Why is paintball so "perception driven”?

[hitech]

Perception is important in also all industries. It seems far more important in paintball. It is the ONLY thing that matters, period. I have my theory, but I’d like to hear yours. Why do you think that is the case? Or, do you not agree that it is the only thing that matters?

[Bonx0007]

be more specific. Life is entirely preception if you think about it. The only things you can process are precieved.

[hitech]

Originally posted by Bonx0007
be more specific.

Sure. Almost no one relies on proper testing to determine is a change did what was expected. Or if it did anything at all. Most of us (myself included) will slap on a new barrel, shoot some paint through it and decide if it is better that the one we just replaced. We have NO idea if all the conditions are the same. It "seemed" better.

[Predater]

young kids beg dady for what they think the pros use and what will give them the edge:rolleyes:

just my opinion.

[than205]

even with testing most people use microsoft windows....

[frgood]

Welcome! By asking the question you are now part of the real world.

Remember the Sprite campaign! something like --
"perception is nothing, Taste is everything."
That's mastery of perception. The campaign I'm sure was worth million$.

[Miscue]

It's because people are sheep.

[frgood]

Fortunately, only 90% are sheep. That leaves the remaining 10% to reap the perks. Mass Marketing works!

[tremis]

I wouldn't give people so much credit. 90% is a low estimate. Remember the crown point debacle? People are total sheep. Little Johnny wants to rebel against the system. He dyes and spikes his hair, pierces his gums and eyelid and feels like he's an individual. He sees pro player X wearing the same fashion who has his temples and spinal cord pierced, so this guy too must also be going against the grain, not a member of the herd. This pro also uses Autochoppers and double O paint, so that has to be the best, after all this guy thinks for himself, and thats what he chose, Johnny just HAS to have one too. Newsflash: not only is Johnny part of "the system", he is it's staunchest supporter. He sinks his dollars into whats "in". Well "in" is whatever the fat, rich folks look down their noses and tell you it is .( No offence to those who happen to be rich or fat) Mr. Corporate sends his thanks to pro X for getting all the Johhnies to support the purchase of his new Rolls. Someday maybe people will think for themselves. If they do, there will be a lot of people in marketing who are in the unemployment line.

Tremis
PS I am not rich and fat, regretfully, I am only one of the two :)

[TheBigRaguPB4L]

tremis-i think your anology could have been better written, but the point was still concieved. however i totally disagree with you. you bring up the crown point incident. now, there are over 4000 registered memebers on this forum. most of them never come here. let's just give a nice low roundabout figure of 100 regular AO memebers(obviously it's higher, but this will do just fine). being that 5 people actually bought the barrel and maybe 10 more were considering it from the ad, that would be 15 people.
100/15=15%. not quite 90. and i would say that number is much lower due to that fact that i'm sure we have way more than 100 regulars here. how many other times have we heard debates on guns here because people didn't just believe what they were told? i would say alot.

i would say the sheep seem to flock towards the cocker/angel owners. it just seems to be my observation that if you're a mag owner, you seem more logical and more open to suggestions than any other gun. angel owners are more into "angel's are the best" type of people. cockers are obviouisly "cockers have range". hahaha, determining your personality by what kind of gun you shoot, classic.

[tremis]

TheBigRaguPB4L- My writing usually gets better with sleep, and it is 2 in the morning. I guess thats as good an excuse as any:) And as far as the crown point thing, i guess my fingers were on a different plane than my mind. I was thinking more on the lines of: if a handful of "us" were lured into that, think how easy normal ( read dumb) folks are to dupe. I never would use AOers as a cross section of normal people. Frankly were not normal, thats why we are here. I'm sure most AOers feel that they are not the average joker, thats why we congregate at this forum. So if 1% of us falls for something, to me that means that everybody else already fell for it. Or something like that, it is super late and the mind and fingers aren't cooperating again. I know what I mean, and sometimes that's cause for celebration:) As long as I am gonna celebrate, anybody care to join me in a toast to the sheep? For without them, I wouldn't be so special.

Tremis

[TheBigRaguPB4L]

ahahahhaha, yeah i do alot of posting at 1-4 in the morning. sometimes, my mind isn't with me. i totatally feel you on that one.

[hitech]

Originally posted by than205
even with testing most people use microsoft windows....

An very good point. How did windows become popular?

[hitech]

Originally posted by tremis
And as far as the crown point thing...I was thinking more on the lines of: if and handful of "us" were lured into that...

I purchased one of those (and got two friends of mine to purchase one also). It shoots about as well as any other barrel I have tried on my 'mag. The jury is still out since I haven't used my 'mag enough (it's new).

What wrong with the crown point barrel?

[cphilip]

Popular? More like shoved down your throats by cutting everyone else's gonads off. So nothings left but Mac OS and Linux...about 10% combined. And Microsoft is now making sure whats left out there will not run on Windows (Sun JAVA stuff as example) if it can.... except for its partial share in Mac in order to keep that 10% product base which is profitable to them or they would clean Apple out too. Oh well....Over simplified a bit but there you have it.

[tremis]

Well, I gess theres nothing particularly wrong with it, but it wasn't trying to be sold as a "barrel with nothing wrong about it". The whole advertisment was: this thing is the greatest thing since the invention of water based paint. It is made with quality, like every other AGD product, it just doesn't do what that post claimed it did. I dont like it because of the thick wall tubing its made of, it ugly cause of it and I'm sure it adds a little weight. Plus the "nasa duct" at the front doesn't do much to quiet it down and then it rings after you shoot it. I put a barrel o-ring on the business end of my barrel just to stop the ringing. That looked pretty foolish. First thing I bought for my mag was a smart parts barrel. An AA but this was well before they had different models of barrels so it was just a SP barrel. So, thats my take on it.

Tremis

[hitech]

Originally posted by cphilip
More like shoved down your throats by cutting everyone else's gonads off.

I couldn't have said it better myself! I'm a not a big fan of Microsoft myself. And that is being very kind.

[Shaft]

From what I've seen, it's that there are more youngins' playing the game.

These are typically the ones that will insist that form often supercedes function and will be proud of it! They also are more vehement about doing what their buddy says they should.

Remember the sock hat thread?

[hitech]

Okay, here are my thoughts. First, I agree that the average age is younger. That contributes. However what I think is a bigger problem is there is a lack of reliable information. Tom is one of the few people that have performed any controlled tests. He is a vendor of paintball equipment. While I believe him, why should anyone else? He is trying to market a product. He is trying to sell you stuff. Generally, that is the LAST person you want to get your information from. What we need is independent people/organizations providing reliable information from proper controlled tests.

That’s what I think. :D

[Jonno06]

i would rather be cattle.i dunno why really.I dont really like being like everyone else......

"I wanna be the minority,I dont need your authority,go with the more of majority,Because I wanna be the MINORITY!"---greenday

[HoppysMag]

tremis ----- Its all rebellious, in that conformist sort of way. The outsiders are no longer people who dont belong to a click, they are a click. Its all about sayin, Hes cool, im gunna be like him.

[liigod]

i rely entirely on experience. I shoot it and see if i like it. If it seems to perfrom better, or help out my game. God for me im buying it. Cus its a mental game. If i have more confidence in my equipmetn i play better. Its like golf.

[slayer]

The reason bo believe Tom Kaye is that AGD as a company is accountable for their products. If something breaks and its tom's fault then he fixes it for free. Sometimes they fix things for free that aren't their fault.

[frgood]

Interesting points rasied. Let me clarify the 90% figure. I was referring to all marketing not just PB. The the comments that follow are right on. If your product is for the younger demographic. Then present the young image. There is an image for any product you wish to market.
To slide into the parallel topic. Windows was not rammed down anyone's throat. It was marketed better than any other. At the time it actually created a new market. prior to windows the was not a home pc market. While I dislike what MS does (especially to us programmers), I have to applaud their business acumen. They did what IBM did earlier, GE and Westinghouse did during the 50's and 60's.
Mass communications up until then was fairly new. It is now a skill that can be harnessed easily (Ronco type products have made multi millionaires for over 50 years). If you want to mass market paintball buy some late night air time and push mags and autococker's on HSN type programming at 2 am. A 2% return on a 5 million viewer base is profit (business).
I don't know if anyone else has heard of the aquarian conspiracy popular in the early 70's. Even the top 10% fall victim to marketing. The only difference is they are aware of it and can turn the loss into a profit.

[hitech]

Don't you think we need independent people testing the current popular theories in paintball? Such as does a ?proper? paint to barrel match make a barrel more accurate (or efficient)?