making paintball mainstream

[Phaelon Veritas]

does anyone have any good ideas as to how to get paintball out into more mainstream movements any good ideas... I have been thinking about it and if it went mainstream prices would drop further and paintball would crop up everywhere....

[ElectricHead]

a little late i know....

i don't think there is really anything we could do to substantially moce paintball into the mainstream but i think just the overall appeal of the game is moving paintball into the swing of things, its just not moving all too fast

[gastebucher]

First of all tell all your friends how sweet paintball is and what ever u do dont tell them to get a stingray 2 because that will ruin it for them tell them to to get a M98. You can also try and post paintball stickers on a McDonalds Drive-Thru Menu or other busy fastfood Drive-Thru menu's and people will wonder what the hell is paintball? and then when they go home and hopefully they might do some research. You can make a paintball ad on a piece of paper and put sites like: http://www.pbreview.com for sweet paintball reviews and stuff http://www.xpaintball.com for cheap prices on all paintball accesories and http://www.m98center.com when u make this ad make like 100's of copys and put them on peoples car windshield wipers , in backpacks at school ,on trashcans for bums, and in bathrooms so when people take a piss they can read something. Put like INTERESTED IN THE NEW ADRENALINE PUMPING SPORT PAINTBALL? PAINTBALLS A FAST ACTION-PACKED SPORT THAT WILL KEEP YOUR HEART PUMPING EVERYTIME YOU PLAY IT! IF YOU ARE INTERESTED YOU SHOULD CHECK OUT THESE SITES BELOW ON THE NET on the top of the paintball ad and then list those sites i listed above and u could ad more if u wish then say at the bottom IF YOU DONT HAVE THE INTERNET GO TO YOU NEAREST PAINTBALL STORE AND ASK THEM ABOUT PAINTBALL AND I WOULD RECOMMEND GETTING A TIPPMANN MODEL 98! IF YOU DONT KNOW WHERE YOUR NEAREST STORE IS THEN LOOK IN THE PHONE-BOOK UNDER PAINTBALL! then at the end of the ad put THANKS FOR YOUR TIME ON READING THIS AD AND I HOPE YOU LOOK FORWARD TO PAINTBALL! that should do it and then hopefully you could get paintball more in the mainstream

Gastebucher

[Phaelon Veritas]

so everyone has ideas about how and why why not put your own plans in motion... tell your friends you r uncles.your class mates let the know they are missing a truely great sport

[MMextremePB]

Paintball is moving in the right direction but I have to disagree w/ gastebucher's point of putting up paintball stickers everywhere. Thats considered Vandalism in most states and I personaly feel that if i saw a sticker on a Micky D's drive up menu I'd think " paintballers must be jerks if they're gunna run around and vandalize other peoples property". He is right tho that we have to get the word out to people. I also think we need to start promoting the positives in the sport. People who don't know paintball stereo type it. We need to get parents involved and maybe get some youth leagues going. The public needs to be educated that paintball is not a game of violence, but a sport of teamwork, sportsmanship, and motivates people to use their heads and think about strategies and tactics and above all we need to show how safe paintball really is. Maybe groups like the American Paintball League should put out flyers that fields and stores can give out to the community to educate them about the sport. Education and positively promoting the sport is the key to the growth of paintball.

[ElectricHead]

i think im gonna have to agree with mmextremepb on that one

[Devil Man]

Im gonna agree with MMextremePB, but heres an idea you could always ask to put up signs around the school or in a local grocery store, or mabe aven on a sunday walk around your town advertising it that might help, i think anyway

[MeWrOq]

A lot of parents think that paintball is a vilent sport and they keep their kids away from it. This christmas my grandmother came over and asked to see my paintball gun. Later that day i heard her saying to my mother "If he got hit with a paint-thing [paintball] comming out of that gun, he could shatter his bone." I laughed then set her strait. That is the way that a lot of people think of paintball. I dont know how that is going to change but i agree that it has to change.

[ElectricHead]

i agree one of my friends almost didnt get a gun because his mom thought it was too dangerous

[Devil Man]

its kinda strange how some people can judge paintballing if theyve never been, or how they can judge the pain when a paintball hits and breaks without ever being hit with one.

[Devil Man]

i mean they can make an assumption but without ever experiencing getting hit by one they wont know what it feals like unless someone tells them

[Devil Man]

I know its not like my granpa or grandma would go paintballing

[felixthecat]

I should at the very most advertise paintball in my school news paper. I think thats the way to go and school bulletin boards . Stuff like that would be good and to find out how many people at your local school plays the sport. I have a few at my school and when i get my gun we were thinking of just starting a team for rec out in the desert. Which would be fun as ****. So yeah I might start doing that and if that gives you guys a good idea... great.

[Devil Man]

that sounds like a great way to get the word out i never thought of that

[ElectricHead]

thats cause we dont HAVE a scholl newspaper cam

[Devil Man]

that can be brought up in a student council meeting

[PBSouLjAh]

in our school, (i live in northern virginia) everyone knows paintball. like....at least 100 kids in our school paintball.....and more and more are starting to paitnball. there are clubs and youth groups that go paintballing....and that gets people to paintball.

[ElectricHead]

yes but ill bet you it wont be excepted because student co8uncil is there to benifet the school, it has nothing to do with advertisement like a school paper >:(

[Devil Man]

yea but there could be a student interests page in it if we ever get one

[PBSouLjAh]

im just saying. in our school, paintball is just getting spread cuz people are starting to paitnball, and they get their friends to paintball, and they get their friends to paintball, and so forth. its not a student council issue, just an interest in my school thats growing.

[Devil Man]

we where talking about what felix the cat said. Your school sounds cool

[ElectricHead]

i was talking about bringing up paintball in a meeting, not having a school paper, either way the idea would not be accepted, our school cant afford paper for the yeah anyway, they will consider a paper a waste, plaus what would we put in it? it would be bare as hell

as for that idea soulja you are right, me and devil man have convinced like 6 people to get a good gun, and some spoiled brats are trying to top us so that makes like 8 new paintballers



[Edited by ElectricHead on 12-30-2000 at 12:22 AM]

[felixthecat]

maybe you should start an after school club or something like that... There are plenty of weird and useless after school clubs. There can finally be one that is not weird and useless. Call it what you will but that would be awesome if that were to happen(paintball club) and it doesn't really have to be school related, it could just be people talkin about paintball and stuff like that. I mean it doesn't take rocket science to start a club "through" school but you can do it any way.I think it is a good idea and will probably start one when I get my gun and some upgrades.I mean have you even looked at a bulletin board at your school, last time I saw one, it said "Club Respect to help the unwanted" I mean what kind of person would have fun in that? no offense if you go to these kinds of clubs I am just saying there could be better........

[Devil Man]

thats a pretty good idea but i dont think many people would attend a paintball club at our school

[felixthecat]

yeah thats a good point with it but I know most of the people that play but there might be more... there are mostly preps at my school any ways. but I know we could play in the desert or something. I do live in the desert.
Phoneix,AZ.....

[ElectricHead]

no one would attend any club at our school, especially since there arent any

[felixthecat]

i say just start a team or something of close frineds and go paintballing.... i guess thats about it.................

[Devil Man]

thats pretty much what we're basicaly gonna do is just go paintballing with our friends.. its still fun most of our friends are gonnd get a gun, hopefuly some are saying its a waste of money and that paintballing will get old and they're wrong as far as im concerned

[PBSouLjAh]

well, because my school has so many paintballers, there are already teams that are within our school. my team consists of 10 of my friends including me. we are just starting....and right now, we have spyder shutters, tl plus's, modded m98's, modded spyder, and etc. several of us are planning on buying cockers soon, and one person is planning on buying cocker, and some arent sure yet.

[MuckRaker]

It's kinda hard to make an argument for making paintball more mainstream when you show up at the field and there are 50-60 walkons and a church-group waiting to sign up (happened a couple of weeks ago).

To get more folks involved, first overcome the fear: "Paintball makes people violent" and "Doesn't that hurt?" People who go postal are going to be violent whether they play paintball or golf (the sport has nothing to do with it.) Appeal to to the Thinking/strategy aspect of the game when asking someone to play for the first time (And don't show them the welts on your various body parts.)

You also have to overcome the "Para-military" aspect of paintball. I think some newbies pull up to to a field and are intimidated when they see a bunch of people skulking around in Camos (and some people do go overboard with it). And let's face it, couch it in as politically correct terms if you want, but most Rec games involve two teams trying to achieve strategic or tactical objectives. And ... well, you know the rest (take that ridge and hold it, flank those two bunkers, etc. Call it a paint marker all you want, but what the public sees is a GUN. And why call it anything else. Thought I've wandered astray here, the point I wanted to make is to be upfront with "Never-Played-Befores."

"Yeah, we were camo, It's like a war-game, but we're not fanatical Right Wing Extremist bent on taking over the next county ... Well, OK, mayb Marvin is, but the rest of the folks out here are purty cool."

One last thing, then I promise I'll abandon my soapbox, make sure you take those "Never-Played-Befores" to a good field that has reputable referees, reasonable rental fees and lost of good, and honest, players. Nothing turns someone off to a new sport quicker than a bad experience.

[paintballdude_13]

many people link crimes with guns to paintball. but it's not like that. many parents are hestiant to give them a paintball gun cause they think it's voilent. if paintball started back up on espn they could see it for them selves. that's my 2 cents

[PBSouLjAh]

that would be awesome if it was on espn. i think it would also be cool if it was showed as an X game.

[MuckRaker]

Just to play the devil's advocate: If paintball were on ESPN, parents would only see one aspect of the game (tournament play). They would still remain clueless to Rec and Scenario paintball, which is what most paintballers play.

[felixthecat]

Well what I think is that in about a year I think that paintball will be a great sport right next to skateboarding... maybe it just might start a new trend....then the Xgames.....you never know....

[MuckRaker]

A friend was telling me that where he went to college there was an informal paintball league made up of five or six teams. There's nothing like that here, Anything like that where y'all live?