Airsoft International Magazine Vol 11 Iss 3 Vorige editie

Once again I’m packing the contents of another issue in like an enthusiastic holiday maker sitting on top of their stuffed suitcase but amidst the chaos of deadlines and proofing, I’ve been spending a little time thinking about what we expect as airsoft players… Let me expand a little. Airsoft should be simple; you turn up, don the appropriate gear and kit and shoot at each other. We all expect other players to give us the courtesy of taking hits and playing by the rules and that is largely the same everywhere. Expectations also have another level. You expect to pay to play at a site and that fee covers things like the organisers time and efforts, use of their props, rent from the land owner and overheads but what else do we expect to see? It wasn’t that long ago that airsoft sites were very few and far between and certainly, myself and one of my friends who happens to be something of an old hand at the game were recently reminiscing about how few spots there used to be to play in. A drive of up to 2 hours was not uncommon.
Do we now expect to be able to play every week? It wasn’t so long ago that you might only find your local sites running a game once a month. What sort of game do we expect? Should we realistically be able to find a fully immersive 36hr Mil-Sim event and any given point in time? What should sites be like? Once a large field with an open barn and a few old tables tipped over might have actually constituted a “site” of sorts but now, well, we are starting to see purpose built CQB environments pop up! There has, without a doubt, been some considerable advances in the level of airsoft facilities over the last few years and that shoes no sign of stopping.