The Wild World of TB!

So I have heard about this 700+ player game for a few years now. Based on the Fulda Gap scenario of the late 80's with the Warsaw Pact invading NATO in Germany. Thunderstruck decided to attend this year and by all accounts had a lot of fun playing the event. But don't take my word for it, head over to The Catshack to take a read: http://www.catshackreports.com/2009/11/fulda-gap-aar/

Dale 'Furby' Ford was there as well covering the event for Shooting Hot, so expect some good coverage in the December issue I am being told.

Thunderstruck wound up bringing home a MVT award out of it, and we would like to thank all the commanders and teams who showed up to play the 900+ player game. Talk of returning next year in greater numbers is indeed in the works, as well as expanding our command role against the Warsaw Pact who hasn't lost an event yet, to include this one.

Congrats to them!

What is Fulda Gap? http://www.fuldagap.com/

According to the powers that be, this is going to be quite the game. In fact, Thunderstruck and I are looking forward to going out and checking back in at the Free Finale. Some might remember that we showed up there a few years back and took some 'whatfor' to Billy's wife in the Mr and Mrs Smith game.

If you have never been, I can tell you that it is a lot of fun, the field is unique and there is no party like East Coast that I have seen. Granted it isn't Paintclub 21, but that event is held here so it might be damn close.

To get the lowdown head here: http://thefordreport.com/?p=851

Make sure you sign up for the Ford report, if you want to be in the know like me. Ok, so you won't be exactly in the know like me, but you will be damn close.

;)

As promised here is part two of the fact that the national scenario promoter is indeed a dying breed. So let's jump back into it, shall we?

I had some interesting emails from people, mostly telling me how wrong I am on this subject. But let's take a quick gander or a step back in time, the year is 2004, and the scene is scenario paintball across the country. Who were putting on national games? Well you had MXS still travelling the country and hitting their fields like Realms of Ruin, Wildfire Paintball, EMR, Sherwood Forest, Herbies and Splat Brothers to name a few, along with the Texas Throwdown as the end of the year event in Texas. Black Cat Productions was all over in the Southwest and the West Coast not to mention in Ohio and other places. Wayne was still in Florida but doing games in NY and the occasional game in other places, MPP games was doing games on the East and West Coast including the Last Blast West which was supposed to be the end of the year game for the west coast. And Viper was doing games in FL and a few other places but had pulled back mostly to Texas from KS and a few other places.

So let's take a look at 2009 shall we? Wayne has pulled back to his field in FL, MPP games has given up on the West Coast and is simply are 4 fields in the SE, Black Cat has 'retired' to his field in OH and MXS is out of business. All that leaves is one promoter and he tried to fill in the vacuum that all these prompters left when they pulled out of the scene. But the truth is the reason that even he isn't making a success of it, is that as pointed out before, there is nothing that the national promoter offers that the smaller more regional promoter can't or doesn't offer.

Back in the day, you needed dedicated radios to allow your refs to be able to handle the game properly, you needed an ‘Ultimate’ who understood the rules and had a good relationship with the producer to be able to get the people who had never reffed before into line as well as maintain the feel of the event from field to field. These were VHF and UHF radios because FRS were known for having issues, however these days the GMRS radios are better and you can actually get VHF and UHF radios pretty cheap. On top of that there are now teams that do reffing for whatever reasons that they have and so even the ultimate isn’t as needed as more and more people take on the role of head ref.

Back in the day you got a unique patch and a badge that gave you something to collect. Too many people, myself included, saved those patches and put them on jackets and saved their badges on lanyards, but as the price margins grew those things left pretty quickly. Most people will tell you today that the people playing the regional games could care less about patches or badges. Some of the smaller promoters still do it, but gone are the days of the collectable player badges. Hence the smaller promoter who does it and can afford it makes players happy, but the smaller promoter who tells people that he is saving them money by not doing it, makes other people just as happy.

Back in the day, the formula was a secret. Sure you could play enough games and figure out what a take and hold was vs. a patrol, but to be able to determine either via pre-made mission masters or on the fly mission masters and it ‘flow’ properly required some inside knowledge of the game that only the select few players knew. These days pretty much anyone and everyone can run a scenario game; in fact some might not even run it as a scenario game. You have mil-sim game, Big Game, RTS, Progressive Missions, VIP format, and more. People have made all kinds of changes in the name of making the game better and in the end it has made the puddle so muddy that no one knows what they are going to get anymore.

Will missions matter? How do you reward the run and guns? Everyone hates spies/agents, do you keep them? What about 3rd factions, people these days assume that there has to be a 3rd faction to have a scenario game. What about insertion windows or is the command base allowed to be dropped for points? Are the commander and XO worth points if eliminated? They have blended methods of the above all in some inane attempt to tell you that the game is fresh and new and moving forward. But in the end is it?

They (local promoters and regional promoters) have for the most part caught on the fact that scenario paintball players are fickle, probably the most fickle group and if you can capitalize on that you can indeed make some money from these guys. But if you can indeed convince them that your local games are as good or just passable enough then they won’t travel. There are more regional teams than ever in some places and these guys are powerhouses in their regions. However very few of them travel out of their regions and even less play different promoters within their regions. Brand loyalty has been enforced either via human nature or economics and that isn’t the best thing for the national promoters.

Oh there have been attempts (Living Legends) to bring some notion of travel out by having celebrity commanders and paintball legends at the event. However the people that come are either hardcore scenario (and they are disappointed by the cavalier attitudes held by the legends) or they are there to party hence leading to the frustration of the hardcore players. The issue is that people aren’t going to travel to party with Blue, Red or anyone else for that matter more than once and then when they see what they get locally and do the math; it simply shows that it is cheaper to stay home. Even more so when Blue travels as does Red and a lot of these other celebrities. But in the end there really is no need to travel unless you (you being the individual or team) want to.

I have developed a reputation nationwide by playing nationwide, I have played in CA and the southwest, I have played in the SE and in the NE and also Texas and the Midwest. My teams have done the same, what teams? Well I was a Mayberry Marauder and I have been on Blitzkrieg and on Thunderstruck. This has allowed me to recruit teams when I come into an area or to know who the ‘teams’ that are the big fish are. Most people don’t care about the game enough for that, they simply want it to be as good in their area as it is everywhere else. But as the national promoters fall by the wayside, that will not happen for awhile.

But what will happen? The smaller promoters will invariably learn their craft and some people will travel to their games. They will infect them to other fields in other areas and the promoters will go back to travelling. Some may do one or two fields out of their region or maybe more, will there ever again be a national promoter? Who knows, I doubt it, but stranger things have happened. In the end, promoters do what they want, and like the paintball industry don’t seem to care about anyone but themselves. The ones who need the money to live are worse than most, since they want to lay the blame on anything that affects their bottom line. What this does however is allow smart and opportunistic people to manipulate those people into giving them what they want to make them feel better. Be that certain players or teams not allowed at the event all the way up to changing the format or the MOS types. But that is for another story and another time.

So again will 2010 be the year teams decide to travel to different promoters or fields? I know Thunderstruck will be, stay tuned here if you want to play with us or take a shot at the title let us know.

I have been musing about this topic for at least the 8 months, mostly as I watch the 'Old Guard' make adjustments to their schedules and fields coupled with hearing some of them whine about not having any money or the players aren't coming out. I have heard the varied excuses as to why they think that; from people like me being at the game to backdoor politics being played by their competitors and so forth and so on. But there are truths out there, ugly nasty truths that most of the National Promoters either don't want to talk about or don't want discussed. But discussed they are and the simple fact is that the numbers are showing that. So let's delve a little more into is shall we?

Now as most of my articles are, I am not naming names, but I am sure that you will be able to figure out who I am talking about. And if not, then just apply it to your favorite or 'not so' favorite national promoter. And if you are a national promoter (or a former one) and you think I am talking about you? Well as the saying goes, if the shoe fits, walk that sumbitch off.

So what is the National Promoter? Let's start with that. Since there are so few now that some people in paintball might not even know what I am talking about. In the beginning was one promoter and he did games at two locations on the east coast. He even had a game or two out west if memory serves me correct. And then there was another promoter, well he started up west of the Mississippi but east of Rocky Mountains. And for awhile that was the state of things. And then in 1999, a company started up founded by people who had been working with both of these promoters and touted itself as the first 24 hour National Scenario Production Company. They traveled the country putting on their games. Now I can assure you that neither of the first two promoters really liked this. Why? Because it signaled the first reason why the National Promoters are losing ground; No one has to travel to play scenario paintball.

Back in the day, there were maybe 6 games a year put on by two promoters. If you wanted to play in a real scenario game, then those were your choices. You could play home-made games, but at the time no one knew the 'magic' formula and the costs were just out of reach for the average scenario promoter or field to start up. Oh several worked on it, like EMR, Skirmish, SC Village and OK DDAY, but the realm of scenario paintball was in those 6 to 8 games. Hence the reason why all of those games were so big at the time. It was why teams like Mayberry Marauders, Blitzkrieg, Air Assault and Joint Fury could travel and make names for themselves with people from all over the country. However the aspect of the national promoter who could bring the production to your favorite field changes all of that.

Here was someone with the game play experience and the tools and formula’s to bring the game to you. There were so many positives at the time; different fields allowed for different storyline, different playing style allowed for different tactics and approaches to the game. But there were also the downside, teams quit travelling and started recruiting for the local game vs. the away game. This led to the eventual reasons that so many people don’t travel today, and it was only coupled with the second reason that the National Promoter is on the way down; the little guy is more creative.

That’s right, I said it, and if you look at the National Promoters they aren’t very innovative. They all have their quirks and issues and they all have that reputation that they hold onto. As one promoter puts it, it is called steak. And if you want hamburger that’s fine, but if you want steak then you have to travel for it. There are several issues with that, what if my hamburger tastes better than your steak? Or what if they start making steak and using a different spice or something that makes your steak obsolete? But being the little guy (and I have produced a few games) allowed me huge leaps with creativity, so much so a National Promoter is still using my storylines and cards and I haven’t written a thing in a year. Oh there have been some minor changes, but most anyone will tell you that the creativity is gone.

It might be called replaying the greatest hits, but in the realm of scenario paintball these days, greatest hits just don’t work anymore. Most people see it as the same ole, same ole and well that is never a reason to travel. Me and my team travel for one reason, to test ourselves against new people in new parts of the country and with new formats. And we are pretty successful because of it, because we come out of our little pond and swim in the ocean; it allows us to be much bigger fish in the grand scheme of things. Sure it is harder to maintain a national team vs. a regional team, but you do what works for you right? And taking a game you have already done, and cookie cutting in major character changes isn’t being creative either, even more so when it wasn’t your game to start with.

I mean some promoters are just going to ride some things into the ground. It works for them and some people do those games over and over again. And they have decidedly mil-sim flair and it normally evolves into some people lining up on one side and other’s lining up on the other. In essence the venue becomes an event, much to the bewilderment of the national promoters. I have heard them tell these local big game mil-sim style producers that ‘right’ way to do something, the response has always been, you do it your way and I will do it mine. They are having 2500 and 3000 player’s games, most promoters are lucky to get 300. So who is right?

We’ll leave it there for this time, and I will follow up with more the next time around. But I don’t want to over-burden too many people too quickly. But I will leave you with this for these two reasons, what are your reasons for not traveling to these national promoters’ events? Is it a team or a player? Is it the lack of creativity or competition? Is it the region or the economy? I don’t really buy the economy because the National Promoters have seen shrinkage in the last 5 years. But we will pick up more on that in a few days.

Yes it is that time of the year again. For those that don't know I am a former Marine, and well November 10th will always be special to me and my fellow brothers. As it should be, most if not all Marines will tell you that they were proud to serve and happy to be part of one of the finest branches of military service out there. While I would normally tell you that all were valuable, today on our birthday, I will step up and proudly say that we do more with less, we are the first to fight and we take no shit off of anyone. I have included the 2009 message from the Commandant and the SGT Major of the Marine Corps.

There are two quotes that have always reminded me of my heritage as a Marine and one I have passed on to others. Here they are;

"You earned the title "Marine" upon graduation from boot recruit training. It wasn't willed to you; it isn't a gift. It is not a government subsidy. Few can claim the title; no one can take it away. It is yours forever."
Tom Barlett - Leatherneck Magazine

and

I was that which others did not want to be,
I went where others feared to go and did what others failed to do,
I asked nothing from those that gave nothing and reluctantly
accepted the thought of eternal loneliness should I fail,
I have cried, pained and hoped; but most of all I have lived times others
would say are best forgotten.
At least one day I can be proud of what I was and will ALWAYS be... "A United States Marine!"

Happy Birthday, Devil Dogs!

Semper Fidelis from the Marine Corps Band!

And the Marine Hymn! How can any birthday not be celebrated without some pagent and posh? ;)