Is paintball beginning to die?

I can't help but remember what O.S. told me a few years ago at the Tippmann World Challenge players party, that he foresaw that the sport was going to burn itself out in a relatively short period of time.

Now the sport has fallen into the morass of corporate games and dirty tricks, the players spend their time tearing each other down because they don't agree with each others' style of play, and the "founding fathers" are walking away.

Tippmann has been sold, Bud Orr sold out, Tom Kaye recently got out, Glenn Palmer is at least in the process of getting out.

Is it over?

Has paintball "jumped the shark"?

It's all just so depressing.

Has me thinking about going back to golf as my regular pastime ...

wow...people say they don't  like you...i think I know why now...

its a lot like the movie basketBALL. a sport was invented that a lot of people liked, it was exempt from the cooprate hooplah of the NFL and NBA. but now, its not the same, its all super flashy and if its shiney it must be expensive. makes my head hurt

rockerdoode wrote: wow...people say they don't  like you...i think I know why now...

Let's pretend to just a second that your opinion about me matters ...

<whew> ... Thank God THAT's over ...

it might be burning out somewhat, but i dont think it will buren out comletely. Tom Kay did get out, but that dosent mean that the whole sport is going down the drain.
the paintball game that caame out for XBOX ( good or bad its your opinion) will most likely bring new players to the sport, some will like it, some would rater sit at home on the couch and play the game. but the hardcore, experienced players that dont give a crap about hype or all the legal mumbo jumbo will still be willing to lay down the cash to play.

If paintball were to die out, I would remain loyal. It will never die down completely, but will dwindle down in numbers to where only about 5,000 people play the sport.....

Maybe paintball as old timers like us knew it but I don't really think it's dying...I mean, it's more popular than ever and still growing, it's becoming more and more mainstream, it's losing it's stigma....I mean it may not be the old crawlin around in the bush with your buds and your trusty splatmaster and the old names may be disappearing but I don't think it's going anywhere anytime soon.  Change doesn't mean death...it just means change. The WGP spyder clones and the AKA deal sucks too but that just clears the way for the next generation of WGPs and AKAs. The time we can say it's dying is when we see all this change stop. Then we worry.

Gatyr wrote: No hway I think you are dying. Not the sport. I wont be at your funeral.

Nope, I am in perfect health, sorry to disappoint you.

Then again we are ALL dying from the moment we are born.

This is a very depressing thread. I think im going to cry.

Homer J wrote: Paintball isn't dying, as in dwindling in size. In fact, it's just the opposite. The downside to that is that greedy corporations are manhandling it now.

That's kinda what I was getting at ... it's now just another "product".

Sure, statistically, it's huge, but now the scramble is on to grab up as many properties as companies can get their hands onto, and now the sport is becoming sanitary, homogenized and "all marketing, no real teeth."

The innovators are heading the opposite direction in a hurry.

In far too many ways, it's not "our" sport anymore ... we are simply wallets with legs, just like we are in the eyes of any other industry.

Edited by hwayhzrd