ScatterPlot
01-12-2005, 02:28 AM
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?
-----------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?