Have we had 'The Golden Age of Airsoft' - or is it now?

[MAX DICKER]

The only time I've ever achieved an objective has been completely by accident. I'm just there to shoot dudes.

I don't think airsoft is any worse or better than when I started (2009), though its certainly different.

And yes, when I started I wanted to look like I was in COD4. No regerts.

 

[Rogerborg]

[Time spent not playing airsoft]

So say we all, I hope.

Has this got better or worse since the Olden Days, I wonder?

You'd hope that sites would get progressively better at running a tight ship, but I suspect that it's a soft skill, and not transferable.  At the Depot, it's very obvious that whether you get out there and sling balls, or start late then mooch around in the safe zone or at the briefing ramp is entirely dependent on the individual doing the lead marshalling.

 

[Tackle]

You'd hope that sites would get progressively better at running a tight ship, but I suspect that it's a soft skill, and not transferable. 

You would also think, or at least hope, that as it seems most site organisers & Marshall's presumedly were players themselves originally, they would have experience of other sites, & would where possible pick & choose the best bits from the best sites & incorporate them in to their own site, it would hardly be considered plagiarism if at the end of the day customers went home happy ?.

Yet still we hear stories of sites being consistently poor, is it because their clients are too lazy or unable to vote with their feet ?

 

[PureSilver]

It's a mixed bag. The online airsoft community has fragmented, badly, with a very negative effect on the game in this country. When I started to get interested (in the mid-2000s) the airsoft forum was king. The knowledge base, the classifieds, the social side - it was all indexed in neat categories, you could search, and you could post in appropriate topics. The gradual drift to Facebook has gutted the forums, and now everyone's trying to extract information from chaotic feeds with anteretrograde amnesia. Those forums kept weird, esoteric knowledge alive and accessible to everyone; the loss of AirsoftMechanics and GasGuns alone let hundreds of thousands of knowledgeable posts evaporate into thin air. It's not just the tech guides and reviews - the ability to organise games and meet players has gone. Some of my closest friends I met originally on Arnie's, a storied forum that's now lucky to see a couple of posts a day. The last post on UKAZ, which while never exactly ZeroIn was a heavily-trafficked site back in the day, is entitled "What happened to this forum?"

The tech situation is also pretty mixed. On the one hand we have much more advanced tech - FCUs, Recoil Shocks, solenoid engines, better GBBRs, better shotguns and so much more - and a far broader range of guns that are much better built than back when I started. Today £300 buys you a full-steel AK with high-quality internals, not a largely plastic gun that will explode above 1.1J, and £100 buys you high quality pistols in a broad range of models. On the other hand, this tech simply isn't being used: it's insane that the overwhelming majority of airsoft guns sold today are still straight clones of a gun that debuted the same year as the original PlayStation. It's really disappointing that it's taking manufacturers so long to bring improved designs to market; so much potential is going to waste selling the same M4 in 10,000 different colour schemes.

Airsoft's not peaked yet, IMO, but it's definitely gone steeply downhill in some respects.

 

[DrAlexanderTobacco]

It's a mixed bag. The online airsoft community has fragmented, badly

I might catch some flak for this considering how people reacted when FB banned RIF sales, but I'd honestly wouldn't lose much sleep if they were to ban airsoft completely - might see content trickle back to a more sane format

 

[Tackle]

I might catch some flak for this considering how people reacted when FB banned RIF sales, but I'd honestly wouldn't lose much sleep if they were to ban airsoft completely - might see content trickle back to a more sane format

I agree, only downside would be the mods would be working 24hrs a day against the tsunami of Dick's & chavs heading this way lol, the peeps who think vcra doesn't apply to them. ?

 

[hitmanNo2]

I don't know why it's not happening already.  I gather numerous well established FB groups centered on the likes of TM Recoil for example have been wiped clean out numerous times and they keep going back to re-build. Madness. 

 

[Tackle]

I don't know why it's not happening already.  I gather numerous well established FB groups centered on the likes of TM Recoil for example have been wiped clean out numerous times and they keep going back to re-build. Madness. 

Most of them were caned because people kept trying to sneak rif sales posts through, even though the pages themselves were telling people not too.

Tbh I came of FB about the same time this started, can't say I miss it.?

 

[Cromulon1994]

I'm a bit of a noob to this forum, but it's a total revelation compared to Facebook.

I've used them before for posts, as they're a better format than Facebook, but never joined them. Bit of a tech fobe. 

Perhaps this forum could do with being advertised more? At least get one forum to be really lively again. 

 

[Rogerborg]

Perhaps this forum could do with being advertised more?

Like... on Facebook?

I loathe Facebook with the burning rage of a thousand suns.  It's designed as a Skinner Box, giving tiny crumbs of reward for staying in it and repeating the same compulsive behaviour over and over and over and ...

The way some sites use it is... well, idiomatic of the medium.  A local outdoor site uses it as its primary resource, but has never even bothered putting up times, site rules, or even a proper location and directions.  It's all "Yeah, just ask, m8".  That's a piss poor use of their time, and that of potential players' who have to ask the same thing over and over and over and ....

 

[Adolf Hamster]

when it comes to hobbies like this i've always preferred the forum format. one thing i note about this place is as forums go it's pretty good, aside from the perennial school holidays the members who stick around tend to have a decent amount of dedication to the sport and it's a pretty good community. for some reason we also seem pretty adept at keeping the religious/political/clickbait news discussion pretty minimal although maybe that's just the other forums i'm on taking that a bit too far.

sites using facebook just seems to be an exercise in easy advertising, they're using a free platform with a large audience, it's annoying for sure but i'd rather an up to date facebook profile than a poorly maintained website. end of the day all i want to know is "is x site open this weekend?" and as long as there's an easy way to find out i don't care.

 

[M_P]

Personally I think the peak thus far was probably around the early 2010s.

Airsoft in the UK had survived the VCRA and people were comfortable knowing they could continue playing.

We had the 'legacy' big names still producing stuff- Classic army, King Arms, ICS and others, there was Jing Gong and Cyma who were producing clones that weren't terrible for little money. TM had come out with the recoil shock series, G&G had found its' feet and was making solid guns for all prices. PTS had their Magpul license and had in a way revolutionised how people were customising their rifles (looking back I think that was actually a more significant loss to the sport as a whole than it seemed at the time, and I was never a big magpul fan to start with).

The forums were in full swing, and had large user bases, Arnies, Zeroin, UKAZ and others, this site had just about started it's slow rise too. 

I think the point were facebook had it's rise in airsoft prominence was a sight downturn in the game for me at least (not saying it was the cause, just it happened around that time) The original manufacturers aside from TM regressed in a big way being replaced by newer ones, the focus on producing realistic rifles was somehow dropped and we ended up with made up stuff- that's not all bad though, and I felt that there was a slight drop in the sports interest during a sort of transition phase to where we are today where it feels like it's ramping up again somewhat. 

Nowadays we have newer brands and new ideas coming in all the time, people can get started for lower budgets and the social media aspect has helped businesses and sites get into the fold which is never a bad thing.

Then again maybe that's just me reminiscing over what has been- the past does generally seem better on reflection.

 

[Musica]

i'd rather an up to date facebook profile than a poorly maintained website. end of the day all i want to know is "is x site open this weekend?" and as long as there's an easy way to find out i don't care.

ugh having to ask sites what days they run is like pulling teeth sometimes. I ask what days they run the following month get a reply telling me they are playing this weekend.......... that's not what I asked.

 

[emilianoksa]

I've certainly had my golden age of airsoft. 

It lasted one year and eight months.

 

[Tackle]

ugh having to ask sites what days they run is like pulling teeth sometimes. I ask what days they run the following month get a reply telling me they are playing this weekend.......... that's not what I asked.

Exactly, when most sites had a website they usually had a calendar format showing games at least 3 months in advance.

Everything else just comes across as completely unprofessional.