How do we reach these keeds?

[The Jayster]

I'm looking at my 8 year old son and his friends and it's all about video games. Back when I started playing paintball, video game shooters were basic side scrollers. Compare that to today's immersive first-person shooters, on much larger TV sets to boot. The impetus to try paintball came from recreating whatever we saw in the action movies from that era. Now for the younger generations it's about recreating the video game experience.

Also back then paintball had no competition to speak of. Today on top of video games you have airsoft, laser tag, VR games and more sophisticated Nerf guns. Then again, according to statistics all manners of sports/physical activity are apparently seeing a somewhat downwards trend as people in general spend more time in front of screens (the displacement hypothesis).

I also think that the competitive paintball peak of the early 2000s was a fad amongst kids, along with a slew of other "extreme sports". I think that's very unlikely to come back. Yet the industry seems obsessed with reviving it, which IMHO does not contribute towards a realistic solution.

I'll flog a dead horse some more here and add that having one paint manufacturer cornering the market, which may obviously affect paint quality, doesn't help.

The solution? I have no easy answer, but I think that somehow incorporating new tech into the game, making the experience closer to the video game experience might be a venue worthy of exploration. Like others have said above, I also think that the best format to introduce new players is a limited-paint format like magfed and stock-class, or if open class then using pumps. However, as long as fields concentrate on selling paint instead of selling an experience, that's unlikely to happen.

Back in the day a lot of rentals would catch the bug, then ask you 1001 questions and about your gear and the game in general. Many would actually take the plunge and get geared up. Nowadays I very rarely see that anymore.

[Jumpinthedog]

I don't know if I agree, I think kids actually finding something outside of gaming that holds their attention is still a want for them, we see that show with their obsession with E-bikes. Also, the younger generation doesn't want to larp as soldiers like we did, they get to do it in gaming consistently, and if they do want to play soldier airsoft is the better alternative than magfed(sorry but it is). Speedball being more like a sport IMO is what kept it from erasure during its downturn, and is probably the future of paintball.

I do agree with you on the paint and technology being an issue but its a chicken and the egg situation.

Either way like the other comment below us said, I think we are seeing a slow return to IRL activities as the corporate takeover of internet spaces continues to push people offline. So we will see if the "extreme sports" were a fad or not. Personally I don't think they were, I just think we lived through a decade long disruption of their popularity.

[HiatusSmiatus]

I think the best way is to liken it to a real life FPS. I ref from time to time and when im able to, I let the kids set their own game and rules. Its almost always a flurry of talk about game modes and such from their games. They usually have fun and come back. The only real thing i add to them playing beyond ref stuff, is being positive, pointing out good moves and stuff, and reminding them about the fun parts when they start talking about the pain of getting shot. I think the biggest things us older people can do is give them the general tips and tricks, help them out with issues, and let them adapt paintball into their own flavor. Letting them run around, shit talk, be competitive, and shoot eachother seems to hold their interest pretty well.

[SockeyeSteve]

Start em in the woods and on "tactical" fields. It feels more like a video game to them. Coach them on moves to make, provide heavy cover fire so they can make those moves. Granted I'm lucky. I've been out in the woods with my son doing just that waiting for the day to come he was "field" ready. Last week was his first time out, he's ready to trade in the Xbox for a marker and wants to bring all his friends out next time. If even 1 of those friends sticks with it, that's 2 new players. Also don't force it, just hype it up because let's be honest, all of here know the game is better IRL then from the couch.

We can't accurately describe the adrenaline and euphoria of actually playing but when it hits them, they're usually all in

[Number six]

Schedule it. One weekend a month, off the video games. That doesn't just keep kids more open to playing, but any time off the devices is a good thing. It doesn't matter what activity, but paintball can absolutely be recurring. Heck, two weekends, and one of them is paintball.

[Jordan]

Why market paintball to kids?

[Jumpinthedog]

Im more talking about late teens or early 20s, personally I want a bunch of us in our 30s and 40s to come back into it and play/revive the culture. But you need youth to drive a hobby forward and keep it alive long term. Thats what is important.

Think about it this way, the first official game of paintball took place on June 7, 1981, in Henniker, New Hampshire. Organized by Bob Gurnsey, if it wasn't marketed to young people after that we wouldn't have seen the peak of the 2000s and we definitely wouldn't be playing today.

[Cyberpyr8]

I understand the kids need to want to play to keep the sport growing but we need all ages playing to support the industry as a whole. I donate equipment to kids whenever I can. I have given away several markers to kids and I give away gear to get kids into it. I hand my $1000+ setups to kids all the time to excite them about playing. But I think the sport needs all of us at any age. That's why I'm about to donate a complete setup to the veteran's event in June knowing it might not go to a kid. But a lot of those guys have kids that are playing too.

[Jumpinthedog]

I mean getting vets back into this is half of what the post is about, I absolutely agree with you that we need more people in our age group coming back. My title was just a reference to an old south park episode. Probably should have just titled it normally.

[SockeyeSteve]

Reach the keeeds by starting early, shoot trees in your back yard (if you have that luxury) build the hype till they're begging you to go vs the opposite. Don't stop going to the field with your buddies when you can and when you get home, just show all the love for the game, talk about all the highlights, no lows. It'll happen, not over night but just like when we were all young, we all probably had 10 friends that played, but if we're lucky half of them still do.

Once they're out there, just encourage them to keep going out.

[Jumpinthedog]

Awesome advice, thank you! Also great pic, looks like a nice field to play.

[cockerpunk]

we are going to have wait a couple more years. the trend is in the right direction but it wont happen over night.

doing things in real life will have to become cool again. and it will, it already is trending that way. but it will take another 5-10 years. the full enshifitication of the internet is going full steam ahead, and the business owners are full steam ahead on it. and its going to kill a lot of things that have been keeping folks online and interacting with devices.

all they had to do was not enshitify everything.

[Jumpinthedog]

You're probably right, if thats true that means we need to spend rhe next 5-10 years getting ourselves and our friends back to playing so the sport is alive and attractive to those coming out of their virtual comas.