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The SMG60/62/68s were a lot of fun, I shot one last fall and it was great fun. Not as cool as ATS guns (Which are my personal favourite), especially since it's almost impossible to find paint for them, though. Although there are the 68 Specials, which do full auto as well, just without the stripper clips.
Having played both paintball and airsoft, completely disregarding the crowd, I still prefer paintball. While the gear is a bit more cumbersome, I get a lot more of a visceral experience out of paintball. The fact that most airsoft guns are extremely quiet actually is a huge turn-off for me (But I also run the loudest gun ever produced as my main). And I could barely feel the hits in airsoft. Call it weird, but the pain (Or, rather, the drive to avoid it) is a big aspect for me.
A lot of you are dead-on about a lot of the crowd in paintball, although I'd associate that to two main things. One is the tournament crowd. The tourny mentality, especially in the last five years, has brought out the worst in that crowd-cheating, overshooting, insane rates of fire, the whole 'agg' mindset in general. Trust me, it pisses me off more then it does you, because they're...well, they're ruining my goddamn sport! Second, is the growth. Paintball has been either the fastest or one of the fastest growing sports every for the past 20 years. When you suck in an audience that fast, you get a lot of pricks. Airsoft has the fortune of being able to somewhat exclude a lot of people, and pick-and-choose the crowd to an extent.
Still, over the past year, the tourny mindset has really started to collapse. The insane rates of fire have driven a lot of people out, and a lot of the fields and stores that relied on that mindset are going out of business. On the other hand, woodsball/scenario, milsim and pump play are growing by leaps and bounds-new companies along those lines seem to be popping up every week, and it seems for every speedball-oriented field that closes its doors, a scenario-style field opens up. This crowd is a much better crowd-while you still get plenty of the 'army reject' crowd, airsoft gets that just as much.
One of the problems that I see with airsoft and growth is...well, the very nature of the sport. Paintball really started to take off when people started to stop looking, at least in the eyes of the general public, like a bunch of scary militia guys. Airsoft's problem here is that the gear is just too damn realistic-many people will never realize that airsofters aren't scary militia guys.
Also, ox71-nice Milsig, I love their guns. I'm doing the same boxmag mod for my ATS guns right now. However, a lot of fields are starting to get away from that 'more paint = more monies' attitude. A lot of field owners are starting to realize that more paint = a lot of pissed-off renters who never come back. Take a look at TNT Paintball in BC. They host West Coast Pump Weekend each year, and have a heavy emphasis on pump, limited paint and slow ROFs. They don't hold any real competitive events, but host a lot of scenario games. Consequently, they're the fastest-growing and one of the most successful fields in paintball-even when a huge segment of their player base shoot pumps or mechs, they've got a fantastic atmosphere that keeps the owners AND renters constantly coming back. The owner's a great guy, too.
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