With everything appearing to come apart around us, esteemed members of us in the paintball media are taking a hard look at how we got here, and where we’re going. The picture isn’t pretty. However, it seems to me that there are some factors that aren’t being looked at. Economics, Equipment, and The Industry that makes it all happen are all big factors in where we are now, but I think one of the largest contributing factors is being overlooked: The People.

Since we’re talking about people here, let’s talk just for a second about the person writing this editorial. I’m 38 years old, and I was born in Indiana and spent a majority of my life there, until I moved to Oklahoma in 1991 to go to school. After school, I got a job and got married. Eventually I got divorced and move to Florida, where I intend on spending the rest of my life.

My background is a little ‘off’ from the typical 20-year player…I never played pump! My first gun was a Splatmaster Rapide, which on a good day could do 2-3 balls per second, at least for 5 balls, then you rotate the magazine and go at it for 5 more balls.

Contributing to this state of being ‘off’, I’m a cop’s kid. More importantly, I was the Range Officer’s kid, which means I spent a large part of my formative years with ‘real steel’ including large handguns, riot guns, and fully automatic assault weaponry. My dad’s slightly twisted cop sense of humor along with my mother’s no-nonsense attitude made for an interesting, yet very fun childhood.

The point is, I’ve never played pump. To be honest, I don’t understand the attraction to playing pump. While you could say a Rapide isn’t much of a step up from a pumper, when I played in Indiana in 1988, the Rapide was a definite step up from the pumps at the field. The first time I got seriously lit up was by a SMG-60…those things were frightening! To this day they sound like M60 machine guns to me. While I think pump and old school play are going to be a part of the game, I don’t see them as being large factors, or ‘saving’ the game as some would like to think.

I topped out a PSP Novice in 2004. No Pro Experience, other than teasing selected members of that elite group. As far as scenario play, I enjoy it for the slower, more relaxed pace…but even that is changing…down here it’s alot more intense than elsewhere. When you’re fighting off a base assault with 10 of your friends vs. 100 of those who want to make you walk, it gets real in a hurry.

I remember the ‘wars’ on Rec.Sport.Paintball over cockers and ‘mags, how CA was going to kill the sport, then later on various forums about how Smart Parts was going to kill the sport with their patent enforcement actions, how ramping was going to kill the sport, etc. etc..

The sport is still here. I’ve seen too many of my friends and teammates walk away from the sport because they couldn’t or wouldn’t adapt. Is the sport in trouble? Yeah, I think it is, because of people. Along with the sport itself, people are changing as well.

A lot of people say the Baby Boomers were the “Greatest Generation”. Being in my late 30′s, I guess that makes me an early “Gen X” guy. At the risk of sounding old, young people are different today. I hit a field to play some wreck ball or a scenario, and I got kids rolling up on me telling me how lucky I am for having the cool stuff I got. The next question I get is “How do I get sponsored/free stuff like you?”

My answer? “Work your ass off and earn it”. Too many kids today (14-19 year olds especially) have had it too easy. They go to public schools where it’s considered ‘too aggressive’ to use a red pen to mark errors on their papers, where they play little league baseball and everyone wins a trophy because it’s too harsh for there to be a loser. An entire group of people have grown up not knowing what it’s like to fail.

This trickles down to our sport, where mommy and/or daddy think their child should ‘win’, and if it means they have to spend $5000 on gear to make it happen, then so be it. What pisses me off to no end is that after all that, little johnny still sucks, and gets his butt beat by the kid who worked his ass off over the summer to buy the Tippmann he bought at Wal-Mart for $100, and somehow it’s that kid’s fault, or the field owner’s, or the paint, or whatever…the thought that little Johnny isn’t cut out to be a paintball player doesn’t enter the equation.

What I’m describing isn’t necessarily confined to the world of paintball. The reality is that young people these days are different than we are, and so are their parents. How the sport deals with these changes and what’s coming in the future will define the sport, not the gear we’re using. I had fun in 1988 with my Rapide. I’m having the time of my life today with my Ego 8. I really thought it was a great thing when Smart Parts introduced the ION. My thought was, “Good, now I don’t have to listen to people bitching about fast guns anymore…anyone can have a fast gun now!”

People as a whole need a reality check. You can’t have a world where nobody loses. Whether it be a presidential election or a game of paintball, someone always has to lose. How you make use of that failure in striving for your next success is what determines what you’re made of. I’ve always objected to the idea that paintball isn’t a violent sport. It sure as hell is! Just like football is a violent sport, paintball is too. That’s not politically correct, but it’s true.

Last year my boy Bob asked me to give a ‘paintball 101′ class to some kids who were looking to be tourney players. One of the mothers was there, and I asked her to stand with the kids while I started the class. I sat down in front of them, and explained to them that paintball was violent as hell. The mother was a little upset to hear this, but I asked her if she thought football was violent…she said no. I asked her to explain to me how people running other people down and tackling them wasn’t violent. She couldn’t. I told the kids that paintball was violent just like football, and that not everyone was cut out for it.

I told these kids that they had to understand that paintball is indeed violent, but like football, there’s no intent to hurt anyone. Everyone understood, and we had a great day learning basics and getting our minds set for playing this wonderful game we’re addicted to.

Today’s game is a lot faster and more violent than it was 5 or 10 years ago. The players coming into the game are different than the kids who started playing back in the ’80′s and ’90′s. The world these people are coming up in is a lot different than what us ‘old timers’ had ‘back in the day’ as well. Trying to make the game of paintball “Politically Correct” by coming out of the woods and onto Concept fields was a major step forward for the game, but a the same time it put us where we are now. . Unfortunately, “Politically Correct” doesn’t normally translate well in the real world.

There are people in this world not ready or able to play paintball. Setting the minimum age to 10 is a mistake if you ask me, but there are always exceptions to this. I know several 8 and 9 year olds that can’t wait to get on the field and shoot it out with everyone…the interesting part is that they’re all little girls! I suppose I could write another editorial about that alone…

It’s now time for the game to take a step back, reevaluate where it’s been, and where it’s going. Short term, there’s going to be some suffering, but in the end those that survive will be stronger and wiser for the experience.