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

[DopeYourScope]

2 hours ago, Cromulon1994 said:

Come, play, enjoy, have beers after. 

I had a similar conversation with my friend last night and I said to him I go for the enjoyment of having a day out with my mates having a laugh playing some airsoft and then making the pit stop at the pub on the way home. 
win or lose we will still have a bit of safezone banter and a few pints

[hitmanNo2]

3 hours ago, EvilMonkee said:

Guys N Guns is still going they just dont have a website or export anymore.  Which is a shame as they had some lovely pieces when I was in HK back in 2017

I was getting WA 1911s from them for £130 shipped.  I saw similar WAs in the cases at Airsoft Armoury for £299.99.  I wonder if they ever sold heh.

[Tackle]

2 hours ago, GeorgePlaysAirsoft said:

 

But mostly there's more and cooler places to skirmish at nowadays. 

Disagree, we've lost more unique sites than have been opened in recent years, which I put down to the reforms in planning laws, vacant sites that previously sat unused for years because they couldn't get the various permissions are now steamrollering through planning, less choice for us & it also means that even if you find a location suitable for an Airsoft site, are you prepared to cover high material & potential labour costs to make it safe & usable, only to have the "rug" pulled from under you at short notice when the developers get a whiff of it.

I toyed with the idea of opening a site for a couple of years, business plans in place etc, but finding a location with certain features & any longevity against development proved impossible, definitely not worth investing in.

1 hour ago, Sawyer said:

Maybe this is me being grumpy, but there seem to be more thick c***s in airsoft than ever.

 

People incapable of thinking for themselves, or just generally being absolute drips. 

 

Maybe that's just society as a whole, critical thinking isn't that popular anymore.

 

Maybe I need a coffee.

 

 

No, we do seem to attract more than our fair share of thick cnuts, I think it's the "guns" thing, good job we don't have boobs in the game, if we had "boobs & guns" we'd be over run with Fucktards 🤪

1 hour ago, Adolf Hamster said:

 

this is true, and i suppose to some extent maybe i am one of those players, but at the same time tying down the opposition can be just as effective a tactic as rushing to the objective. tbh i'd say it takes both. i've played games where due to a lack of non-objective focused players we could easily flank round the side and wipe out the entire team from behind.

#metoo . When I served, cold war era, my regts role was to harass the enemy's command & supply structure, why shouldn't it be any different in Airsoft ?, plus we're not all fighting whippets any more, leave the really athletic shit to the youngsters, they can get the objectives & glory while us old soaks keep some of the pressure off them 👴

16 minutes ago, DopeYourScope said:

win or lose we will still have a bit of safezone banter and a few pints

Safezone banters ok, but some players seem to be happier there talking about their "heroic exploits" or showing off kit than actually getting sorted & getting back out there, which is at everyone's expense.

[BibbsOnTour]

19 minutes ago, Tackle said:

good job we don't have boobs in the game, if we had "boobs & guns" we'd be over run with Fucktards 🤪

Speaking for yourself... I've seen some fairly decent sized titties in the safe zones a few times... on blokes though. 😕

[E21A]

 

24 minutes ago, Tackle said:

No, we do seem to attract more than our fair share of thick cnuts, I think it's the "guns" thing, good job we don't have boobs in the game, if we had "boobs & guns" we'd be over run with Fucktards 🤪

#metoo .

 

Even they’re starting to filter in now. Instagram thots more interested in taking selfies and going “live” than actually playing the game and calling their hits. 

 

[Tackle]

5 minutes ago, BibbsOnTour said:

Speaking for yourself... I've seen some fairly decent sized titties in the safe zones a few times... on blokes though. 😕

Lol, I've got a pretty sweet pair myself, I'll post a pic up for you, one for the "bank" 😛

[BibbsOnTour]

1 minute ago, Tackle said:

Lol, I've got a pretty sweet pair myself, I'll post a pic up for you, one for the "bank" 😛

😍

[Rogerborg]

3 hours ago, Musica said:

While I see both sides there are plenty of shit players who are only playing to shoot people and don't care about the objective in the games.

 

Eh.  We had a tragi-comical day yesterday where all the rentals ended up on red[*] and they didn't rebalance properly.  Ryan and I got switched to red along with some marshals, but we still got absolutely pumped in every game all day long.

 

Last game was VIP, I think, I'd really given up caring and was on the verge of ragequitting.  Instead, I spawned off the bottom of Foxtrot, sauntered 20 yards over to the canteen, and got into a firefight to try (and fail) to clear out 4 blues from the dark area behind the counter.  Two of them managed to hold out right to the end of the game, taking out dozens of us along the way. It was epic and hilarious with good natured banter and congratulatory handshakes all round at end-ex.  Utterly pointless, but the best game of the day for everyone involved.

 

Sometimes it is just about bouncing your balls off of strangers in the dark.

 

[*] They'd run out of yellow tape

[Musica]

55 minutes ago, Rogerborg said:

 

Eh.  We had a tragi-comical day yesterday where all the rentals ended up on red[*] and they didn't rebalance properly.  Ryan and I got switched to red along with some marshals, but we still got absolutely pumped in every game all day long. 

 

Last game was VIP, I think, I'd really given up caring and was on the verge of ragequitting.  Instead, I spawned off the bottom of Foxtrot, sauntered 20 yards over to the canteen, and got into a firefight to try (and fail) to clear out 4 blues from the dark area behind the counter.  Two of them managed to hold out right to the end of the game, taking out dozens of us along the way. It was epic and hilarious with good natured banter and congratulatory handshakes all round at end-ex.  Utterly pointless, but the best game of the day for everyone involved.

 

Sometimes it is just about bouncing your balls off of strangers in the dark.

 

[*] They'd run out of yellow tape

 

Ouch they have usually been really good at not letting that happen recently. I'm heading over to landwarriors site next week to give it a try but looks like the weather is insistent I get wet. Won't be at the depot until next month.

 

 

 

[heroshark]

I remember back in my day when we.... Blar blar blar... Jumpers for goal post... Ect ect. I tried setting up old school springer games. It's very hard to pull people away from their aegs and tactical equipment. 

[Tackle]

7 minutes ago, heroshark said:

I remember back in my day when we.... Blar blar blar... Jumpers for goal post... Ect ect. I tried setting up old school springer games. It's very hard to pull people away from their aegs and tactical equipment. 

Mate, there's plenty of "old skool" Springer games happening.........

It's called NERF 😛

[BibbsOnTour]

3 hours ago, heroshark said:

Jumpers for goal post... 

 

Rush goalie... 2 at the back, 3 in the middle, 4 at the front...... Marvellous 

[Tackle]

6 minutes ago, BibbsOnTour said:

 

Rush goalie... 2 at the back, 3 in the middle, 4 at the front...... Marvellous 

You all missed out the best bit, "roll the ball in dog poo & then get your mate to header it" 😂

[DopeYourScope]

10 hours ago, Tackle said:

Safezone banters ok, but some players seem to be happier there talking about their "heroic exploits" or showing off kit than actually getting sorted & getting back out there, which is at everyone's expense.

Completely agree and it's one of the reason's I like sites which run a morning game and an afternoon game.

 

Was speaking to the lads yesterday about it, a site is advertises to be open at 7:30 briefing at 9:30, games start 10. Usually you'll arrive on site 7:45/8 *if you're a semi organised human* latest 8:45, then the briefing won't be till 9:45 and the games then don't start till 11. It's a disaster really, if people are late then they should either have a separate briefing as every site I've been to has at least one member of staff in the safezone, or be forced to miss the first game; why punish the majority for the actions of the minority?

 

We worked it out sunday at Dog tag their briefing is meant to be 9:45 (bit of a joke in my opinion) but in reality it didn't start till 10, we didn't get out to start game 1 till 10:30. that game ended at 11:30 then it was back to the safezone for 15 minutes to start game 2 at nigh on 12. In theory we paid £6.25 per hour of gameplay. but if you work it out at £3.33 per hour onsite I paid £11.66 to stand and wait to go actually do what I paid to do. I could go to a skirmish which is a morning and afternoon game and pay £4 per gameplay hour or do a full weekend event at a site and pay less than £3 per hour of gameplay. 

 

If sites had strict time schedules and stuck to them we would all get better value for money and the community would become more organised and have better time keeping. To an extent I would be happy to keep playing through lunch in a lot of cases *I understand marshalls need a break etc. but it's usually over an hour which is lost to having to listen to some strange being nearby recount their story of how they wiped the other team with their combat machine from 100m away hidden in a bush. This is what ZedAdventures are trialling at their new site (battle paintballs old site) a full day skirmish which is a solid 6 hours of gameplay lunch break is a choice not a necessity.

[Musica]

42 minutes ago, DopeYourScope said:

Completely agree and it's one of the reason's I like sites which run a morning game and an afternoon game.

 

Was speaking to the lads yesterday about it, a site is advertises to be open at 7:30 briefing at 9:30, games start 10. Usually you'll arrive on site 7:45/8 *if you're a semi organised human* latest 8:45, then the briefing won't be till 9:45 and the games then don't start till 11. It's a disaster really, if people are late then they should either have a separate briefing as every site I've been to has at least one member of staff in the safezone, or be forced to miss the first game; why punish the majority for the actions of the minority?

 

We worked it out sunday at Dog tag their briefing is meant to be 9:45 (bit of a joke in my opinion) but in reality it didn't start till 10, we didn't get out to start game 1 till 10:30. that game ended at 11:30 then it was back to the safezone for 15 minutes to start game 2 at nigh on 12. In theory we paid £6.25 per hour of gameplay. but if you work it out at £3.33 per hour onsite I paid £11.66 to stand and wait to go actually do what I paid to do. I could go to a skirmish which is a morning and afternoon game and pay £4 per gameplay hour or do a full weekend event at a site and pay less than £3 per hour of gameplay. 

 

If sites had strict time schedules and stuck to them we would all get better value for money and the community would become more organised and have better time keeping. To an extent I would be happy to keep playing through lunch in a lot of cases *I understand marshalls need a break etc. but it's usually over an hour which is lost to having to listen to some strange being nearby recount their story of how they wiped the other team with their combat machine from 100m away hidden in a bush. This is what ZedAdventures are trialling at their new site (battle paintballs old site) a full day skirmish which is a solid 6 hours of gameplay lunch break is a choice not a necessity.

 

I agree on this. I see sites tell people to take enough ammo etc for a few games or like my local take way too long between rounds and lunch. I just want no more than 10 minutes between games but would rather a small break between games to load up magazines but I think if you give people time to go back they will take too long.

[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]

11 hours ago, DopeYourScope said:

[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]

58 minutes ago, Rogerborg said:

 

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.

[Guest DrAlexanderTobacco]

12 minutes ago, PureSilver said:

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]

6 minutes ago, DrAlexanderTobacco said:

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]

5 minutes ago, hitmanNo2 said:

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]

27 minutes ago, Cromulon1994 said:

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 ....