I'm gutted at this terrible news.
There's really no other word to describe it. That sinking feeling when we all read it, urgh.
I heard about the shut down last night about 22:30 just before I was going to bed and lay in bed starting at the ceiling, unable to sleep until about 01:30. Sounds extreme but it's true.
I have zero doubts about it, since I did exactly the same. I should probably pack it in now and get some sleep.
As much as I liked Biohazard (formerly The Wargames Centre), it's a fraction of the size of the Depot and I found it got hampered by small numbers attending (certainly did when it was WGC, with regular cancellations of game days) and the use of trigger spamming AEG's for suppression purposes in what could be a really good free flowing and sneaky pistol/shotgun/gbbr venue.
The good news is that I gave it a try last Sunday and it was pretty well run once the games started. They were all over trigger spammers, pulling folk up early and often for excessive ROF. Once I figured out the angles, I went to pistol for most of the day.
The bad news is that they're still running it like a friends-and-family venture where you not only have to find the Facebook page, you also have to find and apply to join the
players' page in order to see the game-day announcements.
If they just took a step back and asked "If I didn't already know this site existed, how would I find out about it, how would I actually get to it, when is it running games, and how do I play?" they could be over-booked in short order.
So my thoughts are that the death of the Depot will likely be the end of my airsoft hobby, as I'll forever be comparing other sites to what we've lost and I can't see me enjoying myself as much anymore.
Mmm. I'm taking my nephew in to Biohazard on the 27th, but it feels more like a goodbye than a hello.
Thankfully I didn't buy any more guns during lockdown, but I've recently restocked on gas (damn it) for my pistols and still have plenty ammo etc, which will likely not get used. Not exactly easy to sell gas and ammo, or to post it.
Urgh, yes, I've just been fitting mosfets and motors and buying bags of tracers. Bright side, your gear is at least desirable, mine's bargain bin stuff.
It's also frustrating that it's so much more difficult to sell RIF's and parts etc than it was 4-5 years ago. Another reason I kept my arsenal small. I don't see Covid going away any time soon. I don't see the Depot making a comeback and I don't see the point in hanging on to all my kit in the hope that I'll maybe start playing again one day.
I reckon if there's any way that Johno can find a site, that he'll start something up.
However, it's hard to see how they could get anything like that size of building again. The economics just don't work out, I reckon it's being running at a whopping loss since it opened, on the promise that they'd somehow find a way to increase the income.
I then tried Land Warrior a year ago to try woodland again, but found it underwhelming and reminded myself why I stopped playing outdoors in the first place. I'm not into traveling long distances to visit a site and milsims are not really of interest either.
+1
I don't know. Gutted. Just gutted.
+2
I'm not going to rush into bailing out, but it's mostly in the hope that there'll be a Depot 2.0 along sooner rather than later.
One bright side to the current situation is that there's likely to be some more industrial and retail sites up for rent soon, with owners who might fall for the "Growth industry, we'll soon be rolling in money" line.
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