The downfall of paintball?

[Jeffy-CanCon]

People are always dropping in and out of paintball, but it has kept growing overall. Ten years ago I read a survey that reported the average playing-life of a paintballer was 18 months. That's probably still true.

None of the people I started with 13 years ago still play. Most of the people I was playing with in 1995 no longer play. My own Club is smaller than it was five years ago, but the field we play at is doing more business.

Entry-level markers cost about the same, and paint is cheaper. The add-ons, and the high-end are growing in price, but I find a day of paintball still costs about the same as it did a few years ago.

natural selection.

only the dedicated, strong, and rich survive in this sport.

I disagree. The coolest thing about paintball is that you can play it almost any way you want. Any tech level, any team size, any field size, any intensity. You just have to find people who want to play the same way you do.

I have a friend around here who lost his job, but wanted to keep playing paintball. He still does. But he had to put away his Emag, forego the tournies and dust off his PGP.

Hey, uhm, I totally agree. Local prices:

20 - Entry Fee
10 - All Day Air
140 - Case
10 - 100 Balls

This is not cheap, which is why I very rarely play.
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Wow! We pay $10 field fee, including all-day air! I rarely buy a full case, but I think paint is $120.

Wow.. complaining about cheap paint prices hehe...

Lucky you guys dont live out on LOng Island..
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Umm... isn't everything expensive on Long Island? Especially big chunks of real estate? I'm just asking, 'cause that's the impression I always had.

And dont get me wrong Im not whining about fire power... I have my own view on the sport.. I young 21. Ive been playing for 11 years.. ( second generation my father played from 85 and still does! ) Time for boldness! THE SPORT WAS RUINED WHEN WE AS AN INDUSTRY A) LET KIDS UNDER 16 PLAY B) MADE EL CHEAPO HIGH ROF PAINT GUNS C) LOTS THE HUMAN SIDE OF THE GAME AND THEN JUST BECAME MONEY GRUBBING WHORES

...

Just so we all understand...
You 've been playing since you were 10, but you think the sport was ruined when we let "kids under 16" play?


I'm inclined to agree with you, though. I think the minimum age for paintball should have stayed higher. And I don't think the high ROF really helps the game, or even the industry.

[Lee]

i don't care for playing tourneys myself. i've done a few, but the attitudes, cheating, and spastic players frankly suck. now i ref them

i play airball or what have you with a vert sniper i home built and every once in awhile break out the mag or bushy.
i actually enjoy all aspects of play. scenario, rec, travelling to fields and meeting new people. that all increases my personal skill level.

i don't think the game itself has gone down hill, i thikn the caliber of play has changed as well as players attitudes, though not everyones. jerks will be jerks no matter what thier hobby or past time is.

money and hype have definately changed things as well. thats what brings out the attude type players, most of which rarely get anywhere in the game other than local tourneys and the like.

i ignore the jerks or show them that i am fully capable off redefining the term "*******" when they cop attitudes.

anything is what you make of it imho. i just want to play and have a good time regardless of what comes my way.

[OysterBoy]

I know it's canadian $, but if you're paying $140 for paint, you're getting ripped off.

Dont I know it, but Im not gonna drive an extra two hours just to go to a decent field with decent prices.. once a year I'll hang out with creative mayhem (my new resolution, lol) but thats it.

[Thermus]

My feild:

9 bucks/ 100 balls
30 bucks/ 500 balls
55 bucks/ 1000balls
98 bucks/ 2000 balls
15 dollar entry fee, 3 hours of play and free air


Thats why I dont play anymore. And yes, that is my only option without driving upwards of an hour away.

[sbpyro]

I've been playing for a while (since 89)
And I've noticed that the paint prices have dropped
Field paint use to be well over $100 for a case.
Field fee about the same
But it isn't the same.
IMHOthere is more cheating (and in rec play for goodness sake), whining and less sportsmanship.
But I still find that it is a fun sport and enjoy a good tape run and flank.
I have only used more than a case a day on two occassions.
I think that ppl need to play with more self control

[eg0_Slayer]

it seems like, everysport iv been into has been expensive....i started riding BMX when i was a little tot....did that for a while...got pretty good, had sponsorships from spy, haro, and lots of little places where i lived...then i shattered my kneecap, fractured my femur(which im told is very hard to do), broke my arm in 2 places, dislocated my shoulder, and got a concussion(my 5th) which put me in a coma for 3 days....so my riding days were gone....and after i recovered i moved from the mecca of extreme, california, to granbury, texas, wow....I wasnt supposed to be doing anything physical, but that would be like telling a junkie that he cant have anymore crack, so after a while, i found the wonders of wakeboarding....racked up my 6th, 7th, and 8th concussions....lol...and then started playing paintball...now paintball, wow...iv been playing for a little over a year and a half...and it's a totally different experience....when i rode, it took me years to fully get into the racing scene...but with paintball...i played around for maybe 2 months...and started getting serious, and id have to say, iv spent more money in my year and a half of paintball than my 7 years of bmx and 2 years of boarding, combined....lol, but its a totally different feeling...when i go onto the field its like, i dunno...its amazing, plus i havent been injured yet, (except for the time i ran head first into a tree playing woods ball ) I noticed that i have been slowing down, like alot of you have,and i have mixed feelings about it. but im leaving for california soon, to play at the famous SC village, and HSP...and i hope this will revamp my interest in the sport...

[slade]

lest we for get you cant even try and compete against a 3.5 foot tall 13 year old kid that packs more fire power and more paint cause mommy drives a Mercedes.

lol, i really had to laugh when i saw that... one time at my field i saw a kid that WAS actually 3.5 feet tall... he must have been around 8 years old... and he had a dm4. he was playing with his older brother (id guess about 13) who had a timmy... the older kid actually wasnt too bad.

And dont get me wrong Im not whining about fire power... I have my own view on the sport.. I young 21. Ive been playing for 11 years.. ( second generation my father played from 85 and still does! ) Time for boldness! THE SPORT WAS RUINED WHEN WE AS AN INDUSTRY A) LET KIDS UNDER 16 PLAY B) MADE EL CHEAPO HIGH ROF PAINT GUNS C) LOTS THE HUMAN SIDE OF THE GAME AND THEN JUST BECAME MONEY GRUBBING WHORES

for you, and anyone who agrees with you... im 15 years old. most of my friends are 14. can you give me any reason why we shouldnt be allowed to play?


oh yeah, and at my fields (all over an hour away):
field fee=$25
case of paint=$80 (or at some fields byop)
all day air=$10

and my outlaw ball field was shut down by the town... my friends and I are currently trying to create a town-owned field (yeah, i know, doubtful)

[Destructo6]

Paying close to $100 for 2k paintballs is nuts. I buy Allstar for $45 and Severe white box for $35. I consider that fairly reasonable, but if I was paying double or triple, I probably wouldn't play more than once a year.

There's nothing wrong with under 16 year old players. That is, unless they are sent out without adult supervision and begin to run wild. Most of the kids that are playing with a father, uncle, etc are very well behaved. That's not really an industry problem, it's an individual problem. You know, I don't think I would have played at all this year, and bought 5 paintguns, if I wasn't going with my 8 and 13 year old nefews.

[luka3589]

Hey I totaly understand what you are saying. I use to go broke every few times I played and couldnt play for weeks. fortunately I started reffing at Ithaca Paintball and now I am one of the head reffs and dont pay for anything but gear and tourneys. I guess Im just lucky.

[spasticsquirrel]

My feild:

9 bucks/ 100 balls
30 bucks/ 500 balls
55 bucks/ 1000balls
98 bucks/ 2000 balls
15 dollar entry fee, 3 hours of play and free air


Thats why I dont play anymore. And yes, that is my only option without driving upwards of an hour away.

ecactly the same where i go. I wish i was older so i can have a job and can afford it all, but i can really only go maybe once a mounth. I want to try rec ball, but i dont know any fields that do rec ball. I usauly just buy some paint from my friend if he has any to sell to me, and play my neighbors, but that like target practice, its easy. One is overly aggresing, and stands up in the open, and the other one just sits there... and sits... and sits... and does nothing. i did actually made him move up, but after when i said my friend was laying down on me, and shoot at him, he just sat there, and i got out trying to shoot him because i didn't want him to move up more. I think that like there should be a cap on stuff, you dont ever need to shoot more that 18 bps, and that is still crazy.

[GT]

my take:

Paintball will have a huge vacum of techonology here in the next five years, simliar to what happened to the cycling industry durring the early to mid 90's.

It still amazes me that tournes charge SO much to play and offer prizes as well. please go to cheaper prizes, trophies, and BROADEN the fan base.

[barrel break]

damn, I dont play nearly as much as i want to, because if i want to play airball (portland-70 miles away) i have to pay $10 entry fees and $80 a case for blaze. but if i want to play here (outlaw in the woods) it is like $20, but most people my age around here have ceased to play except for one loyal friend, so if i want to play i have to wait for some 7-8th grader to organize at their orchard/woods, and sometimes no one will for one or two months, and yet i am more obsessed with paintball now than ever....

damn, now im all depressed

[rabidchihauhau]

Paintball suffers from many ills, but one of the leading causes of its issues is the 'Marching Morons' problem.

(The Marching Morons is a great short story by CM Kornbluth and I've stolen its title for this theory)

Its also called the 'least common denominator' theory and it essentially boils down to this:

For ANY special interest to become economically successful, it MUST dumb itself down in order to appeal to a wider market. In paintball, this has taken the form of emphasizing technology over skill, or providing technological crutches for those who have little skill, and in making the requirements for 'entry' easier and easier.

Back when tournaments consisted of 15 player teams, getting a team together was a major hurdle. The skill set required at tournaments was high and less-able team organizers were naturally selected out of the mix. This selection process resulted in limiting the number of real teams at any one time to between 20 and 30.

What did the 'industry' do? It cut team size; those teams that could never find a 13th, 14th, 15th player now didn't have to worry about it, cause all they needed was 10. That wasn't enough, so they went to 7, then to 5 and finally to 3 (grandma and the grandkids can now enter a team into national tournaments...)

This dumbing down of team size (many more less-able teams can enter events, reducing overall competition levels and allowing less-able teams to win or place well) is compounded by statistical issues: a single elimination of a player on a 15 player team represents only 6.6% of that team's strength; 10% of a ten man team's, 14% of a 7 player's, 20% of a five players and 33% of a three player team's.

Now let's consider 'luck'. We all know that 'the breaks' contribute to the outcome of every single game; misfires, broken balls, bounces, ref calls, etc. If based only on the pecentage of a team's strength represented by a single player, we can see that ANY eliminations from 'luck' have a much greater impact on a team the smaller the team size is.

While that's a pretty obvious fact, what isn't so obvious is what it really means: luck - not skill - plays a far larger role (more than two times as much) in today's tournaments than it used to...

So yes, things did use to be much better when it comes to skill. No surprise - even the illiterate can get patents these days.....

[Jeffy-CanCon]

...for you, and anyone who agrees with you... im 15 years old. most of my friends are 14. can you give me any reason why we shouldnt be allowed to play?

There are a lot of well-behaved, mature and skilled young players. But there seem to be at least as many who are none of those things.

Like Destructo6 said, there is a tendency of parents to drop their youngsters off with a credit card, using the paintball field as a babysitting service. It is often bothersome to the field staff, and the adult patrons as well. A misbehaving 14 year old can't be treated the same as a misbehaving adult. You can't kick someone off the property who has no way home, and for whom you are responsible "in loco parentis".

[SlartyBartFast]

You can't kick someone off the property who has no way home, and for whom you are responsible "in loco parentis".

Horse feathers.

Kick the kid out. Unless the parent had you sign some sort of agreement saying you were looking after the kid. The resposibility of the field is only that the field and play are safe and the patrons follow the rules.