Newbies Rule!
by Jayson "Joracle" Orvis on Nov 18, 2008
It’s no secret that paintball has shrunk over the last three years. For around twenty years, the sport of paintball grew every, single year. Now, over the last several years, the sport has taken a downturn. When you look at the numbers, it seems clear that experienced players are playing as much as ever, but at the same time, new player numbers have fallen off dramatically.
As experienced players, why should we care if the paintball market shrinks? So what if newbies stop coming out to play?
In fact, shifts in the sport affect experienced players in a big way. When tons of new players enter the sport and paintball grows, new fields pop up all over the place, paintball companies flourish, new and better products are developed and the number of players at any given game goes up. But, right now, paintball fields have been closing down like never before, paintball companies and the number of new paintball products have also fallen off and paintball player numbers on the field have dropped off, too. The NPPL was a ghost town this year. Has anyone else noticed that Splat Magazine has gone entirely digital and that Action Pursuit Games is about half its former thickness? These are outstanding publications and I, for one, enjoyed feeding my paintball addiction while reading them.
And, it all comes down to newbies. Nobody knows for sure why fewer newbies are picking up paintball and sticking with the sport. There are lots of theories: that the economy has impacted the sport, that tournament paintball made the game less newbie-friendly and that high rates of fire have made the game less appealing to new players. Whatever the reason, there are a bunch of things we can do as players to make our sport more inviting for novice players. Here are a few suggestions:
Be Friendly.
Nothing is cooler for a newbie than to have an advanced player come up and talk to him or her about the game, their gear, how long they’ve been playing, etc… A big part of paintball is the brotherhood of the game. Let’s make new guys feel welcome whenever possible, especially the young kids. They are the core of newbie players.
Chill Out.
Last week, I played on a commercial field and I heard a lot of hard-core (mostly tourney) guys screaming at players to “GET OUT!!” after they were hit. Even though we’re pumped full of adrenaline as we play, we don’t need to be so aggressive with each other on the field. It turns new players off to the sport.
Lighten Up on the Beatings.
Most of us advanced players either use electronic triggers, ramping or we just have fast fingers. In any case, we’re usually hammering down pretty hard on the opposition. That’s horribly intimidating to the newbs. Can we take a page from the SPPL and the NPPL and drop our rates of fire? I suggest we drop it down to 11 balls per second. In fact, I think I’ll go tune down my X7 and my Ego right now.
Play More Woodsball!
I have to admit that my very biased opinion is that tournament paintball has had a lot to do with the newbie slowdown. In my experience, new players love to get into the woods. When they show up to play paintball and they’re shown an airball field, they scratch their heads. “That could be kinda fun too, I suppose,” they seem to say. Let’s give them a chance to experience the woods, old-school-style. Then, they can decide if the airball field floats their boat.
It’s easy to blame the “paintball industry” for the retraction that the sport has experienced. Maybe the industry shares the blame. In any case, as regular players, we can make a huge difference by making the game feel more inviting, more friendly and more fun for new players.
Game on.