How do we reach these keeds?

[Jumpinthedog]

Anyone else here just getting back into the sport and wanting it to regain the popularity of the 2000s? Anyone have any ideas of how to do get more people playing or breathing some life into the sport?

[Pyrate Jim]

It's difficult to frame the fun when kids prefer video screens to live action sports games.

[Chuck E Ducky]

I don't care if it’s gets popular. I just want to shoot paintballs at my friends. If fields stop existing we will just go back in the woods. Have 12g will travel..

[Jumpinthedog]

If fields stop existing then guns and parts will stop being made so lets hope that doesn't happen.

[Chuck E Ducky]

As long as they make paint, paintball will exist.

[Reflex0283]

Kid here! As others have said in the past, much of the thrill and popularity of paintball has been mostly replaced by online gaming and other popular sports. From my experience, just getting people to try it can be enough to plant that seed and get them hooked. However, keep in mind that the cost of a single case of paint is about the same as working a 5 hour shift at a minimum wage job (in Connecticut where minimum wage is almost $17). That alone prevents most people under the age of 16 from getting into the sport if their parents don't pay for everything. The issue for myself and other people my age is also that even if we have our own jobs, we're still trying to save for college, gas these days, and whatever else in life that comes before paintball.

Despite all this, I do still try to get my friends involved. Today I went out and played with one of my friends for a couple hours, had a ton of fun running pump for the second half of the day after I shot through my half of the box of paintballs we shared. Good times

[Jumpinthedog]

From my experience, just getting people to try it can be enough to plant that seed and get them hooked. However, keep in mind that the cost of a single case of paint is about the same as working a 5 hour shift at a minimum wage job (in Connecticut where minimum wage is almost $17). That alone prevents most people under the age of 16 from getting into the sport if their parents don't pay for everything.

That has got to be the biggest reason for its lack of popularity amongst younger people. I remember buying paint was always difficult when I was younger, and now is no different i'm sure. But I do agree with you I think getting people to play will get them hooked. I disagree with the other commenter, gaming doesn't have total authority over them and doing fun things is still something desirable to the newer generations.

[Jonnydread]

It’s still desirable but people have many more options these days compared to when a lot of us were coming up. Gaming in general, VR, airsoft, etc are all viable options to scratch that itch. Plenty of younger folks still want to get out there any run around, but you’re gonna gravitate towards what your friends are doing and if they’re drinking Monster in the basement and playing PvP then you’ll join them more likely than not. I think ensuring new players have a fucking blast is the best way to not only ensure new blood comes into the game, but also the right kind of blood

[Jumpinthedog]

True but I don't think getting them hooked will be hard, its getting them to try it in the first place.

[Blackmagic71]

Best thing you can do is bring people that haven’t played before or play very infrequently and help them have fun.

[Jumpinthedog]

I agree which is a hard sell but also I think we need to get a lot of the old hats to play again. I think if we got people back into it it would be easier to draw people in again. We need a culture.

[drewkroeker]

Here's what has been working for me:

- until I can setup an outlaw field, if I'm gonna ball it means driving two and a half hours. I've got a Honda fit that can haul myself and three other people plus a ton of gear. Roomy enough but good on gas. It's worth the trip if the field is properly run and well built.

- I own enough gear to supply a small army. When I see a good deal online or in the pro shop I jump on it. If one of my guests plays with it and likes it, I'll sell it to them for the same price I paid.

- my gear is relatively high end. This makes for a great user experience. Don't get me wrong, there is a certain charm to using a rental tippmann ft12 with a lot of kick that barely hits 250 fps. But I want my guests to live in the modern era and that means emeks or better. I keep a couple emeks in the car to lend out in case someone has marker malfunctions, or if a rental player wants to jump in with the equipment owners.

- I keep a couple carbon fiber peanut tanks on hand to lend out to the young gunners. Paintball markers are not very ergonomic to begin with. An emek with rotor and peanut tank is going to help a new player tally up more hits vs a tippmann with a heavy steel bottle and a shake n bake.

- I have chipped in more money than is reasonable, if I'm being honest. Often I don't charge my bros for gas. Plus I bought several of them memberships at the indoor field. They get a better price on paint and paid me back in installments. This way they get to play more and I have people to play with.

- I invite anyone I can think of to come out and try it. So far I've brought my boss, his two sons, two co-workers and two brothers of a co-worker. Last weekend I rented a van and picked filled it up with oil riggers and paintball gear, then drove us to Winnipeg. It was pretty kickass.

- I plan simple game modes so we can switch it up from team deathmatch/elimination. Kill confirmed, bomb push, bitcoin scramble are a few of my favorites.

- I also have other random gear you might not think of. ie walkie talkies to start the game if teams can't see each other, chronograph, Allen keys, lube, o-rings, pressure tester, red and green armbands. I bring a cooler with water and gatorade to keep everyone hydrated.

I have been blessed with a job that pays pretty good, which is how I can afford my current setup. I know that it doesn't make financial sense for most people to own this much gear, even if they're trying to grow the sport. But this is what makes me happy, which is why I'm awake at 2am on game day cutting up t-shirts to make flags for kill confirmed.

[flyweightnate]

What are the rules/ objectives for these games? Haven't heard of some of them.

[drewkroeker]

flyweightnate bomb push: there is a small soccer ball placed at the center of the field. Each team has a line of cones that designate an endzone (each endzone takes up 1/5 of the field). Objective is to get the ball into the opponents zone and keep it there until the 5 minute timer expires. You cannot go past the cones into the enemy zone. Each player gets 3 lives. There have been games where one side is totally eliminated but the dominant team loses track of the bomb and 5 minutes runs out, resulting in a draw.

Bitcoin scramble: i place seven frisbees (bitcoin tokens) all over the field. To score a point players must grab a frisbee and place it in the bucket at their start station. Whichever team has more frisbees at the end wins. Time limit is 10 minutes, players have 3 lives.

Kill confirmed: each player gets a small flag that corresponds to their team color. When you get shot, you drop your flag on the ground and go back to the start station. The enemy will try to retrieve your dropped flag and take it back to the bucket at their start station. Each enemy flag in the bucket is worth one point. Each team has extra flags so if you die right away and there's no chance for your buddies to recover your flag, you can still spawn in. But there aren't enough flags for everyone to die twice. Every player is limited to carrying 3 flags at a time: their own personal flag, one teammates flag, and one enemy flag. I also place bonus flags around the map, mostly in the middle. These flags are worth 2 to 5 points, so if a player is carrying their limit, it makes sense to drop the enemy flag worth 1 point and pick up a bonus flag for 2 or more points. Time limit is 10 minutes, or 15 minutes on a larger field

[Daltech]

Biggest hurdle for me is, “ is that guns, um, ew, bad, no?” , then next it’s “your actually like really actually playing war, um ew, no?” , then it’s “I used to play but someone froze paintballs and my friends friend of a friend’s brother got hurt really bad so I don’t do it all the time anymore”.

I’ve heard some other excuses but not having money isn’t one of them. Around these parts, the Ferrari dealer just remodeled and the Porsche Dealership gets fresh shipments monthly. Last I heard we were building one of those fancy high end organic supermarkets that only sells fruit from New Zealand and rare earth powder makeups.

4th wealthiest County in the Country, in the 5th wealthiest state in the world. Temporarily surpassing Japans economy.

If you can’t beat em, join em. Buy alphabet and tesla stock.

[Jonnydread]

Wow I haven’t encountered any of that since like 2001, wild

[Jumpinthedog]

Sounds like your county is the type we need then. Disposable incomes are what push hobbies forward. If we can get the sport popular in places like that then they can start creating a culture, hosting events and figuring out whats exonomical. which makes it catch on elsewhere.

[flyweightnate]

Outlaw is certainly the easiest entry point, and outlaw pump/ stock has been great when I've played with newbies.

The biggest challenge is access to land.

[Chappy]

I have acreage, 10 procarbs, a yong heng knockoff compressor, a big scuba, 20 lbs of co2 , 8 loaner masks, and a pile of tanks. I keep 3 plus cases of paint on hand. I have thrown outlaw games for my kids and their friends. They have a blast, they talk about it for weeks. They taunt their friends who missed out about next time. They play for hours and we grill afterwards and they have so much fun. Do you think they’ve asked once to schedule a game? No I have to pull teeth to get th out there. It doesn’t seem to matter how much fun people have when they play or how easy you make it for them. It’s always a struggle, even with kids that I have watched have an incredible day. Paintball is weird, it’s always had a strange engagement and retention problem. It’s easy to blame video games and other indoor activities but I’ve been watching people have amazing days of paintball that put huge smiles on their face then refuse to ever play again since 93.

[Jumpinthedog]

Thats fair, that means the level of convenience isn't quite there for most people. Idk how we could address that though.

[Kit352]

As an older adult that's been in the sport for nearly 40 years I see and hear several problems when I offer to show kids the sport.
1. Cost. I have given away many free kits for new players. Even random ones I see on the field renting equipment. Always spyders but decent, perfectly shooting guns. An odd mask and whatever Steelie tank I have at hand. Good beginner setup. It's actually better than what I had most times. It's the fees that come back to haunt them. Even if I play pump and only buy one bag of ammo I'm still looking at $40 bucks on the cheap side. Now try to be a parent with a trigger happy kid, that's $80 a visit. That's ok once in while but not every week. Most switch to airsoft as a cost savings.
Once parents see the cost of an upgraded gun they run for the hills. I think the cheapest new quality gun I can buy locally is north of $300. I haven't seen a new spyder in a long long time.
2. Pain threshold. Too many just don't want to be shot. Ever. As a kid we would line up to take a hit just to see how it felt. Now I can't get some to even fire the gun they are so scared.
3. Accessibility. I'm lucky I have several fields nearby. Barring that I have thousands of acres of woods in my back yard. I'm lucky. It wasn't so long ago I had to travel an hour to play, now it's more like 20 minutes. Not every one has the time or ability to travel like that, especially with high fuel prices.
4. No friends that play. If you get one or two kids to play others are likely to follow.

[Cdn_Cuda]

I am going to try and run a private game or two this summer as a have a few nephews of paintballing age. Let’s me control the game better and can play fun formats and make sure they have a good time.

The catch, is my local field requires a group of 10 rentals minimum to run a private game. This covers the field’s cost of the ref, but makes it a challenge, especially as I have a significant amount of gear.

I’ve brought out a bing group a few times over the years and it’s been a lot of fun.

[Jumpinthedog]

So after all these replies it seems like there are a lot of reasons why its hard to get it to take off with new players. So that makes me think the focus should be to bring back the old players, get the sport healthy and then focus on new players. But that leads to a similar question, how do we get people who used to play to come back?

[Cunha]

The people that used to work on cars and play paintball are about 50% poorer than they were in 2000. That means they are spending more energy just paying rent. They don't have time to wrench on cars in the driveway they don't have, and they don't have weekends to paintball.

Also, there used to be around 6 or more print paintball magazines sitting in front of all normal curious people at borders.

Now the word Gun is not allowed on Facebook and subliminal ads there are the main ways people find out about stuff in the world and paintball has zero presence at all.

Then there is the terminal state of competitive paintball, and with the min/max mentality of a lot of people who have grown up on cell phones "what is the best paintball way" they can see tourney ball and not be interested. It isn't easy to get a concept for what actual fun paintball looks like.

Its all fixable but the bigger money in the game has had their heads up their corporate profit maximizing loser asses for a long time and you can see how its all shrunk up.

Facebook draining message board participation is also a massive problem. On a message board there is an actual community with information that is stable and easy to reference and people that are easy to contact and study their interactions and such.

Facebook being a scrolly impossible to reference ad filled pile of crap means people don't really get a good view of the game like they can here or pbnation or pbreview of the past.

It's ready for a reboot. But it will take someone with heart and resources to see it through to another era.

I think that the best way forward is stock class because 12g are shippable and keep indefinitely and low rate of fire means cheaper higher action games that are more discrete in outlaw settings. It also allows for a higher degree of athleticism to be showcased.

Not to say the best electro speedball players aren't good athletes. They are likely to be the best stock class players too, and their skills will be even more apparent when they are making split second single shot snap shot gog hits and making it look easy.

Its a fun game.

[Chuck E Ducky]

Stock Class “allows for a higher degree of athleticism to be showcased.” 🤔 @Slim

[BrickHaus]

This is my niece and myself. She's 13 and today was her second time playing. She loves it. All these years of me hyping it up has paid off with one of the kids in my life.

[Cunha]

This is the path