A Brief History of Paintball: 2005 and Beyond

[ScatterPlot]

OK, here's my attempt at posting a worthwhile and deep discussion topic. This all should be viewed under "in my humble opinion" status, for you to agree with or disagree as you like. Some of the stuff might be out of chronological order Try to make this a good discussion.


-----------Paintball's big bounce--------------
Paintball is a very new sport. One of the newest "big" sports. Other stuff has come up that is as old as or even younger than paintball; however, none have had so big a chance of taking off as our beloved game here. Some of us have been around to see paintball get born in the deep woods, then grow, and grow more, finally exploding. Paintball has passed "fad" status. Tons of people worldwide are playing and enjoying this great game. In the beginning it started out as a nice little backyard adventure with people doing mostly their own work on new products, and you could have a "high-tech" marker with nothing more than a tin can and some duct tape. Paintball's first 'big thing' was the advent of the semi-automatic paintball gun. Paintball got bigger; it got better. It was more fun, availible to more people. It started to get cheaper, too. Local fields were set up that could supply everything you would need for a day of play, complete with referees and safety rules. Local stores began carrying guns, and WalMart even joined the fray. Most every town in America has a WalMart; now guns were easily seen by millions of people every day. Internet sites sprang up and people were able to buy goods from anywhere on the globe with Internet. More and more fields came. Somewhere in all of this, the electronic gun is introduced. At first nothing more than a high-priced toy availible to select few. Then slowly but surely the concept expanded. People bought more; people shopped more; people used more paintballs, and they got cheaper; now paintball suddenly isn't a hobbyist or exclusive game, because now these electronic paintball guns are incredibly cheap. People are now starting to play the game with not pumps, but electros.
Through all this, numerous companies are started. Numerous companies fail. There are some who rise above the rest in terms of power, reputation, and the ability to last. Brass Eagle. WGP. AGD. Smart Parts. Many other smaller companies gain recognition, and now even certain single people are known throughout the paintball world. Palmer. Doc Nickel. Many others show up, and are making names for themselves throughout this quickly growing world. Celebrities now hold entire events. People fly for hours just to get to a tournament attended by hundreds. It is broadcast on television- and not just the crummy channels. ESPN gets a hold of some of it. It makes it's way into other areas of TV other than sporting- the most widely known and the most current fad, reality TV, even chooses to have it's contestants play paintball every once in a while. National leagues are formed; national standards set. It is not a sport with different influences; it is a web that is formed by many different companies. Some are national, and help to create this web. Nothing is independant; everything is interconnected.
Paintball is exploding. It is spreading like wildfire. Just a few years back, nobody knew what a "paintball" was. Now you cannot avoid it. Paintball video games are being made and endorsed by recognised companies. You cannot live without somehow being exposed to paintball in some way.
And then something happened. Paintball hit a point- a point where it no longer was simply a sport with a few companies selling different little things, not exactly the biggest moneymaker out there, but a respectable one- Paintball started to become an industry. It is no longer able to be supported on hopes and dreams as it once was- it has taken off on it's own, and huge companies are being formed, with millions of dollars being exchanged. It is a necessary thing- a part of the evolution of the sport. It was inevitable, and when it happened it brought along with it a number of other things. It helped the sport grow- it helped the sport grow. It dropped the prices, again making it easy for anyone to play the game. What once took hiring out of other companies is now done in house. New products are able to be made and tested effectively, and mass marketing helps distribute new ideas.

But this point is where paintball started to turn.

Just as any other fledgling idea, paintball has started to slow down. The growth is now fast, extremely fast, but the infrastructure is changing. The comraderie experienced by the select few players that were around during the conception of the sport has started to wane. The starting group has gone their separate ways. And just like the stock market, the insides of paintball has started to crash. People experienced with the sport see it start to change from what it once was. It is not all bad; there is still stock class play and scenario play. Those will always remain. But now the forefront is not maintained by single players and good ideals, it is now tarnished with rampant cheating and a slight lack of the overall spirit that once filled it. Legal issues arise. People are starting to get greedy. Everyone has to be careful with anything new, and that makes it difficult for some to enjoy the sport. Some certain people put clamps on what can or cannot be made, and sometimes these are right. Sometimes they are wrong. Some of them are there for good reasons. People need to be able to protect their ideas. But some of them are there for money, and about getting it not from the people who want to play the game but from underhanded methods. The most well known dispute is the "Smart Parts Incedent," which is going on right now. Different people see it differently; some think their claims are valid and just, while others think that they are the scum of the earth and need to be boycotted and destroyed. The patent hurts many companies, and this offends and upsets many people. They decide that paintball is no longer right for them, and that they will leave willingly. Others are forced to leave. Many companies are hurt and many are forced to close their doors completely. One such company that we are all familiar with, and which I will focus on, is Airgun Designs. One of the long standing companies started relatively long ago, it has gained many strong followers. One such group is this forum; Automags Online. AGD has been forced to stop selling one of it's main products, the Emag. It stopped putting out as much as it used to. New innovations are not coming quite as quickly as their loyal followers hoped. Their owner's group, AO, has started to change. Many people left there as well. It has grown, and many people do not like it. They leave, which influences others as well. Many call for change. Things are looking grim to some right now.

But you know what?
Paintball will bounce back. AGD will bounce back. Everything goes through growing pains at one time or another. Paintball couldn't go that fast forever. It is simply changing course for a while. It has been going downhill for a little while now, but it will come back. Just wait it out. Everything has to iron out a few spots here and there, people must get bigger clothes every once in a while; the old ones don't quite fit right now. That's all. Paintball is not going downhill to stay. No, I believe it is far from that. This is just the cloud. We all gotta wait for the silver lining to start showing through. The stock market crashed. It caused a depression. You know what we did? We got right back up and started going at it again.
Are we gonna let a little bump in the road like this keep us from doing the thing we all love? No! AGD will get back on it's feet. New companies will start popping up once again. Innovation will come; we just must simply wait right now. We are riding through a storm in paintball right now. So far, we can't see much. But ya know? The storm will end. Everything new always hits a few snags every once in a while.

Now...
What's on the other side of the storm? What is the new, bright future gonna be? What do you think will come next? What do you want to come next? How can we get there? What path are we gonna take?

Just what does the future hold?

[Muzikman]

Paintball reminds me of skate boarding. I don't know how many were around and skated in the mid/late 80's. These were the days of ramps and big air. Then in the early 90's skating turned to street. This left a lof of the big names behind and ultimatly destroyed some of their lives. Paintball is no where near as big as skating was in the 80's, so there will be no lives ruined. But there are a lot of players that just can not make the transition from woods to speedball. These people have not been totally left behind, but in the public (magazine) eye they don't exist.

I guess what I am getting at is that Paintball will survive, but there are going to be people and companies involved that will not.

On a side note, do you guys remember the goofy clothes we wore back then? I revently found a bag of skate clothes....my god...I wore this stuff?!?!?!? ;)

[desslock]

Muzikman I totally agree I have been skating since 88 and I can tell you that some pro skaters and companies didnt make the tranistion from the 80's/90's. The pros that are still around from that time usally own their own companies. Paintball will more than likely see the same thing. Some companies will evolve, others will die. The trick is to evolve but yet remain true to your self and your ideas. Its easier said than done. TK says he wants to focus on the scenerio market, and that makes good business sense. There are a lot of scenerio players out there and a lot of money to be made. Personally I have never played a scenerio game but is something I def want to try. On the other hand you have tournement ball, which is another demographic with people willing to spend money on products. There is no need for me to go into the differences between the 2 or which one is better and why you should only play woodsball/speedball etc.... Thats not my point. Why cant companies (cough,AGD,cough) make products for both markets? The technology is there, you have the marketing. Why settle for only one? If you look again at skateing the companies that are doing well today appeal and sell to both the vert and street riders. Why cant paintball companies do the same? I dont see why we cant have the best of both worlds.

[Boy_Wonder]

It's kind of ironic that you make this post right now. I just came back to these boards after about 4 years, and I can relate to so much in that timeline. When I first took up the sport of paintball, it was unlike anything else I had ever done before. That feeling lasted for about 3 years for me until I got busy with other things and the game lost some of it's excitement with me, so I stopped playing for a while. I took a break for about 2 years, only playing once or twice. Right now I have the urge to play again really strong.


My point is that Tom Kaye amazed me that he could stick with this sport for so long. He did so many great things for the sport of paintball, imo. He said it himself that the excitement just isn't quite there anymore and I can totally relate. I hope nobody gives him a hard time for his decision, because if you put yourself in his shoes, you probably wouldn't have lasted as long as he did or put as much effort into it.

Yes, I do think the sport of paintball will make a comeback, it's hard to say how long it will take, but it will never completely die.

[paullus99]

One of paintball's biggest challenges in 2005 going to be insurance.

As of right now, local fields have about 3 - 4 choices of insurance companies that will cover their businesses. As of 2005, these companies have instigated a rate increase of between 200 - 300% to cover their perceptions of liability. There has also been talk of increasing the minimum age to play to 14 years of age.

Sure, there is plenty of outlaw ball out there (people just playing in their backyards or other public/semi-private areas), but this could be potentially devastating to the large group of independent business owners running our local fields. While paintball itself can be considered a very safe sport (comparing injuries vs. total # of players), the perception of the possibility of injury is driving the insurance rates through the roof.

It is a major concern & depending on the kinds of increases and changes demanded by the insurance carriers (age limitations, marker limitations, etc) - they could be the ones driving our sport & not the manufacturers or the players themselves.

[Muzikman]

As of right now, local fields have about 3 - 4 choices of insurance companies that will cover their businesses. As of 2005, these companies have instigated a rate increase of between 200 - 300% to cover their perceptions of liability. There has also been talk of increasing the minimum age to play to 14 years of age.



Just curious, do you have any letters or articles on this? It's something that I have thought would happen for awhile now but you are the first person I have seen talk about it. I also have not been able to figure out who is going to insure the PSP events and the like with the change to the full auto rule.

[paullus99]

Nothing in writing, but this comes from conversations with my local field owners (bearing the brunt of this). It seems to be the 800lb gorilla that the players never notice, but its always at the front end of what the field owners are worried about.

If I can find out anything else, I'll let you know.

[billmi]

200 - 300% to cover their perceptions of liability.

While that may sound like a crazy increase, we're talking about a starting point of about 60 cents per player per day. Sure, it's a big lump sum at the end of the year, but for fields to cover their insurance cost by bumping up field fees one or two dollars isn't that insane.

[billmi]

The growth is now fast, extremely fast, but the infrastructure is changing. The comraderie experienced by the select few players that were around during the conception of the sport has started to wane. The starting group has gone their separate ways. And just like the stock market, the insides of paintball has started to crash. People experienced with the sport see it start to change from what it once was... But now the forefront is not maintained by single players and good ideals, it is now tarnished with rampant cheating and a slight lack of the overall spirit that once filled it. Legal issues arise. People are starting to get greedy


I think that's true.

I think that would have been true if you'd said it in 2002.
I think that would have been true if you'd said it in 2000.
I think that would have been true if you'd said it in 1997.
I think that would have been true if you'd said it in 1994.
I think that would have been true if you'd said it in 1990.

I only started playing in 1986, but I bet there were folks who started in the early to mid 80s who would have said it was true then, too.

Remember in 1994, the NPPL was formed because teams thought the big tournament promoters were all about the money with accusations of cheating and poor judging and they wanted the control in their hands, so they started a BYOP league that was owned by the teams that were its members, and promoters had to bid to them to get tournament contracts (and league profit was paid to the member teams as dividends.) Now the NPPL is field paint only, not owned by the teams, and the whole time accusations of cheating and poor judging have never gone away. It seems to me, paintball has always been "getting better" and "getting worse" at the same time.

[PBX Ronin 23]

The game has been around for 20 years. Although there are still enough people who give you that strange look and respond....."pinball" after you say paintball, their numbers are dwindling.

Just like everything else in life, things go through a cycle. Are we still going to see double digit growth rate in the sport? Maybe not but if we're seeing 5-8% growth, that's still not a bad thing.

We went from a cottage industry to corporate and those changes are evident in terms of who survives and doesn't. The companies that will flourish are the ones who are strong either in a financial sense or with intellectual property.

Has paintball reached a wall? I don't think so. Much of what Musikman said about skateboarding can be applied but there are other intrinsic qualities that paintball has that skateboarding doesn't. For starters, it's a team oriented game (tourney) and attended by mass participants (scenario).

When do you think we can collective say that paintball has arrived? That I'm really not sure of. Even as we speak, paintball has already made and will be making more of an impact on television. I think that the growth rate will be aided somewhat by this.

But until such time that paintball reaches the point of being ingrained in American soceity's psyche the way baseball, football and basketball have, I would not consider the sport of paintball as having arrived.

[SCpoloRicker]

Great Thread so far!

/getting back to work, sorry.

[rabidchihauhau]

NPPL was formed in 1992, November, in Chicago. I called and chaired the meeting.

The issue was that the promoters were not doing anything to improve the sport. We (the teams) had the ability to make or break a major event through our attendance, and the goal was to use that attendance to leverage the promoters into providing minimum standards.

What happend during its first two years is politics, politics, politics. Nuff said.

Paintball has been steadily growing, by 15 to 35%, PER YEAR, since its inception. It has not slowed down, not one iota.

And, once again, I CATEGORICALLY REJECT the concept that we're still a 'young' sport. That kind of thinking is for those people who want to excuse a lot of the BS we see around us. The game itself will be 25 years old next June, and there are plenty, plenty, plenty of other sports and industries that are similar enough to paintball to use as role models.

Ask yourself where other 'new' industries have gone in 25 years. Aerospace - 1902, first flight, 1927, monoplanes, cross-channel flights, rocketry, etc. Computers: transistor - 1947: 1972 - computers on the moon and the beginnings of personal computing.

Give me a break. We're not young - we're old and doddering and haven't done enough yet.

[NoForts4Me]

I do think Paintball is in a transitional period now, in many ways, but don't necessarily think it is a bad thing. Technology has basically hit the wall with rate of fire and the ease of being able to shoot fast. However, innovations will be made, and with technology becoming more affordable (i.e.: the ION, Wrath, Bushy's, Diadem, etc.) more people will be able to afford it, and this will continue to bring more people into the sport. You can't have growth without new players, and even though growth may bring more challenges, that is the way we need the sport to go if we want it to survive.

I live in a rural area, but have been amazed at how fast the sport has grown here over the last few years. I blame Wal-Mart for that, since, as was stated earlier, people see Paintball equipment every day. One of the reasons I dropped out of the sport for a while in 1996 was because there was no one playing within easy driving distance anymore. When I picked the sport back up in early 2003, I was amazed at how many people were playing, and have continued to see the sport grow in the area.

I think a lot of us "old timers" are just having fits of nostalgia, and miss the old days. It was nice to see innovation that was more than a fancy milling job, and it was cool to make your own equipment or mods, and not get talked down to because your mod was “ghetto.” But hey, pick up a pump if you are nostalgic and want a change...that part of the sport is growing again. Also don't count out woods play. In almost all major magazines except the ones dedicated to the tourney scene, there are pictures and articles about people playing in the woods. The growth of the scenario market has also ensured that woods ball is here to stay. The sport may be more diverse now than ever, and that has to be good since it is also more inclusive. Each niche of the sport will have its own market and players, and while they may move in somewhat different directions, that diversity will continue to help Paintball grow.