XML FeedsFive Percent? You are really shooting low!
By TB on Jan 6, 2010 | In TB's Soapbox | 21 feedbacks »
What the hell am I talking about? Well in the January 2010 issue of Shooting Hot : http://www.shootinghotmagazine.com/Jan10/pageflip.html (page 9) Sideshow makes mention that there are are two sets of people based on statistics, 95% and 5%. And the 5% are people who bitch after every game, no matter what, while the 95% just came to have fun and play the game. I wish it were that simple, Sideshow, but it really isn't. I do agree that there are some people who cannot be pleased. I will further admit that there are some people who won't say anything to the promoter and get on the forums and then raise hell. And I will go even further to say that some people who smile and shake your hand in person, engage in backdoor politics after the event is over. But I think the stats are skewed.
What do I mean by that? Well simply put, I think that 50% of today's scenario players fall into those categories that I just listed above, not 5%. Don't belive me? I am on a ton of sites, I have accounts everywhere, I get tons of alerts and I have people who email me daily. I read so much crap that by itself would be nothing, but put it through some intelligent filters and you can track trends and moods. Think of it as Web Bot for paintball, but not quite. There isn't a scenario game that goes off that someone isn't unhappy. Most of the time it is close to 50% of the players at the event.
For some it is paint, others it is air, still others don't like constant insertions. And then you have people who aren't happy with the commanders, the referees, the way the field is laid out, the way the missions come and so forth and so on. The truth is that even some of the teams and players on the winning side aren't happy with that. Seems that for the most part, the only time people are happy is when something goes that way that they want it to go. And based on statistics, well that just isn't going to fucking happen with any regularity.
See the truth is, the human condition pushes people to bitch. I have done it and so have some of you. How is it that someone like me can say the game is rigged and I can belive it, yet if I win and you state the same thing, I tell you that you are high? Well the truth is based on putting the events through a no-spin, no-bs filter and see if it comes out the other side intact. IN fact, I deal with AAR's after every event. I list the pro's and the con's. I look at what was done and why it was done. I look at past events, and I look at what could have been done differently. I am not a knee jerk person by any stretch of the imagination and I research quite a bit before I declare a game was rigged for one side or the other.
Now, after reading Sideshow and Billy Smith's articles in the issue, I do have to correct my media 'bosses' in several instances. Scenario Promoters do care who wins, they do care who shows up and it behooves them to try and minimize some people and teams in an attempt to strike some kind of balance for the 50% of people who pay them to show up at an event. Now I am not saying that Billy Smith does, I am sure he doesn't. But you cannot lump every promoter in with him or like him. Trust me, there are some promoters out there who are in deep with the poltical landscape and pull little shenanigans all the time behind the scenes. It is called 'the Magic Tree' for a fucking reason. Or the 'Lightning Rod of Lemuria' as Indy has pointed out several time.
I know promoters/field owners who have given special discounts to their home teams and stacked them on one side to influence the game. I hav know them to allow them or other favorites time to go on the field and move bunkers or build something special for them. I have known others, who in their attempt to be equal have minimized and put uniqe ideas down becuase the other side didn't think of it or there was no known defense of it. I have known promoter/field owners who fudged points or 'miscounted' missions and then didn't want to tell people that they had messed up and the scores were wrong and the team that had been announced as the loser was really the winner because it would cause his/her customer's to lose faith in his/her system. I know promoters/field owners who have allowed people who referee, personal opinions of players, cloud their judgement and their ability to be impartial at a game.
To say that none of that happens is akin to sticking your head in the sand. Trust me there are at least two articles here about Referees who can, did and will attack again. Just search when Refs Attack and read up on real life examples. That still hasn't changed, there are at least one or two games a month I get reports on. The refs didnt like this or that and so they used field justice to influence the game. I know some people who don't want to see a team or a person win so bad that they will conspire to put the game mechanics, field mechanics, and everything else at risk to see this person/team go down and sell their very souls to do it.
I do agree with several statements made. "They lost whatever personal challenge that they faced, and rather than pick up their pride, learn and move forward, they are so self-absorbed in their own egos to realize that they probably just SUCK!" On that statement I couldn't agree more, but the amount of players who bitch is far more than 5%, there may only be 5% with enough brains to get on the internet but there are tons more bitching about it on private forums, emails and phone calls. In fact, and I mean no disrespect, even the "I understand field" that is Low Country Paintball had some issues with the amount of bitching that would have come about reading the scores out loud at the Free Finale. Sure it was dressed up as, does anyone care, but the truth is, if you don't care then don't keep score. I mean would you play the coin op basketball game if you couldn't get the score? So even one of the most, here is the game take it or leave it fields out there still has to at some point play politics to keep a lot more than 5% of it's customers happy. Otherwise those 5% who would be upset at the score could stay home right?
So in the end, what have we learned? Probably not a lot, since most people don't want to believe that they suck or that it is something that they could have done to enjoy the game better. Over 50% believe that they are entitled to more than what they got. And then there is that damn phrase the one promoter stole from the other but none truly believe unless it is their event that they are making money at of "Make sure the player you are shooting at is having as much fun as you are!" I have said it before and I will say it again, it isn't possible for you to have as much fun as I am when we are crushing your will to play the game. And the only way you can gurantee that I am going to have fun is to just shoot yourself in the nuts or the head whenever you see me. That would certainly make me laugh and give me some fun. Otherwise, just show the fuck up, play the game as hard as you can and to the best of your ability, take your losses like a fucking adult, get the scores and learn why it went down like it did. Talk to the other side, get some fucking honest feedback and then move on to the next game. And worry about your own damn fun!
But that's just me!
21 comments
That's far too reasonable to ever catch on.
Reasonable-–adjective
1. agreeable to reason or sound judgment; logical: a reasonable choice for chairman.
2. not exceeding the limit prescribed by reason; not excessive: reasonable terms.
3. endowed with reason.
4. capable of rational behavior, decision, etc.
I don't see a single part of that definition that applies to the average paintballer that shows up to play on Saturdays.
It's pretty much just a whole lot of bitching about... people bitching. Very circular.
No ideas, no solutions... no merit. If the answer was just "get over it", there wouldn't even be a need for the article since this is a ... what, 14, 15 year old social issue that's always been there? He should have read my comments on transparent, active game balancing.
As for TB's article on the next page, it's amazingly accurate... I stopped playing for the most part around 26, now I'm getting married & having kids. I may make 1 or 2 games next year, but that's it. I still enjoy the hobby, more than most, but instead of playing I make stuff to make playing better.. at least if you're on the side of my friends. :)
...and little kids are only good for bunkering and being used as human shields.
No matter what you do, you just can't please everyone. Nothing no one can do is going to stop it. It's human nature. No system of checks and balances will ever curb it.
If it's not the game, it's the paint. If it's not the paint, it's the air. If it's not the air, it's the dirty portapottys. If it's not the johns, it's the parking.
If people want to complain, they will complain about something.
Complaints are good.
Compliments are bad.
Now here's why.. if you compliment a game, it's meaningless. The only valid compliment in a business, which scenarios are, is upwardly climbing revenue. I've seen many, many people fall into complacency because they were praised in words instead of cash.
Don't believe me? Watch Kitchen Nightmares. What comes out of the mouth of all of those owners? "People love our food!" No, they fucking don't. If they did, Gorden Ramsey wouldn't be there to save you, you would have customers, and wouldn't be about to lose your house, car, and lifestyle.
Complaints come in two forms. They come in words, online & off, and they come in declining revenue. If people are complaining about unclean facilities... fucking clean them. That's basic customer service. If the paint is bad, fix it to the best of your ability, but also point out that everybody is shooting the same thing so it's moot point.
...now if the game is imbalanced, it has to be fixed. However, like stated previously, it can't be fixed using any of the "established" methods or social shenanigans like not announcing scores to please the losers. Those methods lead to people complaining with verbally AND with their wallets. That's a complex social issue that can only be solved to the largest number of players satisfaction with completely open and transparent mechanics.
My theories on active balancing, and TB's "Fear Level" are ideas with merit that should be explored and expanded. If a game is balanced they don't effect anything anyways.
I myself have been guilty of this before, but simply bitching about bitching about bitching doesn't solve anything, help anybody, or improve the hobby.
If people lose and bitch about it, oh well. If people win or lose and bitch because of fixable shenanigans, then those had be better addressed or there won't be people to play against in the near future.
Personally, Ill take that as real constructive criticism since you actually came to me personally. You go home and then start complaining about this and that, then it is no longer constrictive criticism, it becomes bitching.
If you have a problem with your meal at "Chilis", you simply pull the manager or server aside and tell them, right? You dont stand up on the damn table and shout your discomfort to the entire establishment...
Nothing..NOTHING I type behind a screen, I wont tell you to your face. Those 5%ers wont.
There are so many people out there who would not talk to the manager. They would do just what they do now about Chili's. Don't believe me?
http://www.blackchampagne.com/reviews/f-chilis.shtml
or how about this one?
http://www.my3cents.com/companyOverview.cgi?code=382
It is a matter of that some people and their passive aggressive selves only like to pick fights online where there are no consequences. But the truth is that the more dangerous are the people who talk shit behind your back. Forums are fucking easy to deal with, you post the facts and that's that. It is why the successful politician talks everything up in person and then sends his staff or aides (or creates a fake account) and does the dirty work that way.
I understand that there will be a winner and a loser in this game. To be honest when I started playing wayne's...I never cared about the points cause I payed a hell of a lot of money to go and have fun. Well that is my two cents for what they are worth. Hope to see you and thunderstruck in the future.
That's way, way more than 5%, includes players, refs, and promoters.
Well fuck that! You beat me or my team then you can say you deserved to win. Playing half-ass is bullshit! We loved the Free Finale and I wasn't trying to slam you guys or your game in any way. As far as any field out there, Billy is more than willing to tell people to hit the bricks if they don't like that. But there is a level of people that he isn't willing to lose to based on principle. That is the politics that promoters and field owners play today and not all of them want to see people succeed.
In fact some would use me and my team's attendance at games as a recruiting point against it. See anybody who knows me and my team knows that we play where we can all play. So you ban one of you ban all of us. Ban someone for a good reason and well we will support the ban. But not one field or promoter who has banned me has any real reason. And that's the damn truth!
So it is what it is, and there is a blog coming about that one soon enough
Can't wait to read that one!
There's some cognitive dissonance going on here. If you don't know what that is, that's having 2 separate, conflicting beliefs, and holding them both to be true... like believing God & Evolutionary Theory at the same time.
From Billy's article, "Most have forgotten its just a game, and that's all it will ever be, just a game" Then goes on about "Joe Poser" treating it like a competition... insinuating that people shouldn't... even though in the prior paragraph, he says theirs a place for competitive play.
You can't say hey, come be competitive, but you shouldn't be competitive. That's the same bullshit that MXS, Viper, and many others have sold for years. It's either a competition with a score, or it's not. I looked up the definition of "game".
"a competitive activity involving skill, chance, or endurance on the part of two or more persons who play according to a set of rules, usually for their own amusement or for that of spectators."
Competitive is in the definition of game, therefore, no matter which way you slice it, it's still a competition, or there would be no game at all.
You especially can't say you don't care who wins when you don't announce the scores afterward. Obviously you care, because the only reason to do that is to protect the feelings of people that just got their ass handed to them. Actions are infinitely louder than rhetoric and interviews to objective observers.
Next he goes on to say there aren't many scenario promoters left. Really? Are you kidding me? I came up in an era where I could count every scenario promoter in the world on 1 hand. No promoters left? Why is it on Page 86 of the same goddamn magazine I see 6 games from Jan 15th to 31st, 6 more games in Feb, and dozens posted on various sites like PBNation? It may just be because everybody and their grandma is a scenario "producer" now. That alone has done more damage by causing a change in player habits away from traveling, and diluting the talent and player pool beyond anything previously recognizable. Local cross-promotion does nothing to fix that, at all. The only reason for that is for slight, local player growth and increased revenues for the owners involved, without actually having to increase the quality of the experience.. which has stagnated for over 10 years now.
Maybe, just maybe, there's less overall people because you have dozens of people running the exact same events, recycled story lines, and offering the exact same experience for years with zero improvement, in all parts of the country?
Some people would be better to remember that...... ;)
As for Billy, I can tell you that he at least has gone public with his stance on what people should expect and what he expects, I know that the articles in that issue came directly from the people pissing and moaning on PBJunkie about the 'un-fairness' of the game and what they wanted to be done to change it. It pissed them off (as it should have) and they reacted. I certainly will continue to support Billy, Joe and LCP paintball and Thunderstruck is planning on returning to the Free Finale.
Also without making excuses for anyone who has or hasn't posted here, the SE is like the NE very much segmented and set in their ways. In fact the National Promoter, as I have said is dead, and you are seeing people spring up in the Midwest as well. I fully look and see that some new promoters will pop up in that area akin to the locales we have spoken of. The West Coast has their own way to play and their own unique view on scenario as well. It just seems that Texas is the only place that is rotting on the vine. Gee, I wonder why? I think you answered them in your post above Indy and it damn sure isnt becuase of a plethora of scenario promoters, to be sure.
and over-saturation is one reason, not the primary, but one of them. I don't think local cross-promoting, even when all parties are honest and reciprocate equally, raises attendance numbers considerably. It's still all pulling from the same demographic. Are there solid numbers with multi-year trends to refute that? I don't mind being wrong as long as there's an empirical answer.
And over-saturation is also part of the reason. Why go out of town to eat when you can have food right down the road. But that is because the local people cater to the local fields. They are convinced that the game the play is the game that is the best, and if they are successful at it, they aren't going to travel. The economy being in the toilet doesn't help that.
But in the end, the former National Promoters are just too slow to react these days. They expect that people should cater to them and do it their way. I mean Blues Brothers for LL3? What the fuck? I mean the IAO did that back when it was the king and it was put on by Black Cat. From what I was told it was a cool game, but Viper just isn't original. I mean Oz? Really? That was already fucking done as well. I swear the man doesn't have a creative bone in his body any more, maybe it has all been sucked out by the psychic vampire he is shacked up with these days.
Me, I am happy to play the smaller promoters, they react quicker and are hungry enough to make the radical changes sometimes. Fuck a bunch of groupies all getting together and sucking the asses of people put above them by people who should know better. You spend the weekend eating food, drinking beer and pretending to play scenario paintball with the hopes of getting some publicity out of it. Me, I'll be in NJ playing a real fucking scenario game.
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