Monday, October 11, 2010

The Monday Poll

Last week's poll in a sense re-hashes stuff we thought we already knew but some of the numbers are a bit of a surprise. Keep in mind there is nothing--nada, zed, zero, bupkiss--scientific about the The Monday Polls as they are entirely self-selecting from a something less than random group. Even so.
This week I'd like to see if we can't fill out some background info on likely voters by pigeonholing your paintball predilections. (And, no, it's not as dirty as it sounds. That's on you, Chuckles.) This week's question is looking to identify your preferred type of paintball. And, yes, I understand you may still play different sorts of paintball but youse only gonna get one vote this time so pick either your favorite or the type you play most often. It shouldn't prove to be overly stressful so I'm counting on a big turnout. Vote on behalf of future knowledge. Consider it a contribution toward the future welfare of the children. That's right, do it for the kids.

"When I play paintball it's most often ..."

UPDATE: Oops. Small oversight, I left out pump as an optional answer. That means you pump guys are left having to go with a write in vote to comments if you want your voice heard--or we could assume y'all fall into the stays in safe zone group. It's pretty similar, right?

Monday Poll in Review
Okay, so last week's poll is kind of a downer but the object was to get some sense of why former national level tourney players no longer play. The negative element is sorta built into the question. But there is a way to spin this more positively than it might at first appear. Both "can't afford it now" and "changing priorities" represent players who would like to continue competing but can't for reasons unrelated to the game itself. You could even consider the first option, "too expensive" to be a neutral reply in that what was once an acceptable cost isn't any longer. That doesn't mean it might not be again and doesn't address local/regional play. For everybody who answered with options like "no fun" or "too much like work" they all fall more or less into the same category of recreational tourney players who the leagues would certainly like back but I think the decline of the NPPL in part suggests that sort of player wasn't really a bread & butter repeat type customer. Once the glamor wore off so did the appeal. "The game passed me by" crowd is self-explanatory and most of the remaining options like, "classification limbo", "ramping guns" & "formats" received a relatively minor percentage of the votes which suggests any inherent issues with the game resides in its narrower appeal. Which obviously isn't great but not exactly news either. Nor does it tell us much about the crossover from serious tourney baller to some other sort of paintball player. But then, that's what today's poll is for.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

No option for Practice? I play mostly at weekly team practices. I tend to think thats same for majority of readers.

Reiner Schafer said...

I'm not sure why you were concerned about leaving out pump as an option. I only use a pump, but had no problem selecting one of the options on the list. If I'm not mistaken, pump play could be played for any of the options on the list.

Baca Loco said...

Anon
Really? I was on a team once that practiced routinely but seldom competed and that wasn't much fun at all.

Reiner
I can see that but you know you pump guys are hardcore and would like nothing better than to convert your fellow ballers.