Have we reached a plateau?

[Mini-Marine]

I'm not sure if the tree hugging is so much a plateau as new people coming in who don't really know what they are doing.

I really hope the training days that are being put on help folks out and limit how much of that we keep seeing.

[Matt]

Nothing on the top but a bucket and a mop and an illustrated book about birds.

[Martin.]

we'll reach a plateau when we stop using our imagination

[Creature]

This is a game, pure and simple, and we are a bunch of kids (regardless of age) running around playing war.
The people that I've seen who fail to understand basic tactics such as cover fire, suppression, coordinated movement and flanking- they are the reason that it may seem as though this has plateaued simply for the fact that they are causing it to regress. These same people spend their days playing COD4 online and think its every man for himself and then when you actually do get them to roll in a 4 man fire team, you look back and he's hunkered down behind a log or tin and won't move up, if you are afraid of geting shot and it stinging then stick to video games- much like the hated stalemates of inflated ego speedball. I find all too often that when myself and my wingman who have used tactics and eliminated pockets of the other team and finally get shot ourselves, we find these same people at the spawn point, and they remark they have been shot ten times already. That is my little rant, but it is just an example of what is holding it back.

Sincerest thanks to PLA for conducting training days in an effort to eliminate this plague.

[LettuceHead]

I will preface this with the fact that I have been playing paintball for 23 years and am actually a fairly important figure within the paintball industry. Yes, I love paintball. I also love airsoft. Each fills a different niche for me. Save the flames and hate, I'm not trying to start a VERSUS thread, I'm just trying to point out some things that paintball does well and airsoft could learn from.

As far as technology goes, I think airsoft will continue to grow. Paintball technology plateaued three years ago, there are small refinements but nothing earth shattering. One place where paintball technology does do better is in user serviceability. Paintball guns are NOT difficult to completely strip, maintain or rebuild. Airsoft mechboxes are a nightmare to the beginner to intermediate. The systems need to be simplified so that any Joe Beginner can read a manual and understand their replica. If I were designing airsoft replicas I would be concentrating on compressed air.

Airsoft events will never get bigger than what they are with the current mindset of the players. I am blown away how players phony pony about having to pay $15 entry fee for an Op. They will spends hundreds if not thousands on their gear yet complain about how much money an event organizer is making off of them with a token entry fee. I'd be surprised if any event organizer here can truly say they generate any real net profit after paying all expenses and paying themselves a living wage (if they gave themselves a wage at all!) Things improve when there is money to be made. Everyone likes to quote what they feel is the ridiculous price of paintballs compared to BBs. Yet, paintball players will gladly shell out $60 to hundreds of dollars at a paintball event for paint on top of entry and air fees. In turn, paintball fields and promoters are constantly trying to one up the last event. Players get what they pay for.

Paintball is a game but its also a serious business. The main consumable, paintballs, are a profit source. Airsoft is a game with no business sense... the main consumable, BBs, have been price whored to almost being pointless commodity. You may think its 'romantic' to be grass roots and not for profit and thats fine. Just don't complain when the next event is the same ol' same ol'.

Just some food for thought. again, not saying paintball or airsoft is better than the other. Just pointing out that as far as quality of events go, paintball keeps innovating and building upon its foundation while airsoft just kind of flounders. Until airsoft as an industry matures, its not going to make any great leaps.

[Snake_Eyes]

I 100% agree with you Lettucehead. I would be more than willing to pay for a 50+ dollar game if I knew the quality reflects that. When I was a paintballer I wanted so badly to go to Oklahoma D-Day. Its a 3,000+ player event each year.

If only airsoft had that kind of turnout... oh wait it CAN! All we need is a dedicated field that is large enough and has enough invested in it to make it amazing, that and the support of the community to drive the industry to make quality events that you get what you pay for. I am personally tired of events that are glorified skirmishes. I just won't go. I am sure many people would agree as well.

[Mini-Marine]

You really have to separate this question out into multiple parts

• Has airsoft gear plateaued?
• Have airsoft events world wide plateaued?
• Have airsoft events in the US plateaued?
• Have airsoft events in the North West plateaued?

Based on my rather limited knowledge, the answer to the first 3 seems to be no, the answer to the last question unfortunately from talking to a number of people seems to be yes.

The problem is as has been pointed out one of money. Many people are getting tired of paying for what amounts to not much more than a large scale skirm.

The problem is, in order to have bigger and better games a lot of money needs to be invested in large fields, and then more money(and time) needs to be invested in building them up.

It is an expensive thing to do, so I don't expect to see much more than baby steps till someone's rich uncle dies and leaves them an inheritance or they hit it big on the powerball.

There are large scale national events, If there were enough people it wouldn't be too difficult to charter a bus to make the trip out to one of them.

[Steve]

• Have airsoft events in the North West plateaued?

Based on my rather limited knowledge (...) the answer to the last question unfortunately from talking to a number of people seems to be yes.

The problem is as has been pointed out one of money. Many people are getting tired of paying for what amounts to not much more than a large scale skirm.

The problem is, in order to have bigger and better games a lot of money needs to be invested in large fields, and then more money(and time) needs to be invested in building them up.

It is an expensive thing to do, so I don't expect to see much more than baby steps till someone's rich uncle dies and leaves them an inheritance or they hit it big on the powerball.

There are large scale national events, If there were enough people it wouldn't be too difficult to charter a bus to make the trip out to one of them.

I still believe that until the community as a whole is interested in shelling out real money, events will not get better.

Hell, peole are not even willing to shell out $5 a mag for real-caps.

[Chefzilla]

Steve,

What is your hang up on real caps? I have them but I won't make a concious decision to put myself at a serious disadvantage. I have a hard enough time carrying midcaps and going against hi caps.

I really don't think that will ever change. Besides show me an event anywhere that requires real caps. Even the big milsim games require mids.

[Deliverator]

his hang up is that people should never use high caps because some tool cheese with an mp5 should not be able to suppress an entire platoon for 3 hours because he has 3000 rounds sitting in 4 high caps that he can quickly switch between.

[McNair]

oooh, hissss.

[Chefzilla]

his hang up is that people should never use high caps because some tool cheese with an mp5 should not be able to suppress an entire platoon for 3 hours because he has 3000 rounds sitting in 4 high caps that he can quickly switch between.

I understand that but we as a community let that happen.

Steve's right until we're willing to enforce stricter rules and pay more for more. We'll never evolve.

[McNair]

Really, all the kids want is a raffle. We could have whole events that people just dress up in their gear and we have a raffle. I bet they'd pay like $50 if the prizes were good enough.

[Chefzilla]

Really, all the kids want is a raffle. We could have whole events that people just dress up in their gear and we have a raffle. I bet they'd pay like $50 if the prizes were good enough.

I'm not sure what's sadder that statement or the fact that it's true.

[CalvinB]

I'm going to echo the sentiments of a few of the others and say that and underneath all of the fancy gear and guns is a 5 year old kid playing armyman and , just like the kid , we will only stop having fun if we lose our imagination

we need to find imaginative ways of controlling the newb population without going to a super hardcore milsim atmosphere