[2pipes]

Economics suck. This hobby is a bit different than most. Very few hobbies required the continued cash outlay that paintball does. Sure lots of sports and hobbies cost big bucks to start baseball, football, motorcycling, etc but paintballs are a disposable cost that never goes away.

[Mr.OldSkool]

uhh,its def the prices of s**t.Pball started getting really popular,then the pball companies thought it would be smart to raise the prices.But now its a backfire because the economy got worse,and if they lowered the prices of the markers then people would think that the quality has gone down.

[cjs2011]

I see alot of people on this thread bad mouthing the "kids" that show up with all the cool guy gear and dont know what they are doing. I'm new to the sport, played a few games with friends and family, but have just recently decided to jump into it with some friends. We all decided to go ahead and get all the nice expensive stuff $500+ markers. Honestly if you have the money to dump into the sport off the bat why not? You can't tell me you didn't want that growing up or else you would still be rocking what ever gun you started with? And we all have to start somewhere right?
I'm not a rich little kid either, I'm 20yrs old and just happen to be fortunate en ough to have a job that pays semi decent.

[theocho86]

Although i do not like to see haters badmouthing anyone ..esp ..little kids: the "rookies/future pballers", part of me does get frustrated..not jelous when i see a 10 -11 year old with head to toe premium galesr and a 700-1500.00 gat. The problem imo with that is i cannnot see why a young player needs to start with gear like that....i didnt....i began with tipps and spyders...worked my way up to a cocker (which was nice....bf i realized the maintenance) and then ions, shocker, all the way to my now ego7 which has faithfully served me strong all these years. And i can partially speak this towards myself in saying you ger players wont appreciate that kind of gear generally right off the bat....start out slow, bc if u end up not liking it, u dont have to waste ur parents money while u sell it for a retarded price on nation. Go play first....rental gear and all, if ur hooked then next step is a decent entry gun and maybe a nice mask...fogging up does suck...if u feel at some point u have a group of friends that could maybe get going in tourneys, try one..find a 3 man or a rookie only, and go have fun...then, if u feel that u want to keep going, find and tryout multiple guns and gear ...do ur research ....see which type of gear/gun is right for ur playstyle...then splurge all u want....gradually moving up as opposed to flatout buying $2,000.00 worth of stuff and u then feel that something else shoots better will help u in the long run...btw learn ur gear inside and out....cleaning and maintaining fgear will exponintially increase usage time...

I know that was alot sorry

[JoepSantaniello]

Originally Posted by theocho86

Although i do not like to see haters badmouthing anyone ..esp ..little kids: the "rookies/future pballers", part of me does get frustrated..not jelous when i see a 10 -11 year old with head to toe premium galesr and a 700-1500.00 gat. The problem imo with that is i cannnot see why a young player needs to start with gear like that....i didnt....i began with tipps and spyders...worked my way up to a cocker (which was nice....bf i realized the maintenance) and then ions, shocker, all the way to my now ego7 which has faithfully served me strong all these years. And i can partially speak this towards myself in saying you ger players wont appreciate that kind of gear generally right off the bat....start out slow, bc if u end up not liking it, u dont have to waste ur parents money while u sell it for a retarded price on nation. Go play first....rental gear and all, if ur hooked then next step is a decent entry gun and maybe a nice mask...fogging up does suck...if u feel at some point u have a group of friends that could maybe get going in tourneys, try one..find a 3 man or a rookie only, and go have fun...then, if u feel that u want to keep going, find and tryout multiple guns and gear ...do ur research ....see which type of gear/gun is right for ur playstyle...then splurge all u want....gradually moving up as opposed to flatout buying $2,000.00 worth of stuff and u then feel that something else shoots better will help u in the long run...btw learn ur gear inside and out....cleaning and maintaining fgear will exponintially increase usage time...

I know that was alot sorry

Couldn't agree more. My own two cents is that us more hardened ballers have to put our stupid-fast electros down during recball and make new players want to come back, break out a cocker or pump and the game more enjoyable for the sport's future players.

[simple_condolences]

Originally Posted by Mr.OldSkool

uhh,its def the prices of s**t.Pball started getting really popular,then the pball companies thought it would be smart to raise the prices.But now its a backfire because the economy got worse,and if they lowered the prices of the markers then people would think that the quality has gone down.

lol... New guys.

[AJolliff]

TBH the flaming and bashing from this site is a huge downer to a lot of people who are currently in or joining the sport. There are a few helpful people out there, but with this site as paintball's most common traffic for paintball information online, it's not really something to consider "The best source for helpful information".

[XxCubakkaxX]

Originally Posted by theocho86

Although i do not like to see haters badmouthing anyone ..esp ..little kids: the "rookies/future pballers", part of me does get frustrated..not jelous when i see a 10 -11 year old with head to toe premium galesr and a 700-1500.00 gat. The problem imo with that is i cannnot see why a young player needs to start with gear like that....i didnt....i began with tipps and spyders...worked my way up to a cocker (which was nice....bf i realized the maintenance) and then ions, shocker, all the way to my now ego7 which has faithfully served me strong all these years. And i can partially speak this towards myself in saying you ger players wont appreciate that kind of gear generally right off the bat....start out slow, bc if u end up not liking it, u dont have to waste ur parents money while u sell it for a retarded price on nation. Go play first....rental gear and all, if ur hooked then next step is a decent entry gun and maybe a nice mask...fogging up does suck...if u feel at some point u have a group of friends that could maybe get going in tourneys, try one..find a 3 man or a rookie only, and go have fun...then, if u feel that u want to keep going, find and tryout multiple guns and gear ...do ur research ....see which type of gear/gun is right for ur playstyle...then splurge all u want....gradually moving up as opposed to flatout buying $2,000.00 worth of stuff and u then feel that something else shoots better will help u in the long run...btw learn ur gear inside and out....cleaning and maintaining fgear will exponintially increase usage time...

I know that was alot sorry

the problem with paintball is u referred to ur marker as a gat

[Bump_Pitch]

Originally Posted by XxCubakkaxX

the problem with paintball is u referred to ur marker as a gat

The problem with you is that you can't spell "your" or "you" correctly.

[XxCubakkaxX]

Originally Posted by Bump_Pitch

The problem with you is that you can't spell "your" or "you" correctly.

thread isn't about the problems of me...

[m3s0h0rn7]

I'm going to ignore the rest of this long thread and just say simply that paintball relies too heavily on financing to really be a manageable activity for most people. It is too much for some people in concept. Most of paintball is a fantasy driven "business" which puzzles people who get involved too closely. The truth of the matter is that most people in the industry don't work with each other to the point of covering the majority of players. It could happen but it won't and rarely has it. Before long, the criticisms will likely reshape what this "sport" is and will become. I have my theories, the best being a free game, also free of politics. Managing logistics on this scale is impossible for the average kiddo to track on his computer. It really does involve millions of dollars, hundreds of idiots and only about a handful of really intelligent folks who "get" what paintball is. Maybe 10% of those people are worth trusting- the rest are not, will sell you a "bunk" game and perspective of paintball and probably charge you double..

[GanjaPalooza]

Since my return last summer from my stoppage in about 05-06 I have seen a steady increase in the sport.

Plain and simple, when people have the extra money again.... they will spend it.

We will see a really large flux in numbers once the economy evens back out... and in the next few months because of tax returns

[Bump_Pitch]

Originally Posted by XxCubakkaxX

thread isn't about the problems of me...

It wasn't about theocho86, but you still pointed him out

[Klaussen]

Maybe the problem isn´t in the new kids nor in economics but in the game itself. Like many others, I was first draw into paintball as a game I would play every now and then with my friends on the woods. Then there was a great growth as it transformed from a hobby into a sport. The field changed, the rules changed, the equipment changed and the game itself changed. Suddenly paintball wasn't a 20 minute match game but a 3 minute match competition as players and markers got faster and better.

Think of the tournaments and compare them to any other mayor team sport in terms of time and entertainment.

The average football match is 3 hrs long. A soccer match is about 2 hrs. Baseball 3hrs. Basketball 2:30. Hockey 3 hrs.

In this sports the viewer has the opportunity to track the action as it unfolds. He can savour the moment and the action in a 2-3 hr pacage. People has time to appreciate what the heck is going on in the field. Even when their team is down they can hope for a "come back".

Even more, this sports thrive on geography as they have a supportive fandom backing up their home team buying their merchandise. I mean, when you watch your local team agains any other team you want more than 3 minutes of a ramping fulmination. Either your team looses giving you 3 hrs of thrill or you team wins giving you 3 hrs of "WE are kicking their ***". You get to know every single player, their position, their strengths and their weakness. More importantly, almost anyone can practice this sports anywhere and with a low budget. No need for professional equipment or a specialized field, any kid can grab a ball and be the weekend hero at the park match against the rivaling neighbors.

Paintball, as a professional sport, is on a totally different set to me. For anyone not familiarized with the sport, it is difficult to keep track of the action and before they know it, the match has ended. Your team just lost and you were in the bathroom peeing...

Professional paintball fandom is based strictly on a minority of paintball players. Someone that doesn't play paintball will hardly view a match, let alone undersand it. Even players that love paintball as a hobby hardly keep track of the tournaments (too many and too local).

Even though I love paintball, when I think of it as a professional sport, I can´t help but throwing it along with sailing championships or professional pool. As it is, the sport of paintball can´t gain more glory than an unpopular olympic game glorified every 4 years at the most. Changes must be made for the sport to become more attractive to watch and easier to follow.

I may be wrong about the whole idea but here I lay some possible ideas.

a).- Tournaments
Instead of many local tournaments in which every team travels to a city that last a couple of days, why not make a season long tournament like any mayor sport does?

b).- Game length.
Instead of a 3 to 10 minute match have a longer game. By this I don´t mean having a slowed down version of paintball but rather having a series of consecutive matches beween the 2 teams. This way teams may switch strategies to score as the game unfolds, athletics and performance are more "showy", and you give a better chance for unfamiliar viewers to understand what is going on an the audience as a whole to savour the moment.

c) Markers.
Sure it is cool to view top of the line equipement with peak performance such as it is with formula 1 car racing, but as with car racing, unfamiliar audiences will under rate the sportsmen ability and give the credit to the equipment rather than to the athletes. Also, pushing expensive equipment into sports makes them fall into the "elitist activity" category.

People love folk heroes. Give them something they can try to emulate. You can see what "top of the line" gear has done to the sport in any local field. New people with low budget have little to no chance against a team with geo7s and endless cases of paintballs. This makes newcomers leave the sport as they are in for "not a good time". Baseball has heavy restrictions on bats and gloves as to keep the game fair. Even formula 1 has changed their rules so that low budget teams can compete up tu par with the bigger teams. Give the newcomers something they can emulate and the "regulars" something they can admire (skill rather than gear). (I know that there are some restrictions already around fire rate)

I would love to see the pro players play at ground level; to see what they can do with a mechanical marker and a restricted amont of paint. That should be interesting...

Paintball is still growing but its rate of growth is decaying. The main area of growth is not in paintball as a sport but rather in paintball as a hobby. People are going back to the woods and recball is ever more popular. Why? you may ask. I can only guess that its all about what people can understand and associate with. A paradigm shift is called for if we want to make this sport grow.