Millennium and Eurosport

[JF21]

Tommy, I gotta go with Agge here and here are my reasons; a lot of people get carried away with the idea of paintball on TV because they can't disentangle their own feelings of the game from how they see others reacting to it, basically your own enthusiasm clouds the reality of what's really going on.
An awful lot of people have succumbed to this Tommy, so you are not alone mate.
But if you need proof, or rather evidence from outside the box, think of it this way, in the US, any cr@p can get on TV, and I mean any cr@p.

From synchronised swimming, to spelling competitions, to chopping a bit of wood, burger eating, the mindless list of ridiculous pursuits goes on forever seemingly....
My point being, it doesn't have to be all that good for the American public to embrace it, in fact, inane sh!t can grab and maintain the attention of a significant US viewing demographic.
That said, I think we can all agree that if we were to assess which continent, Europe or the US, was more likely to be successful in putting paintball on TV, then you'd have to be clinically sub-normal to think it was gonna be anyone other than the Yanks.

There have been untold millions been stuffed into getting paintball on TV in the US and every single endeavor has failed, miserably.
That's every single one Tommy ...none of them got even close to making it work.

Now, there is only one logical conclusion you can come to after acknowledging all that I have said thus far, and that is, it ain't gonna work over here in Europe if it don't work in the US ...and it failed mate.

And this whole failure is predicated on paintball's one fatal flaw ..... there is no focus for the viewer to engage ... and as such, the game becomes a blur of seemingly unrelated shots of clowns sitting behind multi-coloured, inflated pillows, firing blobs of paint at who knows what. .... it's a visual mess with no thread for the uninformed.

I wish it were different but it's not ... it's the truth of the matter, and it's a truth that has been shown to us time and time again and has cost us millions already for the privilege.

Game's over mate, 'paintball on tv' is alive and well and resident in the dead-box

I dont think Tommy’s post was saying the televising events was going to catch on (though this is obviously only my own interpretation), more that the programs take an unheard format of paintball, tournament paintball, and let the audience know it exists regardless of the production values. A person is more likely to take up tournament paintball if they have herd about tournament paintball.

Im not saying that this is the best way of presenting it to a mass audience nor am I saying its going to be a finically viable option or that its even going to have any huge effect but with all that said isn’t all publicity is good publicity?

 

[Tommy Gun Nexus]

I agree tommy, shes definitely not the target market but she represent the outside world and even if she understand paintball (shes watched some dvd.s before and living with me for 10+ years having had it all explained time and time again) she didnt understand what was going on (even if she knew what was going on with her knowledge of the sport....)...
I hope i will be proven wrong one day that paintball can make it on tv, but i highly doubt it!

Your mentioning that the Millennium is looking at tv in a different way nowadays. I doubt though that they will be satisfied if non paintball players dont understand the show!

I hear you Agge, what i was more meaning by target market is that i don't think it perticually matters whether she understands the game/show when she is very unlikely to go out and play paintball herself or buy equipment (i.e put money back into the industry). Ofcourse it'd be better if she could fully get into a paintball TV show but due to the many reasons that you and others have stated, i also don't think that it is possible.

Re. My Millenium comment, i was talking about the way that they have publicised the show, stating nothing too much more than facts rather than trying to blow smoke up their own asses with naive thoughts of it becoming a regular showing on prime time tv.

Tommy, I gotta go with Agge here and here are my reasons; a lot of people get carried away with the idea of paintball on TV because they can't disentangle their own feelings of the game from how they see others reacting to it, basically your own enthusiasm clouds the reality of what's really going on.
An awful lot of people have succumbed to this Tommy, so you are not alone mate.
But if you need proof, or rather evidence from outside the box, think of it this way, in the US, any cr@p can get on TV, and I mean any cr@p.

From synchronised swimming, to spelling competitions, to chopping a bit of wood, burger eating, the mindless list of ridiculous pursuits goes on forever seemingly....
My point being, it doesn't have to be all that good for the American public to embrace it, in fact, inane sh!t can grab and maintain the attention of a significant US viewing demographic.
That said, I think we can all agree that if we were to assess which continent, Europe or the US, was more likely to be successful in putting paintball on TV, then you'd have to be clinically sub-normal to think it was gonna be anyone other than the Yanks.

There have been untold millions been stuffed into getting paintball on TV in the US and every single endeavor has failed, miserably.
That's every single one Tommy ...none of them got even close to making it work.

Now, there is only one logical conclusion you can come to after acknowledging all that I have said thus far, and that is, it ain't gonna work over here in Europe if it don't work in the US ...and it failed mate.

And this whole failure is predicated on paintball's one fatal flaw ..... there is no focus for the viewer to engage ... and as such, the game becomes a blur of seemingly unrelated shots of clowns sitting behind multi-coloured, inflated pillows, firing blobs of paint at who knows what. .... it's a visual mess with no thread for the uninformed.

I wish it were different but it's not ... it's the truth of the matter, and it's a truth that has been shown to us time and time again and has cost us millions already for the privilege.

Game's over mate, 'paintball on tv' is alive and well and resident in the dead-box

I don't disagree with any of that Pete, except that I don't think my view is actually as clouded as you may think, even if i am enthusiastic about this sport. PB TV's track record is evidently horrible and I'm not perticually saying this show has a decent chance of bucking that trend.
I suppose my biggest thoughts on this always come back to the fact that this can only be positive for this sport and industry, even if it doesn't end up a long term viable production (and along with the rest of them).
With that, i almost see it as a responsibility of mine as a paintball player to support that for however long it's got, especially at a time where most talk regarding paintball is so bleak.

 

[Tommy Gun Nexus]

I dont think Tommy’s post was saying the televising events was going to catch on (though this is obviously only my own interpretation), more that the programs take an unheard format of paintball, tournament paintball, and let the audience know it exists regardless of the production values. A person is more likely to take up tournament paintball if they have herd about tournament paintball.

Im not saying that this is the best way of presenting it to a mass audience nor am I saying its going to be a finically viable option or that its even going to have any huge effect but with all that said isn’t all publicity is good publicity?

Well put

 

[Robbo]

With that, i almost see it as a responsibility of mine as a paintball player to support that for however long it's got, especially at a time where most talk regarding paintball is so bleak.

And I too had the same responsibilty as is evidenced by a myriad of PGi articles and lord knows how many posts on here in the past years.

I held, and ran with the tv holy grail for over 10 years mate ..it's not as if I am unaware of what you feel is your responsibility Tommy, it's just that many of us have been there, done that, long before you.

And we have all ended up in exactly the same place you are headed .... Disappointmentsville, Arizona !

 

[agge]

I hear you Agge, what i was more meaning by target market is that i don't think it perticually matters whether she understands the game/show when she is very unlikely to go out and play paintball herself or buy equipment.

Thats the point right there Tommy, how do the Millennium know that she is not a target? Shes just as skilled in understanding the show as any of the potential "target market kids"... and if she doesnt understand it why should they (the target group)? And if they dont understand it then whats the point of the whole show? (this assuming my whife is not the only one who doesnt get the show )

Having said that Tommy, I fully agree that the show is good for the sport since any coverage is good (except warlike woodsball ) and I support it since i love paintball. It just dont seem like the paintball message us players would like to present will make its way through to the potential new ballers watching the show...

 

[Robbo]

With this much repeated expression of 'any pubilicity is good publicity' being flashed around this thread and being hung onto like it was some sort of rallying saviour to the cause, it might do well for us to put it into some form of context.
I don't disagree with it ..... as far as it goes ...but my whole point is, it don't go nowhere ... it's all well and good defaulting to these platitiudes but when you really look at its relevance, it means fcuk all.

It is what it is, it's a saying that is self-evident and sounds positive that ultimately (in this context) means nothing.

 

[JF21]

I guess its hard to win, the millennium committee as a whole have been criticized for not doing enough to promote
the events to people outside of paintball and now they do try something, it is also criticized. Its easy to point out why something doesn’t work but its far harder to actually come up with a solution.
I guess people are just trying to find positives as the program has already been made and aired, the money invested and no amount of reasoning is going to change that.

 

[Tommy Gun Nexus]

And I too had the same responsibilty as is evidenced by a myriad of PGi articles and lord knows how many posts on here in the past years.

I held, and ran with the tv holy grail for over 10 years mate ..it's not as if I am unaware of what you feel is your responsibility Tommy, it's just that many of us have been there, done that, long before you.

And we have all ended up in exactly the same place you are headed .... Disappointmentsville, Arizona !

Too true Pete, i spent many a time intently reading your articles for an insight on it all.

All i can do is try to stay optimistic and hope that that road swerves a little in another direction over the course of the next 10 years

 

[Robbo]

I guess its hard to win, the millennium committee as a whole have been criticized for not doing enough to promote
the events to people outside of paintball and now they do try something, it is also criticized. Its easy to point out why something doesn’t work but its far harder to actually come up with a solution.
I guess people are just trying to find positives as the program has already been made and aired, the money invested and no amount of reasoning is going to change that.

The positives me and the rest of the people who had the meeting on Wednesday are concentrating on, are the ones that are practical.

We are doing something, we are trying to undo the erosion that has so gripped our sport and teams, and whilst some people like to 'talk' others are getting on with doing something about it.

I do see the point you and Tommy are making, I just got fed up pissing in the wind if you get my drift and will concern myself with trying to change something that is 'changeable'.

 

[Mario]

I remember seeing Ledz et al play paintball-football on Bravo? That was easy to understand, apart from the paintball part.

This thread is now complete...it even bought matski out of his hiding place.