A Step Between

A recent thread on one of the forums I frequent got me thinking. As paintball prices have dropped over the years, the experience offered at fields has obviously changed. Paintball at $10/100 balls is not the same as $10/500 balls. I don’t think too many people with any sort of gray matter between their ears is going to disagree with that. So let’s discuss what is available for people in most areas of North America.

Rental players for the most part do their own things. Many, maybe even most fields, have clued into the fact that they need to foster their rental players. Rental players will generally shoot considerably less paint than gear owners.

On the other side of the coin are gear owners. Gear owners, for the most part, will go to field s where they can shoot what they want in a manner they want. Many fields separate the two, which is a good thing. Since most fields sell paint for closer to $10/500 than $10/100, the paintball played by most gear owners is fairly aggressive, or extreme, if you will. So my question is, what do the people that want to step up from rental play (pick up paintball as a regular activity) do when the next alternative is a rather extreme form of paintball? Do all people who want to play paintball regularly suddenly want to shoot 13 or 15 balls per second? Sure some do, but not everyone. And in my opinion, there are many more people who would like to play paintball regularly shooting 4-5 bps, than there are shooting 10-20 bps. But in many places in North America, that’s not available. Does that mean that we as an industry are missing out on many potential players (customers - if you are a field owner like moi)? How much is that costing the industry? And how big is that piece of the pie? Does anyone really know? Personally, I think it is huge; at least as big as those owning gear and playing at 10-20 bps. Probably much bigger.

Woodsball – The Solution for Newbies?

Our newest field at TNT Paintball is in the woods. It’s one of our larger fields and it’s definitely the most dense, as far as foliage goes. There are lots of trees and lots of undergrowth; the type that you can crawl through and might not be seen and is hard to shoot through to eliminate a player even if you do know he/she is there. It has man-made bunkers, but they aren’t densely placed. To survive, and gain real estate, a player pretty well needs to use some of the natural cover.

We were very excited about it during the building process. Our first field was a predominantly woodsball field and it’s what started our ascent to popularity. However, that field never had the amount of natural cover the newer field has. We were excited because we thought this would be a field that players can find cover and not be in the thick of the action right away if they didn’t want to be. Basically we thought this field would be a great field for newer players. I know I’m not the only one that has/had the belief that larger, denser fields were better for newer players.

As it turns out, this field is probably our least popular field of the five fields we currently have at TNT Paintball. It’s the least popular with many of the regulars but it’s also not that popular with the newer players. It hurts a bit to admit that. We put a lot of effort and time into building this field as the bunkers, although only 22 of them, each took quite a while to build (and considerable expense). For the longest time, I wouldn’t admit it and to be honest, couldn’t quite understand it. But I at least think I understand the reasoning a little bit now, after a couple of years watching players play on the field and listening to players that opted to sit out playing on the field.

You see, playing on this field is much more unpredictable. Due to the dense cover, players are constantly being shot at from spots that they had no idea an opponent was occupying. Players don’t like that. Regulars definitely don’t like it, but even new players don’t seem to like being shot from places that to them, made little sense.

Then there is the ground cover. Sure, it’s great that you can use it to hide, but once discovered, a player has no real defence, unless he/she stays cowered on the ground. If the player lifts their head to try to get some shots off, a hail of paintballs come their direction and they are forced to dive for cover again. It’s difficult for even the most experienced player to get out of that situation and nearly impossible for a new player. I could only imagine how much worse this would be at a field where the average player shoots many more paintballs than our TNT customers shoot.

That brings up another issue, that the field lends itself to sucking ammo out of players. Now some field owners might consider that to be in their best interest (sell more paintballs), but that’s not us. We like people to use about 500 rounds in a day, and if they are wasting too many shooting at players in the dense bush that are difficult to eliminate, they have less to play on the other fields, which means their day will be shorter, or worse yet, will feel we tried to suck more money out of them by getting them to shoot high volumes of paintballs.

I think we have no choice, but to clear out some of the undergrowth and add more man-made bunkers, so that this field will become as popular as our other fields, both with our regulars and our newbies.

Paintball Forums

I visit several forums on a regular basis (probably too regularly to be considered healthy). Anyway, a couple of posts on different forums asking why things seem so slow reminded me of feelings I’ve had for a while that paintball forums in general are a lot quieter these days (at least the ones I frequent). I’ve had these feeling for a quite a while now, probably a year or longer, but have kept them in the back of my mind. I don’t have statistics on post counts or anything to back these feeling up. But I’m quite sure I’m not imagining things.

Now this may be a direct relationship to the economy. People may just be staying home and watching TV. But then why aren’t they sitting in front of their computers as much as they used to (I certainly am). I have to conclude that there may indeed be less interest for paintball in general these days. I’m sure the manufacturers could confirm this. If people aren’t talking as much about paintball, chances are they aren’t playing it as much either, and if they aren’t playing as much, they aren’t buying as much gear.

Field owners as well might have some input. We are down slightly this year and the “regular” player portion is down more than the rental portion. The “regular” players are the ones that would be talking on the forums as well.

Anyone else notice a change in forum activity?

Technology to Blame?

I was reading one of those Smart parts was the Devil threads today where once again someone posted that Smart parts was to blame for much of the problems the industry faces because they put fast electronic markers in the hands of everyone with just a few hundred dollars in their pocket. The reasoning was that once “kids” could get markers ramping at tourney level rates relatively cheap, the sport started to go downhill.

Now I’m not going to argue that inexpensive, fast, dependable markers didn’t change the face of paintball. Of course it did. But anyone with a head on their shoulders would realize that if Smart Parts had not introduced the Ion, someone else would have eventually done exactly the same thing. It’s the American way and the way of the world. Technology advances. That’s just the way it is. When I was a teen my parents bought a 26” state of the art colour TV for about $800. A much better TV today can be had for under $200. Advancements in technology are going to happen, whether the old folks in their rockers want it to or not.

Some will say that the introduction of loaders capable of insane feeding rates, are what changed the game from a leisure activity into a high intensity pastime. There is probably some truth to that. For sure it was a contributing factor.

Technology is never going to stand still. Especially when there is a demand for it, and there certainly was in paintball. Players wanted faster, more dependable equipment and they wanted it for a low price, so that everyone could afford it and the game would expand in popularity to those that couldn’t afford it at the higher prices.

I wonder if those same people that blame Smart Parts for introducing the Ion would complain if auto makers came out with a high tech version of their cars for $10,000? I doubt it. But would that create problems on our highways, just like the Ion created problems at paintball fields? Maybe it would. All of a sudden, cars capable of insane speeds are available to virtually anyone. How would that affect the accident rates on our highways with everyone driving 220 mph? Or is that problem alleviated with enforcement of speed limits? Would cops handing out $200 tickets control the problem? At least a big part of it? Hmmm?!

So where are/were the cops in paintball? Oh yeah, they were busy selling paintballs. That’s sort of like giving gas station owners the job of enforcing driving habits. Probably a bad idea. Probably best just to blame the auto makers for bettering technology and making it affordable for more people. Cause technology really shouldn’t keep moving forward, right?

Commitment

In my job as a facilitator of paintball games, I’m often amazed by the lack of commitment and respect for others No, not lack of respect for others on the field, although that can be a problem as well, but I’m talking about the disrespect in lack of commitment.

Rarely do we get a group at our field where the total number of pre-registered guests show up at the field. This is even true for groups where the individuals within the group have paid a deposit. I’ve noticed for a long time that there has been a cultural change where people don’t feel as obligated to follow through on commitments they have made. For that matter, people hesitate to even make commitments these days. It’s almost like they know beforehand that something might come along that will keep them from honouring any commitment they might make, so they rarely make any. Almost all sports are suffering for it. Participation in virtually every major sport is down, paintball included, especially competitive paintball where the commitment is a big one.

In our own business (recreational paintball field), I’ve noticed a big shift over the years from advanced pre-booked groups to many more drop-in players. I constantly get calls these days asking if we are open because the caller and a couple of friends thought it would be neat to come and play paintball for a few hours. It’s spur of the moment decision making, rather than well in advance planning.

Statistics Canada says that participation in organized sports by adults was down to 28% (7.3 million) in 2005 from 34% (8.3 million) in 1998, and 45% (9.6 million) in 1992. That’s a substantial drop. Adults weren’t the only ones dropping out. Teens (15 to 18) went from 77% in 1992 to 59% in 2005. This indicates to me that the adult participation drop isn’t due to an aging adult population, although that does factor in. The number one reason cited was lack of time.

People have become busier over the years. I know I certainly have. My parents seemed to have a much less busy life and their parents even more so. There are just so many more things to see and do and take part in today. And we all seem to want to try so many different things. I think it’s part of the “me” generation. My generation was taught that we should do and try anything we wanted. And we want to try it all. Past generations did what was “expected of them”, giving up self indulgences for the good of their family. My kids’ generation is even more self indulgent and I assume the next generation will be the same or more so. There is no room for commitment anymore.

Is it any wonder that competitive paintball participation is sliding? Is it really all that much different than any other sport that needs participants to make huge commitments? Throw in the fact that it’s very expensive to take part and many sponsorships have disappeared, competitive paintball is facing a huge uphill battle. Those of you that have made the commitment to competitive paintball, I suggest you hold on tight, because it’s going to be a rocky ride. Things are going to get tougher before they get better

Speedball...a game developed during different times

For the longest time (actually for just about all of paintball’s history), paintball industry, competitive paintball, and even regular recreational players worked on increasing a player’s advantage by increasing dependable rate of fire. Competitive paintball evolved alongside this parallel evolution of equipment. The third parallel was the evolution of paintball production. Players shot more due to better, faster equipment, and paintball manufacturers were able to streamline production to meet the demands of those players with their new equipment. It really didn’t matter to them whether they produced 10 million cases or 50 million cases as long as their bottom line was bigger than their prior year’s bottom line. Heck, the paintball manufacturers even encouraged the high rates of fire. They sponsored and supplied teams with cheap and even free paint to encourage all the up and comers to shoot lots of paint just like the big boys. Shoot lots of paint and you too may stand on the podium at the Big Show one day and have your face and name in print.

So the competitive game evolved in that atmosphere. But that atmosphere is gone. The sponsorships from paintball manufacturers have been cut back drastically and even local fields and stores have re-evaluated their thoughts on their speedball portions of their businesses. Is it really worth it to give the big wig local team a free ride? What is the local field accomplishing by doing this? Free/cheap paint encourages lots of paint being shot during competition. But can the players/teams that need to pay for their paint keep up? Can they be competitive against the local big wig team getting their paint for free/cheap? Probably not. Not for a long term, sustainable period anyway. So what do the other teams do? Try for as long as they can and then eventually, when drained, drop out and find another, less costly interest.

I’m sure for those currently involved in competitive paintball, in the style similar to what the pros play, that they are having fun playing. But how long can it be sustained? And by how many? The writing is on the wall. And it has been for a long time...in big bold writing. The current game evolved during different times. Times that are now part of history. It’s time to write the future...if you want a future. Or...you can continue doing what you are doing and become part of history.

Auto-triggering

Maybe it’s because I’m older than the average paintball player, but I really don’t like high rates of fire. It was confirmed again this weekend during West Coast Pump Weekend. I played most of the day on Sunday during the “recreation” portion of the two day event.
There were a couple of times where I was “lit up”. It was by pump players using auto triggers. For those of you that don’t know what auto-triggering is, basically it means holding down the trigger of the marker and then pumping the pump handle of the maker continuously. Each time the pump handle is cycled, one paintball will be shot. So basically you can shoot as fast as you can move your hand (theoretically .68”) back and forth. Depending on how smooth (easy) the pump stroke is, auto-triggering can be quite fast. With the “hitman” mod, basically all a player needs to do is hold the trigger down and pull the vertical part of the pump arm, much like a trigger, approximately .68” and it’s not a whole lot different than any mechanical semi-automatic.
I’m an experienced player and getting hit 5 times in the span of a second or so, wasn’t that big of a deal for me. I certainly didn’t freak out on my assailants. As a matter of fact, I said nothing at all to them. But that doesn’t mean that I was happy about it. It just meant that I wouldn’t give them the satisfaction of letting them know I didn’t enjoy the experience.
Paintball players have always looked for an advantage over their opponents. Pump players are no different I guess (at least some of them). During the evolution of our sport, auto-triggering was a big contributor to creating an advantage over other players. It’s interesting for me that history seems to be repeating itself.
In general, I feel pump players play pump to get back to the “honour” of the game. Back to a time when things were more mellow and more even for those who took part. Yet just as in the past, there are those that want an upper hand.
I don’t know if there is anything that can be done about the situation. It’s just an interesting observation. History does tend to repeat itself.