Getting Involved in the Play

New paintball players come in a lot of different flavours.  Some players have no concerns or fears about the discomfort of paintball and get right into it, playing aggressively right from the start.  Then there are others who are very hesitant and have a tough time leaving the first bunker they get to or start at.  We’ve all seen new players who get to a bunker and then never stick their head out to take a look to see what is going on.  I guess the sounds around them tell them it’s not in their interest to take a peak and risk getting hit by one of those balls they hear hitting bunkers all around them.  This is most common with the younger players and female players.

The latter players often get over their initial fears after a while, usually by confirmation from their friends that “it’s not that bad”, or by actually getting hit themselves at some point and thinking that it’s not that bad.  Then there are those that never get over the fear and just stop playing, never to set foot on a paintball field again.

One of the things we are noticing with having more and more of our Low Impact Games (50 caliber), is that first time players are playing more aggressively quicker, most noticeably the younger and female players.  We are also seeing virtually no players choosing to sit out games or stop playing completely.

As we were gambling on, the decreased discomfort of being hit is getting people playing more and getting them involved in the action more quickly and more often.  Personally I think this is great.  We all know that actively participating in an activity will make it much more likely for people to continue with the activity, opposed to watching the activity from the sidelines or in this case from behind a bunker.  My guess is that this will mean that in the long run, we will end up with more people playing paintball, which is of course is what it’s all about.

Tough Guys.

We haven’t done a lot of advertising of our Low Impact (50 cal) games yet, but the odd thing is that the two paying groups we’ve had so far were both stags.  I was expecting tweens and teens to be asking for this, but apparently it’s the tough twenty and thirty something males interested in low impact paintball.  Who would have thunk it?

I Don't Get it!

Does anyone else think it's weird that the Sandana's Owner's Club is one of the busiest sub-forums on PBNATION?  http://www.pbnation.com/showthread.php?t=3988217

Our First Low Impact Paintball Game

We played our first Low Impact Game (50 caliber game) at TNT Paintball today.  Since I knew it was going to be a learning experience for us, I didn’t feel right subjecting paying customers to our little experiment, so we held a little competition through Facebook with the winners receiving a free paintball outing for themselves and three friends.  The outing included field fees, rentals, lunch, and free paintballs (250 for an afternoon session).  The players didn’t have to spend a penny, assuming they could hold themselves to the 250 paintballs.  Most couldn’t, which didn’t surprise me.  Not because I don’t think that players could play with 250 paintball during that time span, but because the whole thing was free, so spending an extra $20 or so wasn’t going to seem like a big deal, and that seems to be what most did.

But I didn’t feel too bad about it.  Usually, shooting 500 paintballs in a half day session of “regular” paintball is a little too much for the “average” player.  But with the Low Impact Paintball games, shooting 500 paintballs  in a half day didn’t seem as bad.

We had players that have played quite a lot of paintball, some that have played a few times in their life and a few who had never played.  Everyone in the game used exactly the same gear (we are using the Kingmann Opus for the time being) regardless of experience.

I watched some of the games and even jumped in on a few to experience firsthand what playing with the smaller balls would be like.  I have to say, for recreational paintball, I really didn’t feel a lot of difference other than when I got hit, it hurt less.  When hit on bare skin, it was not without any discomfort, it was just a lot less discomfort.  Everyone in the group seemed to have a good time with most of them voicing it quite enthusiastically.  One player commented that he would be able to go to work tomorrow and not have to worry about being sore.  There were a lot of comments about how this was going to be a good thing for those that were worried about the pain associated with paintball.

The only disappointing part of the day was the “no shows”.  Although in the contest I made it clear that the prize could only be used today between 12 and 4 and that if they didn’t think they could make it, they shouldn’t enter, almost half that won the prize, didn’t show up.  That once again demonstrated to me that it’s not the cost of paintball that is keeping people away.  I think for new people it is mostly fear and then in general, it’s the fact that there are just a lot of choice today in our society.  There are so many things people can choose to spend their time on, paintball is just one of many choices and gets lost among everything else.

50 Caliber Conversion Kits

So in the comment section of my last entry “Holding Back 50 Caliber Evolution” -  http://reiner-schafer.blogspot.ca/2013/02/holding-back-50-caliber-evolution.html#comment-form ) , I hinted that there was something coming down the pike that might be noteworthy; a marker providing the reliability of something like a Tippmann 98 for the 50 caliber market.  Something currently not available, but being sought by many field owners.

Well, I’ve been given permission to provide a little more info, although at this point the manufacturer has asked to remain anonymous until the official launch hopefully happening in a few short weeks.  Being released shortly will be a 50 caliber modification for 68 caliber markers including the Tippmann’s 98,the FT12 and I believe some other markers as well (the Tippmann’s are the only ones I have 100% confirmation for at this point).

It is not a typical conversion kit that requires a breach adaptor, bolt and barrel to work, rather 1 piece that adapts the gun to 50 cal.  It apparently does not even need a separate 50 caliber barrel, the stock barrel can be screwed back on after the conversion is done.  The conversion can also be reversed.  In the case of the FT12, to convert from 68 to 50 caliber, or from 50 back to 68 caliber can be done in less than a minute.  The 98 takes longer due to having to separate the clamshell body halves to get at the internals.  The price has not been confirmed, but is indicated to be much less than a separate new rental marker like the Spyder Opus.  If the modification does not affect the reliability of the Tippmann marker, we may have a winner on our hands.

 The obvious advantage from a field owner’s perspective (especially a relatively small operation field owner) is that he/she does not need to have two complete sets of guns to be able to cater to both the 50 caliber and 68 caliber market.  For someone like myself, that is still in the “trial” stages of offering 50 caliber games, I don’t have to invest nearly as much as I thought I would have to invest to give it a try, and hopefully I will have something that is more reliable than the Spyder.

I am hoping to get a prototype in my hands sometime in the next week or two and then will hopefully have a little more info.

Holding Back 50 Caliber Evolution

Communicating lately with various field owners, some who are already offering 50 caliber as part of their services and some who would like to but have not taken the leap yet, I’m hearing more and more complaints about the lack of a decent mechanical semi-auto that is reliable enough for rental use.  Most seem to be using Kingmann’s Spyder Opus as it seems to be the best of the bad.  The biggest complaint, like most Spyders, is that when a ball breaks, the gun will stop functioning to the point where it will not fire without being torn apart, cleaned and then reassembled.  If a ball breaks in a Tippmann for instance, at least it will still fire and the renter can finish the game.  Thirty seconds of cleaning and it’s usually good to for the rest of the day.  After the day is over, if sufficiently dirty, it will need to be stripped and cleaned properly, but at least that can be done during a time when it’s not keeping a customer from playing a game.

There seems to be a clear Demand for a reliable 50 caliber rental, but at this time, there is no Supply available.  Have the manufacturers forgotten about the basic rules of economics.  Would it not be easier to fulfill a Demand that already exists and is not being Supplied than trying to add another bell or whistle onto markers that there are already more than enough choices of out there?  The market is flooded with mid-high end electros.  The market is bare of simple, reliable, mechanical, rental worthy 50 caliber markers.

It’s in the best interest of manufacturers to expand paintball’s attraction to a wider demographic.  Here’s an ideal way to do so, yet everyone seems to be asleep at the switch.  Let’s get on it.