Cell
12-11-2007, 11:11 AM
Originally Posted by EDITORIAL PAGE
Recently at a Tourney held at Brush Fire Games-Germantown, WI; I had an opportunity to share some of my nearly 30 years of experience in the area of pursuit games and the direction the game of paintball is headed. This young tourney player shared his perspective and we both learned a lot. One thing I learned is before you can understand the future we have to analyze the past development.
What it’s About
Children have been attracted to pursuit games for AGES [long before us]. It entailed players hiding, seeking, and getting the opponent. In my day we started using pretend guns to play cops and robbers, whether it was a finger or a cap gun, we shot each other. At first everyone took their turn dying, giving a classic moaning, groaning, twirling, theatrical performance that would make any motion picture director proud. As the game evolved we encountered a problem. Inevitably some people thought they were not getting their fair share of "kills". These always followed the same pattern. Bang! Bang! I got you! No you didn’t! Did too! Did Not! You’re a cheater, I’m not playing with you anymore!
We adapted and over came, since we all lived on farms we had horses and cows- the crap literally flew. Snow, mud, and crabapples also worked when in season.
When we entered school we realized that they didn’t have crap there; again we adapted as many before us- we found dodgeball, tag and hide & seek.
At the same time plastics began to appear, and actually work for their intended purposed like squirt guns! Now we could mark each other without having the "cheaters" getting away with disrespecting us!!! This was fine but limited to a 10’ maximum range.
Then our Band of Brothers entered the BB age. Getting hit by a BB propelled by 1 pump out of Crossman air rifle smarts; so at first it worked because players that were hit usually screamed and ran away.
Again the "cheaters" learned to avoid the pain. Players responded by putting upward 10 pumps in their guns as to inflict a more noticeable wound. Problem was that you didn’t just shoot the "cheaters" with this you also shot the “good guys” too. I have crushed two vertebra, snapped 5 major tendons, crushed my left nut, been knifed, broken ribs, ankles, arm, wrist, fingers multiple times, punctured skull, tore diaphragm, chain sawed leg, hernias, hemorrhoids, shot myself two dozen times with a nailing gun, and a ton of other injuries- getting hit in the thigh with these skunk killers makes you never want to play again. “Accidental” neck shots require surgery.
So it Starts
In High School in the ‘70s our prayers were answered- Nasco Farm Supplies introduced a new method to mark cattle with paint capsules fired from a gun. This paint marked the cattle and us forever. You could not get away from the oil based paint, it was on your clothes forever and usually bled thru to your skin. But the cheaters were screwed and we were in the fast lane.
The games started in the woods; slingshots were superior for their firepower [same rate of fire to dinosaur guns but never need reloading], highly accurate, reliable, quiet, available and cheap. Eye protection evolved from nothing to assorted safety glasses after inevitable mishaps. Paintballs started at $1.15 a ball- considering the minimum wage was around $2.15/hr this was expensive. You had to use gasoline to wash the paint off of your clothes, skin, and hair. The quality of the shell was horrible, I ripped noses off of two fellow players, gave three of my neighbors hairlips and had to have a ball surgically removed from my forearm, but it was worth it to keep the games honest and civil.
It was the golden age of paintball because players had to learn- timing, awareness, strategy, movement, co-operation and paid an extreme price to play, this made it an extreme sport. REAL MEN with real ethics played this sport. Low lifes and ****ies naturally avoided it.
Building the Game We Have
It wasn’t easy finding honorable men and women to play with, but these people had a certain look and presence. We learned to identify potential players. We would educate these potential friends and put out invites to the Sunday games. We had to work hard to get players to play.
Big games developed, but leakers and cheaters infiltrated these events. Fair play players adapted, forming tournaments with refs, rules and boundaries. These woods tourneys became extremely popular. More advanced rules, standards, and play evolved.
Manufactures of paintballs saw the new market we were developing, but needed to tone the consequences of play down, to allow the "****ies and whiners" to play. Hence water soluble paint, and thinner more uniform shells. As the market grew, more competition in manufacturing lead to cheaper, higher quality paint, better standards, safety education and equipment.
Strategies for higher profits developed. The simplest “the more people shoot the more money we make” took over. Paint/distributing companies made faster, easier to operate guns and more and more money. More paintball co. sprung up cutting into profit margins- so they had to sell more volume and so on...
Commercial fields were started under the concept of making money on these higher paint sales profits. These businesses designed and marketed fields that increased paint usage and profits. Things grew, nearly doubling each year. All based on more paint usage strategy.
Fields and manufactures saw thicker shelled paint meant more paint cycled without a gun break, more bounces on players so harder paint ruled. Accuracy by volume became an explicate strategy, and the development of products proceeded in this direction. Pseudo “Pro Teams” were put together using the manufactures employees to push the legitimacy of the sport. Marketing people planted the idea that the Olympics wanted us- yahoo!
A Few Problems
In the late ‘90s the old timers saw this as a dead end marketing strategy for lots of reasons. First off we saw the faster you shoot the less skills that are developed and used. This is a problem because it dwarfs the development of each player- once you ramp up to 15.8 balls per second where else can you go?
The young tourney player I was in discussion with said “you work on other skills like running and shooting using a ramped gun”. My response, “Are you telling me ramping makes it harder to run and shoot at the same time or are you saying that you don’t have the work ethic, and dedication to learn to run and shoot using a non-ramping gun and want to be able to compete with those that do?” Case and point- everyone could pick up a ramped marker and make the tourney promoter rich and reduce the game to big spending- rich, lazy, knobs survive.
Second the manufactures should make products the player wants not the players use the products the manufactures shoves down our throats. This means sooner or later the marketing B.S. looses it’s effectiveness and we quit buying [the American car industry is an example]. We need more advanced product development.
Interestingly the same tournament player told me ramping is a new development- wrong we outlawed ramping 10 years ago in the ******* Turbo. When an industry reaches back 10 years that is not advancement; that’s desperation to increase profits [also violates ASTM safety standards]. Also do you expect me to believe a paintball introduced 12 years ago is the best we have to offer, or is it the best way to make money off me?
Thirdly volume costs money! Why would any industry want to alienate any potential customer due to cost? Every industry wants more clientele to grow business, not fewer- Elitism only works temporally and stunts growth and development, unfortunately the industry has painted [ptp] themselves into a corner.
Also the sport is moving from it’s whole reason for being- leakers and low lives are allowed to survive in this pursuit game format because it makes money. Example- the snake is a wipers dream bunker. You can hit a dashing snake player on the break, he slides into the snake wiping the paint off on the ground. Once in the snake, the attention from the opponent is concentrated on the area because a snake player can raise havoc and fields are setup without another side. This is not only a win for the cheater but the tourney promoter also. Why not online game, then any fat a-- can do it? Thank you very much field designers, and marketers for improving the game!
Yet, another problem we saw is hide and seek play is gone! Field Operators have developed field structures and layouts under the guise that they allow lesser players to compete. How can you hide and seek on an air field? The manufacturers advertise a 60% attack angle- that means that 60% of the field can attack a player in any given bunker and in order to protect themselves they have to shoot and hold shooting lanes [making them money]. How can you hide? This also eliminates the seek portion of the game. All that is left is the shoot option! That’s boring, lazy man paintball, but it does making money!
Beware!!!
Where does the paintball media make it’s money? Subscribers or Advertisers? Is their opinion tainted? Have you ever seen them bad mouth a product? Consider where people are coming from when you hear them talk [or in my case write]. Who butter’s their bread? Are they going to bite the hand that feeds them?
Another thing this young tourney player expressed is the growing popularity of the sport. He was dead wrong!! Growth declined to single digits in ’02 & ’03; a 30% decline in ’04; and almost a 50% decline in ’05. Maybe in your little world it’s up, but not in the real world. Look at field operations; if paintball is so great why are they allowing carry on paint? Why are fields shifting field time to air soft? Why are they shifting back to big games? Where have the tourneys gone? How many fields have and are going under? Operations are forced to diversify to survive. Insiders know that several major distributors are in financial trouble. Fields are violating ASTM and insurance standards- why would they risk it?
So where are we?
In a sport that:
¨ Accepts cheating
¨ Promotes Elitism where only the rich play
¨ Hasn’t had an advancement in over 10 yrs
¨ Has limited the areas of skill development
¨ Has moved away from the underscored reason to play
Could anyone wonder why we have seen a decline?
If we cowboy up, and take the sport back from the profit whores, we will thrive and manufactures, fields and players will start developing again. If we don’t paintball is doomed to be a cyclonic, second class activity for kids and idiot too stupid to see the shaft coming. Once they get shafted enough they will leave, we’ll reload with fresh idiots and shaft them again.
Don’t Be Discouraged- We Can Win!
How? Just how we built the sport- but the first step is to Band Together, don't run away, the rest is a whole other article.
The original text can be found at http://junglecatpaintball.com/100%20challenge%2005.htm
This comes from my friend and field owner and hes and our experience at a few fields, and our take on a few aspects of paintball.
Recently at a Tourney held at Brush Fire Games-Germantown, WI; I had an opportunity to share some of my nearly 30 years of experience in the area of pursuit games and the direction the game of paintball is headed. This young tourney player shared his perspective and we both learned a lot. One thing I learned is before you can understand the future we have to analyze the past development.
What it’s About
Children have been attracted to pursuit games for AGES [long before us]. It entailed players hiding, seeking, and getting the opponent. In my day we started using pretend guns to play cops and robbers, whether it was a finger or a cap gun, we shot each other. At first everyone took their turn dying, giving a classic moaning, groaning, twirling, theatrical performance that would make any motion picture director proud. As the game evolved we encountered a problem. Inevitably some people thought they were not getting their fair share of "kills". These always followed the same pattern. Bang! Bang! I got you! No you didn’t! Did too! Did Not! You’re a cheater, I’m not playing with you anymore!
We adapted and over came, since we all lived on farms we had horses and cows- the crap literally flew. Snow, mud, and crabapples also worked when in season.
When we entered school we realized that they didn’t have crap there; again we adapted as many before us- we found dodgeball, tag and hide & seek.
At the same time plastics began to appear, and actually work for their intended purposed like squirt guns! Now we could mark each other without having the "cheaters" getting away with disrespecting us!!! This was fine but limited to a 10’ maximum range.
Then our Band of Brothers entered the BB age. Getting hit by a BB propelled by 1 pump out of Crossman air rifle smarts; so at first it worked because players that were hit usually screamed and ran away.
Again the "cheaters" learned to avoid the pain. Players responded by putting upward 10 pumps in their guns as to inflict a more noticeable wound. Problem was that you didn’t just shoot the "cheaters" with this you also shot the “good guys” too. I have crushed two vertebra, snapped 5 major tendons, crushed my left nut, been knifed, broken ribs, ankles, arm, wrist, fingers multiple times, punctured skull, tore diaphragm, chain sawed leg, hernias, hemorrhoids, shot myself two dozen times with a nailing gun, and a ton of other injuries- getting hit in the thigh with these skunk killers makes you never want to play again. “Accidental” neck shots require surgery.
So it Starts
In High School in the ‘70s our prayers were answered- Nasco Farm Supplies introduced a new method to mark cattle with paint capsules fired from a gun. This paint marked the cattle and us forever. You could not get away from the oil based paint, it was on your clothes forever and usually bled thru to your skin. But the cheaters were screwed and we were in the fast lane.
The games started in the woods; slingshots were superior for their firepower [same rate of fire to dinosaur guns but never need reloading], highly accurate, reliable, quiet, available and cheap. Eye protection evolved from nothing to assorted safety glasses after inevitable mishaps. Paintballs started at $1.15 a ball- considering the minimum wage was around $2.15/hr this was expensive. You had to use gasoline to wash the paint off of your clothes, skin, and hair. The quality of the shell was horrible, I ripped noses off of two fellow players, gave three of my neighbors hairlips and had to have a ball surgically removed from my forearm, but it was worth it to keep the games honest and civil.
It was the golden age of paintball because players had to learn- timing, awareness, strategy, movement, co-operation and paid an extreme price to play, this made it an extreme sport. REAL MEN with real ethics played this sport. Low lifes and ****ies naturally avoided it.
Building the Game We Have
It wasn’t easy finding honorable men and women to play with, but these people had a certain look and presence. We learned to identify potential players. We would educate these potential friends and put out invites to the Sunday games. We had to work hard to get players to play.
Big games developed, but leakers and cheaters infiltrated these events. Fair play players adapted, forming tournaments with refs, rules and boundaries. These woods tourneys became extremely popular. More advanced rules, standards, and play evolved.
Manufactures of paintballs saw the new market we were developing, but needed to tone the consequences of play down, to allow the "****ies and whiners" to play. Hence water soluble paint, and thinner more uniform shells. As the market grew, more competition in manufacturing lead to cheaper, higher quality paint, better standards, safety education and equipment.
Strategies for higher profits developed. The simplest “the more people shoot the more money we make” took over. Paint/distributing companies made faster, easier to operate guns and more and more money. More paintball co. sprung up cutting into profit margins- so they had to sell more volume and so on...
Commercial fields were started under the concept of making money on these higher paint sales profits. These businesses designed and marketed fields that increased paint usage and profits. Things grew, nearly doubling each year. All based on more paint usage strategy.
Fields and manufactures saw thicker shelled paint meant more paint cycled without a gun break, more bounces on players so harder paint ruled. Accuracy by volume became an explicate strategy, and the development of products proceeded in this direction. Pseudo “Pro Teams” were put together using the manufactures employees to push the legitimacy of the sport. Marketing people planted the idea that the Olympics wanted us- yahoo!
A Few Problems
In the late ‘90s the old timers saw this as a dead end marketing strategy for lots of reasons. First off we saw the faster you shoot the less skills that are developed and used. This is a problem because it dwarfs the development of each player- once you ramp up to 15.8 balls per second where else can you go?
The young tourney player I was in discussion with said “you work on other skills like running and shooting using a ramped gun”. My response, “Are you telling me ramping makes it harder to run and shoot at the same time or are you saying that you don’t have the work ethic, and dedication to learn to run and shoot using a non-ramping gun and want to be able to compete with those that do?” Case and point- everyone could pick up a ramped marker and make the tourney promoter rich and reduce the game to big spending- rich, lazy, knobs survive.
Second the manufactures should make products the player wants not the players use the products the manufactures shoves down our throats. This means sooner or later the marketing B.S. looses it’s effectiveness and we quit buying [the American car industry is an example]. We need more advanced product development.
Interestingly the same tournament player told me ramping is a new development- wrong we outlawed ramping 10 years ago in the ******* Turbo. When an industry reaches back 10 years that is not advancement; that’s desperation to increase profits [also violates ASTM safety standards]. Also do you expect me to believe a paintball introduced 12 years ago is the best we have to offer, or is it the best way to make money off me?
Thirdly volume costs money! Why would any industry want to alienate any potential customer due to cost? Every industry wants more clientele to grow business, not fewer- Elitism only works temporally and stunts growth and development, unfortunately the industry has painted [ptp] themselves into a corner.
Also the sport is moving from it’s whole reason for being- leakers and low lives are allowed to survive in this pursuit game format because it makes money. Example- the snake is a wipers dream bunker. You can hit a dashing snake player on the break, he slides into the snake wiping the paint off on the ground. Once in the snake, the attention from the opponent is concentrated on the area because a snake player can raise havoc and fields are setup without another side. This is not only a win for the cheater but the tourney promoter also. Why not online game, then any fat a-- can do it? Thank you very much field designers, and marketers for improving the game!
Yet, another problem we saw is hide and seek play is gone! Field Operators have developed field structures and layouts under the guise that they allow lesser players to compete. How can you hide and seek on an air field? The manufacturers advertise a 60% attack angle- that means that 60% of the field can attack a player in any given bunker and in order to protect themselves they have to shoot and hold shooting lanes [making them money]. How can you hide? This also eliminates the seek portion of the game. All that is left is the shoot option! That’s boring, lazy man paintball, but it does making money!
Beware!!!
Where does the paintball media make it’s money? Subscribers or Advertisers? Is their opinion tainted? Have you ever seen them bad mouth a product? Consider where people are coming from when you hear them talk [or in my case write]. Who butter’s their bread? Are they going to bite the hand that feeds them?
Another thing this young tourney player expressed is the growing popularity of the sport. He was dead wrong!! Growth declined to single digits in ’02 & ’03; a 30% decline in ’04; and almost a 50% decline in ’05. Maybe in your little world it’s up, but not in the real world. Look at field operations; if paintball is so great why are they allowing carry on paint? Why are fields shifting field time to air soft? Why are they shifting back to big games? Where have the tourneys gone? How many fields have and are going under? Operations are forced to diversify to survive. Insiders know that several major distributors are in financial trouble. Fields are violating ASTM and insurance standards- why would they risk it?
So where are we?
In a sport that:
¨ Accepts cheating
¨ Promotes Elitism where only the rich play
¨ Hasn’t had an advancement in over 10 yrs
¨ Has limited the areas of skill development
¨ Has moved away from the underscored reason to play
Could anyone wonder why we have seen a decline?
If we cowboy up, and take the sport back from the profit whores, we will thrive and manufactures, fields and players will start developing again. If we don’t paintball is doomed to be a cyclonic, second class activity for kids and idiot too stupid to see the shaft coming. Once they get shafted enough they will leave, we’ll reload with fresh idiots and shaft them again.
Don’t Be Discouraged- We Can Win!
How? Just how we built the sport- but the first step is to Band Together, don't run away, the rest is a whole other article.
The original text can be found at http://junglecatpaintball.com/100%20challenge%2005.htm
This comes from my friend and field owner and hes and our experience at a few fields, and our take on a few aspects of paintball.