The Cultural Differences

[Enid_Puceflange]

So, I’ve been playing a few years now

Definitely, spent more time on the field Marshalling than I have played

And you start to notice different playing styles, from players who attend from different countries.

What I have noticed, is that players from the Far East (Hong Kong in particular) 

Like to maybe “ignore” the first couple of hits just to test if it was a ricochet ?

Then will eventually accept the next 6 if the shots bounce off their dome!

Having had to chat to a few of them, I asked why they find it so difficult to accept the playing style here in the UK - you get hit, you stick your hand up. Simples

I believe it stems from the way the gaming is run in HK which is predominantly small indoor sites, small because rents for commercial properties are MASSIVE , combined with the fact that games are very quick and short.

For the site to make a viable business, they have to run lots of fast paced games with several groups all at the same time

(woodland/outdoor sites can be hours away)

You could be sat out a long time after you are eliminated before the next game starts as the indoor sites run several groups during your session, so when your game finishes, you need to wait until say the next 4 groups have been through.

So if you are shot out in the first few seconds of the game, you have a long wait until your next game…..

So why not just ignore that shot that hit you and play on. 
 

I’ve witnessed many a player who has started their Airsoft hobby in HK indoor sites play this way in woodland games, and they seem to find it an acceptable “tactic” and are quite obviously perturbed when you give them a tug for trying it on.

One lad ignored 4 test shots I’d issued just to see if he would take them!

This isnt a rant or a dig at our brethren from abroad, as an education with them and some training eventually gets them playing in a sportsmanlike manner

I played last weekend, and had a delay between a couple of games, caused by marshals eventually giving up on the polite suggestions of how to play and accepting the rules, and asking 5 players to leave the site due to their rule bending and non hit taking..

Has anyone else experienced a similar play style or something different from players who started Airsoft abroad?

 

[Impulse]

When I played in Spain I found them to be very similar to how we played over here in the UK. As a caveat, this was in 2008 - 2010ish, which was a time when airsoft was incredibly niche to the point that there were no "sites", it was just a bunch of us on a forum who showed up to an abandoned urbanisation to play BB wars. No marshalls, no briefing, and often no chrono were the main differences, though I'm pretty sure it's not like that any more. However there were very few instances of cheating as the community was self-regulating; if you were known to be a cheater or a dickhead, nobody would invite you to play. The main changes to get used to were simply language-based ("muerto" instead of "hit", for example).

Apart from the language, the gameplay was basically identical to the UK. One hit and you're out, bolt action snipers and DMRs had MEDs etc. It was just a good few years behind the UK in terms of development, but the underlying culture was the same.

 

[Shamal]

So, I’ve been playing a few years now

Definitely, spent more time on the field Marshalling than I have played

And you start to notice different playing styles, from players who attend from different countries.

What I have noticed, is that players from the Far East (Hong Kong in particular) 

Like to maybe “ignore” the first couple of hits just to test if it was a ricochet ?

Then will eventually accept the next 6 if the shots bounce off their dome!

Having had to chat to a few of them, I asked why they find it so difficult to accept the playing style here in the UK - you get hit, you stick your hand up. Simples

I believe it stems from the way the gaming is run in HK which is predominantly small indoor sites, small because rents for commercial properties are MASSIVE , combined with the fact that games are very quick and short.

For the site to make a viable business, they have to run lots of fast paced games with several groups all at the same time

(woodland/outdoor sites can be hours away)

You could be sat out a long time after you are eliminated before the next game starts as the indoor sites run several groups during your session, so when your game finishes, you need to wait until say the next 4 groups have been through.

So if you are shot out in the first few seconds of the game, you have a long wait until your next game…..

So why not just ignore that shot that hit you and play on. 
 

I’ve witnessed many a player who has started their Airsoft hobby in HK indoor sites play this way in woodland games, and they seem to find it an acceptable “tactic” and are quite obviously perturbed when you give them a tug for trying it on.

One lad ignored 4 test shots I’d issued just to see if he would take them!

This isnt a rant or a dig at our brethren from abroad, as an education with them and some training eventually gets them playing in a sportsmanlike manner

I played last weekend, and had a delay between a couple of games, caused by marshals eventually giving up on the polite suggestions of how to play and accepting the rules, and asking 5 players to leave the site due to their rule bending and non hit taking..

Has anyone else experienced a similar play style or something different from players who started Airsoft abroad?

I think a lot of the above happens wherever there is a game.

I can sort of understand the reluctance to call hit if you have to wait for an extended period of time and are missing play which you have probably paid quite a lot of money for.

In this country though in cqb a hit is gonna send you off behind a curtain for maybe 30secs so you are not missing much game play so just call the hit.

At the grange cqb in Birmingham I was behind the bloody curtain so much that the marshall offered to get me a comfy chair and a reading light lol.

I don't think I have ever witnessed any player being sent home for bad play though or maybe it's just that I have never been very situationally aware.

 

[Dan Robinson]

Only seen people sent home from injury or eyepro violations.  Most people tend to behave themselves once spoken to about hit taking in my experience of 2 and a bit years.

 

[Colin Allen]

Only seen people sent home from injury or eyepro violations.  Most people tend to behave themselves once spoken to about hit taking in my experience of 2 and a bit years.

I have seen people sent home for shooting out of bounds after clear warnings about not doing so, deliberately taking out a hot gun, letting off a round in the safe zone (that was an interesting one), smoking weed in the lunch break, and repeated non hit taking despite warnings.

 

[GenuineGerman]

I have seen people sent home for shooting out of bounds after clear warnings about not doing so, deliberately taking out a hot gun, letting off a round in the safe zone (that was an interesting one), smoking weed in the lunch break, and repeated non hit taking despite warnings.

Smoking weed that’s a new one to me,  the mind boggles. 

 

[Colin Allen]

Smoking weed that’s a new one to me,  the mind boggles. 

Yes, it was a new one on us as well!