Paintball on TV - wrong direction

[Lohman446]

Ok.. before I start a controversy let me pause and say this. I respect deeply the amount of skill it takes to be good at any part of this game/sport/hobby. I do not think one style is better to play than another, I enjoy most of them. I do not enjoy some attitudes on both sides of the fence... but thats another story.

We have been trying to "bring paintball out of the woods" and onto TV for some time now. I think we screwed up. I watched X-ball, great game, spectator participation was a great idea... a lot of things there that I liked about it - but I like paintball, and watching it for more than five or ten minutes... well grew boring

But lets get rid of the sideline spectators - what do they really account for now with mass marketing of television etc. We could play this game in remote locations, and still be on TV right.

Picture this, we all know what a speedball or X-ball game looks like.

Now... you have a television screen in front of you, wtih a large wood or conceptual field - flags on each end. There are 30 players out there, red and blue, indicated by dots on the screen - red trying to bring blues flag to their base, and vice versa. The dots are moving on your screen... and cameras go in to show people crawling, hiding, talking on the radio etc. Then you see those dots coming together in a tactical maneuvar, and a fire fight ensues.. the thrill of the hunt... of the kill. The eliminated players run back to a staging area (different for each team) and prepare again - coming back out after a five minute time limit. You capture the opponents flag, you hang it.. you gain a point... now you can play defensive. It lasts a set amount of time, wtih points. I have just moved X-ball (kinda) back into the woods.. and the concept to me seems more watchable. Don't whine about "well tis violent image of war" thing. Yes it is, what movies sell out best, why do we watch NASCAR, why do we watch Football, UFC... etc. WE LIKE VIOLENCE. We have a game that is as close to war as people will see and like (ok, I admit its differences, but look at the similarities).

We have gained a lot in technology, it is possible to show woodsball (or conceptual "urban" fields) games in a whole new light... did we make an error in thinking that speedball would be the great thing for paintball?

PS - personally I dont give a if paintball is ever televised, I like to play it and don't care about cameras.

[Chicago Pb 7]

X-Ball is most definately not boring to watch.

[Setzer]

Wether or not X-ball is boring to watch is a matter of opinion. I personally don't like watching it, not really my taste, but I can definatly see why a lot of people do like it.

[dynastyfan]

i think it would be a cool thing to watch but at the same time i dont want to watch red and blue dots running around

[2003paintballa]

paintball wont be on tv regulary ne time soon .

[Automaget]

actually it is on tv regularly(SP) but i dont think they could go into the backwoods becuase it would be hard for spectators to see whats going on in the game thats why it wont ever be big becuase theres no comercial value to woodsball. do you think Tippmann or dye or whatever company really cares if they can get one type of modification of paintball higher than the other? no they dont they just want the mulla and speedball and xball sells so they keep at it and it sports there name around to alot of people at once(sp) if you play woodsball your just going to be in camies all day and thats not helping companys so im pretty sure thats why they dont do woodsball for spectatior sport.

[DiRTyBuNNy]

X-Ball is most definately not boring to watch.

and i'm sure your parents would disagree completely...and those are the people that TV is trying to reach out to...or as Leather Pants likes to say "Thank you...come again"...

[tony3]

My dad watched an xball match at chicago open last year. He has never played paintball before. He had absoultely no idea what was going on. He said it didn't look like much skill just shooting fast and not about accuracy. This is coming from the mouth of a non-paintballer. How many other people will have this same response? Hell, I could see it being very boring if I didn't play paintball. Then again, I don't play soccer or hockey and find both very boring to watch. Same with nascar, very very boring. I think it's all about the audience. Teenagers today don't want to wait around and watch a woods game, they want fast paced action, they want action NOW, and that's what xball gives them. The main target audience is teenagers for getting paintball on tv, teenagers want fast paced action right now, thats what xball is giving them. As paintball gets on TV more, I don't think you'll ever see a woods game being shown.

[DiRTyBuNNy]

My dad watched an xball match at chicago open last year. He has never played paintball before. He had absoultely no idea what was going on. He said it didn't look like much skill just shooting fast and not about accuracy. This is coming from the mouth of a non-paintballer. How many other people will have this same response? Hell, I could see it being very boring if I didn't play paintball. Then again, I don't play soccer or hockey and find both very boring to watch. Same with nascar, very very boring. I think it's all about the audience. Teenagers today don't want to wait around and watch a woods game, they want fast paced action, they want action NOW, and that's what xball gives them. The main target audience is teenagers for getting paintball on tv, teenagers want fast paced action right now, thats what xball is giving them. As paintball gets on TV more, I don't think you'll ever see a woods game being shown.

it's not that I don't want paintball on tv i just think that the people that keep championing professional paintball are being myopic. I remember reading a study that said only 3-5% of the people who play paintball each year consider themselves tournament players. i just don't know if this is going to be a large enough demographic to support all the different flavors of paintball tv that seem to be primarily tournament based.

[elpimpo]

okay, woods ball kind of gives our sport a bad name because to many people associate it with war. thats why it woulnt ever be on tv

[Enemy]

hey i know maybe they should make of movie of shatner ball and put it on ppv oh wait they did and with that same style i might add!!! paintball is slow going but there was a time were it was depicted in almost every tv series out there!!! so give it time it will one day be big but the limiting factor is that there is so much going on that it cant possible be hosted live for godsakes you would miss half the game!!!

[quik]

I would probably watch a good 'urban' woodsball game over a x-ball or 7 man game any time of the day. I mean once you've seen 1 match of x-ball, you've pretty much seen them all. There isnt alot of stuff a non-paintball player can understand(im pretty sure my dad isnt going to go 'oh man CHECK OUT THE ANGLE HE HAS ON HIM!').

I'm sure many people would think of it as war, but who cares? Its paintball guys, it isnt the fate of the world, thats for sure.

I just think it would be alot much more interesting to see actual tactics(I know getting 'angles' on people is a tactic, but its not a very exciting tactic) on other teams and applying them and showing the teamwork of the sport. In a 3 minute speedball game its hard for any non-pb'aller to figure out wtf is going on.

[elpimpo]

yeah, cause people like war oh so much. thats the way to get parents to let their kids come out and play

[Lohman446]

okay, woods ball kind of gives our sport a bad name because to many people associate it with war. thats why it woulnt ever be on tv

We need to get over this knee jerk political correctness BS that we have allowed creep into our sport. Why do you think UFC is so popular? But it has a bad name... cause cause Ken Shamrock has also made pretty good money doing it. Americans LIKE violence. It sells, almost as much as sex. Face it, we see some police SWAT team on TV we generally watch it. I don't buy this argument anymore - its too easily shouted by people playing speedball exclusively, and I now call it BS

It doesn't matter what people associate it with - frankly our sport involves shooting at people. I don't care if you call it a marker or anything else, the base idea still is shooting at people. Not comfortable with that, try soccer. Personally a lot of the people running around playing speedball (myself included) look like wanna be gangbangers.

"But parents won't let there kids play" We would loose some players... but what about football. I lot of kids play it and its pretty violent. Look at the first person shooter games sold - this is America, parents will let there kids play at war and getting out of the house to do it is better than sitting in front of a computer to do it.

Speedball players need to get over this my side of the game is better. Not what you said and I understand that. The new players I take with me to play paintball look at the speedball fields and as a general rule immediatly sign up for the woods. About 90% of them. Most of them won't even play speedball until they have played the woods a few times. And guess what, all these people who have never played paintball who say they are interested in it - guess what kind of paintball they mean.

Woodsball (or large conceptual urban fields), longer games, a bigger field give room for announcers... don't use just dots, have the cameras switching from team to team to show the players coordinating, moving, watchign for the inevitable attack. Continuous action... People who watch sports generally understand them, and this gives something to be understood. I can stand on the side of an X-ball field and say - hmm.. there going to go here, here and here. Watch the ten man videos again - everyone goes to everyone's mirror... there is a lot of skill there but the tactics are too similar from team to team.

[Head knight of Ni]

October 2nd PB2X will have a show on spike tv.