While following the sport of paintball, I've often wondered where the sport really needs to improve. Is it the cost? The difficulty in recruiting new players? The inherent differences between speedballers and woodsballers? The lack of media coverage?
I'm very interested in ideas that my readers have, but I will also share some of my own thoughts.
I think that paintball has done a fair job of making itself known, but I think a big problem is lack of advertising. I'm well aware that most fields don't have a huge advertising budget and manufacturers are dealing with tough economic times, but millions of people have no idea what paintball really is. Whenever I bring up paintball in a larger group I'm amazed at how little the general population knows about the sport - anything from not knowing that paintball players wear goggles to thinking paintballs are shot with gunpowder. The public needs to be educated and advertising seems to me to be the best way to do that.
Another area where paintball can improve is to better serve the market. The simple truth is that piantball can be very expensive to play and the primary players are teenagers and young adults who lack expendable income. As I've mentioned before, unless paintball is the #1 priority, many college-aged players simply can't afford to play it on a regular basis. I'm not sure how to improve this as field owners really can't charge much less for entry fees, but a larger emphasis could be placed on outlaw fields and home-built courses coupled with competitive pump-play or capped rates of fire to save on paint. I've known a number of people who simply couldn't afford to continue to play the sport and have "retired" for a number of years before taking up the game again once they found a better-paying job.
A final area where paintball can improve is to put more research money into lower-end equipment. While I will gladly admit that the Ego 10 is superior to the Ego 9, there are relatively very few players who buy top-end guns every year - it's time for some of Planet Eclipse's innovations to trickle down to sub-$200 market. More effort needs to be spent improving the Wal-Mart guns that the majority of paintball players start with. When a player first starts out, a reliable, simple-to-care-for paintball gun will hook them more than anything else. While I've been impressed with the improvements in manufacturing of low-end gear over the past few years (especially Spyder guns), it still needs to get better. When I suggest which gun a parent should buy for a child, I really want to be confident that the gun will work well the first time it's used and still be simple enough to be cleaned and maintained by an 8th grader (Tippmann, I'm looking at you). So far, reliability and simplicity don't go hand-in-hand with all of the low-end gear and mass production has lead to too many low-end lemons.
Paintball is doing okay, but it could be doing better. Remember, there are manufacturers and important leaders in the industry who read this blog, including your comments, so now's your turn to share where you think paintball can improve.
Comments
In my personal experience, I find it easier to take care of a BT than a Tippmann (leaving the TM7 and TM15 apart.) My first marker was a BT-4 and I still take it with me to the field from time to time. I have also find it to be cheaper than a Tipmann in most places… BT-4 is definitely what I would recommend as an entry marker to any begginer.
I don’t think an emphasis on backyard play or home built courses should even be mentioned as a possibility: safety becomes a big issue when no one has any real experience with the requirements, and that is precisely what we’ve seen. Eye injuries from paintball tripled (or more) in the years when backyard ball became a growth area for the sport – as have drive-by shootings and paintball-related vandalism. I’ve no objection to folks who have experience, perhaps reffed themselves, playing in less expensive venues, but there’s currently no mechanism for providing this kind of education to those who just buy some gear and balls and find a patch of woods (which they most likely do not have permission to use) to play in.
What is really needed is for the industry to step up and promote the sport on a national basis with PSAs, information, a field and store referral program and inexpensive ‘play days’ where rental equipment and paintballs are sold at break-even in order to entice new folks to give it a try.
Steve-
I agree that new players shouldn’t just buy gear and then go and learn by themselves, but my suggestion was directed at the players who have been playing and then give it up because of cost. When I went to college I continued to play by playing almost completely at private field since I couldn’t afford to pay entry fields but I didn’t want to give up on the sport, either. Most of my similarly-aged friends who had played regularly, though, just switched to playing once or twice a year either because college was too expensive or their post-high school job simply didn’t pay enough to continue to play.
I see a major problem when a large group of paintball aficionados quit at about the same time of life. It’s important to recruit new people (and your second paragraph gives great ideas), but we also need to keep the existing players involved.
Two Ideas that I have to Improve paintball:
#1: LOWER THE PRICE ON PAINT at events and on the regular fields. I believe, that if paint was reduced then people would want to shoot more instead of trying to manage balls and balance their wallets at the same time.
Their are a lot of scenario variations that I have in mind to exploit paint usage. Most of my variations are geared to woodsball, but I’m developing some games for speedball.
#2: Another idea: to have some sort of rewards or points program. Something like how Visa does their rewards program. The more stuff you bye, the more points you get, that is good for getting more stuff. And don’t just have paintball gear, include like gift certs for some itunes or a free pizza or somethin’.
Weaopn X Machina
a.k.a. Greg Blair
We all know that lowering the price of paintballs just increases the average number shot. Yes, those who can contrlo themselves can save money. On the other had, most don’t seem to be able to control themselves and just shoot more. This makes the game less desirable for many.
Paintball can certainly be expensive. Limiting the amount one shoots and possible playing on private fields can alleviate some of that. But people leaving paintball during their early adult years and then coming back when they have more time and money has very little to do with paintball. There are many hobbies and sports where the exact same thing happens. That’s just life.
Our field is one of the more expensive (when it comes to cost of paintballs) yet we are one of the more popular fields. This is because we strongly encourage low paintball usage. A style to the liking of more people in general. The only reason people complain about th e price of paintballs these days although paintballs are basically cheaper than ever before, is because the style has changed so many players feel they need to shoot 1,000 to 2,000 or maore paintballs. Ans most field owners don’t discourage this because they need the cashflow from these high shooters due to alarmingly low mark-ups.
Reiner
I would personally lower the fire of the guns. It is much harder for new players to compete with some of the guns that are shooting 16+ BPS