It also doesn't help that most people still playing the game after all this time are the more dedicated players, and thus tend to be much higher rank. I can imagine it would be tough for a brand new some ball to feel like they're accomplishing anything against a team with a 50, 90, and 110 degree.

Mainstream games tend to have "handicap" mechanics in place to give new players a fighting chance, or at least provide a small low-skill action or role they can do to make the game fun for them (think: the noobtubes from CoD4). Unfortunately, Tagpro doesn't and can't really have something like that.

I can't get my friends into it because they say they wish they could move faster. They don't understand that there would literally be no game without the acceleration. It's what gives the game it's surprising amount of depth from such a simple set of mechanics. They don't understand that the fun comes from mastering that "sluggishness" to pull off the perfect juke or tag.

And indeed there's such an immense satisfaction you get as a player from pulling those things off. But watching it... there's no explosions, or super high speed chases, or 360 no-scopes. At best (to people unversed in the game) you see a funny moment where balls bounce around in a funny way and something unexpected happens, like a lucky shot in billiards.

Idk, perhaps it's like soccer; fun to play, not as riveting to watch.