scenario games, and the numbers are steadily rising.

I should keep going but I have work to do.

Edit: Changed just a few things about the armotech section.

Nerf > *

<.<

Theres quite a few yearly events, including one located in a military training area that houses an entire village, as well as weekly/fortnightly games around England.

I must admit Airsoft isnt as common in the US due to restrictions on the weapons etc.

Paintball is clearly better; I don't understand how this argument has lasted so long.

Aye.

Also in canada, there's events where you can go as a civilian team and take on the canadian army over a 3-day long survival game.. or there's even games in the prairies during the summer that last over a week, and when you die, they send a helicopter to pick you up.

Ok.. so selection wise airsoft wiould probably be better.

But how can you possible say they are more custom?

Paintball sees alot of totaly unique, one a kind designs of milling, annodizing, and modifications. Not to mention just normal milling, annodizing, and part selection you can have done.


There's no way you can debate what is better.. it's a opinion and preference.

But.... Paintball is obviously more popular.

You know what's awesome? That video loaded in under a second because it's on the Georgia Tech server.

You know what else is awesome? Both PB and Airsoft. I love playing both, each for the different reasons people have listed. The markers in PB and availability of places to play are waaaaay better, but the guns and the people who play airsoft are waaaaay better. Get over yourselves.

paintball = big splodges on PEOPLE
airsoft = big mess on floor.... no people painting

i reckon it's all down to the fact you can actually see the impact better with a paintball gun

Every real world fire arm you can imagine has an airsoft counterpart. You can customize the gas guns to fire faster and such, but you can also get custom stocks barrels, sights scopes, silencers and so on. Any equipment you can add to a real world gun is made for airsoft.



Lasertag. :p

The only thing airsoft has against it is cheating. Paintball and Airsoft are one for one otherwise, except that paintball guns look stupid as hell.

JediKirby

I've been shot with both BB guns and paintball guns, and I found the paintball to be less painful in my experience. As far as I can tell paintball is much more popular, and based on the games, a lot easier, especially regarding whether or not you got hit. As for "We trust our friends" Well I hope you can round up 50 friends every time you want to play.

I always figured the most mature thing about Airsoft is most of the players kept away from these type of arguments.

When it comes to having the most players, yes in America it's definitely paintball, why? Because it's more main-stream. It's alot easier to make it main-stream as well because Airsoft has to dodge anti-gun extremists and replica laws.

It's alot easier to get someone to agree to being ok with a gun that has a huge hopper and fuel tank on it than something they would see on the evening news in Iraq.

Airsoft does see a ton of cheaters which could be eliminated by use of markers, but then that takes away it's uniqueness. The main reason for Airsoft seeing a large number of cheaters is because it is getting more known and you get kids who think they're all that playing. The good part is though news travels in the Airsoft world, and cheaters are usually shunned out of games and groups.

If there is a case "he says she says" then usually they let it go until something -can- be confirmed. However with the bigger games there are marshals/refs out there that will check things out.

Airsoft is obviously purely meant for "playing soldier" whereas paintball is more of a live-action FPS game. Even though some companies are trying to make Airsoft guns so people who don't know crap about it can get a gun which really doesn't help. (ie: cheap spring guns constantly seen on ebay)




Are you speaking for Canada or anywhere? Usually a rifle straight from overseas can be $300-400 shipped. Unless it's upgraded quite a bit. You can get other guns like electric SMGs or gas SMGs (MP5K, TMP) for less than that.



Because everybody knows paintballers never miss, right?

There are clubs and such for airsoft, so in that sense, it's a lot more organized in that you know the people you're playing with. Paintball has enough people that you can just go to a place and play and not know anyone save your friends.

Running around in big yellow suits.



Paintball guns look as stupid as hell.

You need to get out more.

I'm talking in canadian currency, but there isn't much notable difference between C$ and USD anymore.

You can get low end shotgun and sniper springers for 100-250$ or so. Then GBB pistols for 250$ to 500$, AEGs from 500$ to 700$ (though MP5s tend to be a bit cheaper), or high-end springers for 600+. There's also MGs that cost thousands of dollars.

It's slightly more expensive in Canada because you can't import guns from outside the country. You have no choice but to get it from retailers.

I have a Beita Spetsnaz AEG. It was used, and the stock was broken in half and replaced with a new one, which removed some value. Got it for 300$ from a guy in BC. Also got a desert eagle NBB for 180$, which hasn't arrived yet.