Wavering Morale

[Brian McIlmoyle]

Originally Posted by Ronan

Stop waving off people interested in Airsoft (that are 18+) and maybe MORE fresh blood will play.

You would be surprise how many people lose interest in airsoft after seeing the way 'new members' are treated on ASC.

A lot of people think that ASC = the final say on canadian airsoft.

This isn't an attack on ASC, it's just what some people feel like. I know people around here that stop going on her and rely on friends to sign them up to games or directly contact hosts.

Pish tosh ... lots of good people are starting out,, and well.. I just taught a CQB workshop for a group of 16 guys most of whom are in their first season of AS ... the are all fresh.. keen to learn and starting out right.

And all of them were not put off by ASC .. because they are mostly mature guys .. who are glad to see the whiners and un-weaned get their due.

I'm all for giving new guys a leg up ... and show the way.. but i'll not hold their hand .. and pat their heads...
If you are needy .. you are going to be hungry and cold... if you know what you want and are committed to get it you will find a banquet

[CARL]

Originally Posted by scooby

Jeez its not going to be a gun shortage killing airsoft , its going to be a veteran player shortage.



I think people blaming clearsoft is just ridicules, its been the best way to get new players, the only thing is we need veterans to pass along the core values of airsoft to the new guys.

New players who buy cheap intro guns have to understand there guns are never going to be high performance machines with out $ and all proper parts. You guys are burning out gun docs with your high expectations and low budgets.

Your going to get out of airsoft what you put into it. When you depend on other people to make to event fun you will always be let down.

I send out a big thank you of appreciation to guys like Brian who are hosting excellent milsim oriented games that make airsoft what it is.

I respectfully disagree but on some points!

You actually just disproved or contradicted yourself to a certain degree with the "clearsoft" argument, if gun Doc's are overwhelmed with "shit guns" because of the new players predominantly buying "shit guns" then it is hurting the communities growth. I would rather have our Gun Doc community working on high end gun's that are used by serious players as opposed to useless fledglings( no offense).

I say the formula for success is attracting higher end players, forget the little scrim games, and juvenile events, it would better in the community to bring in more dedicated milsim events that will attract more serious players.

+1 on what Brian is doing, I really like it, raising the game play to higher levels, and a more stricter game atmosphere is the way to go. I would like to see more command structure involved as well, the more MIL/Leo out there will be great too, i hate waiting for ever to get the game going. (I know it's Airsoft)

For some games or events the more relaxed environment is fine for scrim games, and gear testing, but lets get serious here, the overall laziness and lack of motivation is boring me!

"It's time to separate the caff from weak" ( I think that is how it goes, herd that one today)

As for your going to get out of "airsoft" what you put in it, I don't know man, Dean you put a lot in doing all the "Gun Doc work" that you spend major hours on. Wouldn't it be nice if our internals were made on a consistent basis with strict quality control measures there, I'm sure that would prevent many AEG's from going down prematurely. ( I know this is entirely out of our hands)

As for the "veteran shortage" most of the veterans are busy with there lives, combined with bad economic times, they have more pressing matters at hand.
But they will be out next year,and the ones that don't come back, others will fill the void.

My recommendations is fewer games being posted, but more involved games, AS community just needs to tighten there belt, this will bring AS back again.

Trust me!

[CDN_Stalker]

Regarding the gun doc thing, my end was way too many coming in, my having to prioritize who's gun gets worked on before anothers................ players mixing and matching parts to install in their guns, and not having them work right, spending up to 20 hours on a gun to sort out airleak issues and only having quoted $40 for my work prior to that, special rewire jobs (like Trigger Masters) and Crane stocks have always been a pain in my ass, some are not bad to work on, others are a royal bitch, at least the early ones. GBBs are the worst to work on at times (read KSC Glocks), one can't see inside them to find what exactly is going wrong.

Most times I'd work 2-3 hours per night on guns, and maybe 3-5 hours per day on weekends. I'm glad I don't do it anymore, let's me do all kinds of other things (like spend time with my gf), but the scars of past years doing gun work means I really avoid working on my own guns unless I REALLY have to (have two KSC G19s that worked great for years, both went tits up with different problems, got one working after about a dozen hours of tinkering and replacing parts, only to find while it worked great at home for many mags, it'd fuck up at the field when I needed it most, fire one or two shots then spews all the gas, even on the second mag I tried. Really took the fun out of the game for me since I coudn't trust any sidearm I had).

[Wilson]

A large part of why I have been growing increasingly disheartened this season is a lack of bodies. Last year was awesome as we got a lot of training time in and went to a game every month of the season. Our schedules all seemed to match up perfectly for airsofting.

This year I've only been to four games and have gotten out twice with the team. This is of no particular fault of any one individual, but rather a combination of bad luck in timing and heavy work loads for pretty much everyone on the team. Though my team mates are always more willing to make sacrifices and go the extra mile to get in real-steel trigger time before any airsoft game - which I feel adds to the problem, though I can't exactly blame them.

Part of what I'm feeling is likely derived from simply not being able to play as much as I would like to. I don't enjoy going to games on my own.

[mcguyver]

I retired. Sold all my guns, 95% of my gear, and bought a truck, put some $$$ away for a holiday trailer and a trip to Hawaii, then bought a couple zippy little guns and some fancy do-dads for them. And I'm not looking back.

If you feel the urge to pack it all in and sell your stuff, do it. Be ruthless about it and don't look back. No point pining about until next year, only to do it then and prolong the inevitable.

Just the opinion of a recent retiree.

[BORDENSNIPER]

It could be just a Northern oncoming-winter-depression thing, but recently my love for Airsoft has been tested and I've been finding it increasingly difficult to remain interested in the sport. The quality and mindset of the players has changed in recent years and the games just aren't what they used to be for me. I'm also finding it extremely challenging to motivate others to attend games these days.

Lack of players, lack of good players, lack of normal teams that arent sour when they loose to regular players, geek stuff like zombie and themes playing games, whiners, and ppl who just like cheating and flaming on forums are just some of the main reason u probably feel this way.

Try focusing on positive factors of the game, talk to proper players, avoid annoying ppl who always just try putting others down, that includes teams, avoid arguments with ppl from teams that think they are good.

focus on talking to ppl who like the aspect of the game which you do too, go to games only once in a while not often, stay away from arguments since it jsut becomes a flamewar and blaming wars....

Generally spend more time focusing on the positives of everything of airsoft, and ignore idiotic opinionated haters and their bullshit.

cheers

[Skruface]

Originally Posted by m102404

Gun doc stuff has to go...way, way too much time spent on it each week.

It's why I refuse to work on crap clone guns with crap clone parts anymore...I was getting several requests per week to work on garbage, and it just burned me out and took the joy out of tinkering with guns. Unless it's CA, TM, G&P or another quality brand, forget it. I won't work on JG/GB/CYMA/Kraken any more, and I refuse to use Chinese cloned parts. If you're not willing to shell out for good parts (Systema/Modify/King Arms/Prometheus) I'm totally uninterested in fixing your gun for you...maybe you should have bought quality in the first place.

I've often wondered to myself how many folks would actually be forced to buy decent gear if all the "airsmiths" refused to work on broken crap guns?

[Amos]

Lol. So that's why I've got SO MANY people coming to me with awful, awful guns

I think I'm the only guy in winnipeg that'll deal with that crap..

[Wilson]

Originally Posted by m102404

If it's any consolation...the above mirrors the comments of myself, 90% of the team and SEVERAL other "regular" players that I used to see as "active".

This spring kind of limped in...then summer went like a flash...fall was a complete write-off for me personally...and here we are.

I can kind of see my availability opening up now for games...but most are going to be indoor CQB, which gets a little stale if you overdo it a bit too frequently in the same building.

Gun doc stuff has to go...way, way too much time spent on it each week.

I'm also in Sudbury, which puts a MAJOR dampener on game attendance due to the travel distances alone. It's 5+ hours to Ottawa, 4+ to Toronto, 3+ to Muskoka. Hell, it's a 1.5hr drive to North Bay from here, and that's where the closest games are.

[Shooting Chef]

I think we all at sometime or another have thought of packing it in. It is demoralizing when attendance is low but most of the community is feeling it. Take a good winter break away from AS, you'll see, things will be better next season.

The veterans will never go away as long as they are shooting something (be it RS or AS), it's in the blood. Remember, it's the only sport where you can dress up and shoot your friends with cool guns.

[Wilson]

Originally Posted by Shooting Chef

I think we all at sometime or another have thought of packing it in. It is demoralizing when attendance is low but most of the community is feeling it. Take a good winter break away from AS, you'll see, things will be better next season.

The veterans will never go away as long as they are shooting something (be it RS or AS), it's in the blood. Remember, it's the only sport where you can dress up and shoot your friends with cool guns.

True that.

I guess I count as a veteran, eh? 2003-2009...

[Mitchell12]

Originally Posted by Shooting Chef

I think we all at sometime or another have thought of packing it in. It is demoralizing when attendance is low but most of the community is feeling it. Take a good winter break away from AS, you'll see, things will be better next season.

The veterans will never go away as long as they are shooting something (be it RS or AS), it's in the blood. Remember, it's the only sport where you can dress up and shoot your friends with cool guns.

Agree'd Airsoft on the island is only like 5 years old at best but you still see the commitment of the original veterans who started it all. They're the ones who show up in any conditions just to shoot their friends with plastic. They might go away for a bit but when it comes to game time they are the ones you can depend on to not flake because the weather is a little stale.

[wildcard]

airsoft is like a drug, when you think you are free and clear, they drag you back in!

I tried it in the past once was when my son was born it lasted 1 year and another when i got divorced that lasted three years on and off

[FOX_111]

The average airsoft player will play for 2 years. So I'd say, after 2 years you can say you are an experianced player and after 4, you are a veteran hehe.

If it's who you play with the problem, have your team recruit other like minded players. So the new blood will fill in the void of the ex-active players.

My team, the MTX, revamped it's active player base by absorbing ex-GITQ members after the GITQ dissolution. And the MTX is still looking for people, but we invite them in and there is no application.

Maybe it would fix part of your problem.

[Gridlock]

I obviously have no say in any of this since I just got to my first game, but I'm enjoying myself a lot right now. Sure my first game was a zombie themed game, but we had some quick skirmishes after, tried a short little thing after the main event. I really really enjoyed myself, I got along with everyone... overall had a blast.

After talking to my friends about it, they all said they'd like to give it a try too. Likeminded people, all older, all willing to give it a shot. I even convinced someone who was a pure paintballer to give it a shot. He's recently sold all his paintball gear and is gone headlong into airsoft.

I'm glad most of you aren't giving up on this or the new guys. As much as some of us noobs can be painful to work with, we were all noobs at one point. I'm loving it so far, so you lot must be doing something right.