Form or Function

[Cr0-Magnon]

I've found airsofters fit in to two main categories when it comes to their guns and gear:

1) The "cheap and cheerful" crew - Has a sub £200 primary, likely doesn't have a secondary and if they do it's something like a WE Glock which they've had for a half-a-dozen years. If something breaks they'll tinker and bodge it themselves, meaning they likely get the best GBP to kill ratio.

2) The "my collection" brigade - Takes delivery of a new RIF pretty much every week, uses each in one or two skirmishes at most before selling on. If anything breaks they'll send it off to a tech for "the works"

I'm definitely in the latter but want to break the cycle. I was about to order a slide for my TM Hi-Capa Gold Match but then thought back to the other week when I got some great kills with it stock and realised in that moment I was more concerned with it shooting reliably than looking pretty, so why bother...

The above seems to have little to do with with actual financial position. I know wealthy people who have basic guns & gear and people who've taken out loans in order to sink £2K into a RIF.

I guess the topic of discussion is: While you're actually skirmishing, do you care about how your guns look etc? If not, does that also make you wonder why you've gone for the £1500 NGRS etc?. As an additional discussion, are there any airsoft habits you want to break? I spend hours browsing retail websites and enjoy the buzz of a new arrival but the shine soon wears off, so I've obviously got an issue to address.

 

[PopRocket123]

I feel like if I had the disposable income I would absolutely be in the latter half. Instead I have a few guns, one for each "role" that I have put a lot of time and effort into making them totally my own and I've done my best to keep the budget of each gun to under £400 including the base gun and all the upgrades. Each base gun I've picked up for less than £200, often as boneyard guns or as parts. 

The actual upgrades were all the best value for money stuff rather than the absolute best parts, so a lot of ZCI and SHS/rocket. 

 

[Cr0-Magnon]

I feel like if I had the disposable income I would absolutely be in the latter half.

For me having the option just puts too much pressure on the day. If it doesn't go well I'm like "I spent £600 on this bloody thing!"

Saying that, I do kinda miss my TM SCAR L

 

[Impulse]

best GBP to kill ratio.

Can we all just appreciate the sheer greatness of this phrase.

On the topic of the thread though, I find myself in a weird middle ground of not fitting into either category. My approach is quality over quantity, so while my armoury is not that extensive and I have only ever sold one gun in the 16 years I've been playing, all of my guns have been tweaked and fine tuned by me to perform as well as they can. I generally don't have a monetary budget when working on guns, but most builds take months, or even years to perfect and get everything right as I'll save up from my paychecks until I feel I can afford the parts, and they'll usually be fairly premium. I have two VSRs and two m14s that have been tuned to be as silent as possible and have peak effective range, not maximum range; no point being able to shoot 90+m if you're only hitting 2 out of 10 shots! I have an NGRS for normal rifle skirmishing which has had a few tweaks, but then I also have a stock Cyma mp5k and spring shotty as backups, because they shoot fine for what I need them to be: secondary weapons carried alongside one of my more expensive, tweaked guns. Oh, I also have a whole host of pistols that I have tweaked to shoot better than most peoples' AEGs. For context, my GBBs shoot just as well as my mk23 because I both love pistols and tend to use mine more than the average airsofter because sniper with 30m MED or long, unwieldy 1J m14 aren't the best weapons for hide defense.

When it comes to "looking cool", I definitely do things to my guns that don't make it better, but make it look cooler. Flashlights during skirmish days in woodland are useless, but they look cool. Suppressors on literally everything purely because they look cool, though on my HPA guns and my mk23 they're also essential for reducing the sound signature, so they're practical on those guns. And the biggest offender of all is the super cool rail handguard on my m21 that has nothing attached to it, doesn't fit as well as the stock plastic one and gets covered by a rifle wrap anyway. So why is it on there? Because when the rifle wrap isn't on it, it actually looks TOO cool and people come over just to tell me how cool it looks. I'm not joking, it's my most complimented gun by a country mile, but it's also my heaviest (particularly front-heaviest) and longest gun. Is it worth it to me? Yeah, because I'm going for a specific thing. I'm trying to go as stealthy as possible and really play that sniper/recon role where having silent weapons is super-duper helpful. To me, it's not about how many kills, but how I get them that makes me happy and get peak enjoyment from the hobby; that bewildered "where the flying f*** did that come from?" look is worth a hundred other kills, especially when they look directly at me and don't spot me. If I played more high-speed, I'd probably spend a lot less on guns because at that point the difference between 50 and 60m range is a second or two of running. It's also why I'm not tuning my mp5k or spring shotty and haven't tuned my NGRS as much as my long guns, as if I'm playing with those I'll play faster and more aggressive, where range isn't as much of a focus.

I think both are valid approaches. I think where I get annoyed is where people get elitist about their approach, whether that's the cheap and cheerful crowd ridiculing the guy who comes in with his Crye BDUs and GBLS rifle, or the Crye milsim speshul farces looking down on the player with the plastic AK and mismatching camos.

 

[alxndrhll]

I'd say you're missing category 3, which is the one I'd tend to fit in which is a few RIFs which have had some money thrown at them to improve them (be that performance, reliability, or both). I guess I'd call it the "quality over quantity" elitist pricks.

I have 3 'primaries'. An NGRS AR with the works done to it, an E&L AK with the works done to it and an MWS which has a new hop nub in it. Including mags and extra gubbins that's thrown on them they're roughly all valued equally, and what I use is based simply on what I fancy using.

And I have 3 'secondaries'. A Glock 19 which is my most frequently 'taken out' one. A Glock 17 which I should probably sell on but won't and a Glock 34 which is used as a primary for CQB from time to time.

I've got a CYMA AKSU I need to list on here at some point which was initially bought to be the base of the project that ended up being an E&L instead, and as mentioned about I'll probably move the G17 on. Outside of those I'm super content with what I have, and for the first time in perhaps ever when it comes to airsoft there is nothing I want in terms of RIFs or kit. It's all been bought and altered based on my prior experience of 'my favourites' over the years to fit the way I play and what I like the look of. I guess I've landed on 'I like what I like' and have stopped chasing things for no other reason than the 'high' of something fresh arriving at my door and posting pictures showing it off. Once you're only buying kit for you I feel it become a lot easier, I definitely fell into the trap of trying to impress others... being a bit older and wiser certainly helps.

 

[EDcase]

I'm in a sub category because I like to collect as well as play.

I'll take a couple of different RIFs to a game day as backup but also to vary the playstyle.  For example and M4 for one game and MP5 or AUG for the next...

I do open them up and tinker when they need it but I don't 'upgrade' for FPS or ROF.

About half of my collection are second hand that I have repaired or improved.

I haven't spent more than £250 on a RIF that I use in game.  (I have spent a bit more on collector ones like the M41A)

 

[Lozart]

I'm a little from column A, a little from column B.

I have a bunch of guns, some of them are cheap, some not so much. I do all my own teching (so far). I buy the guns I like the look of BUT they need to perform well for me (which is why I'm selling my bolty). I buy parts that work well and spend money where it will make the best impact. If it improves my day airsofting then it gets in, if not - out it goes.

 

[Impulse]

I guess I'd call it the "quality over quantity" elitist pricks.

My approach is quality over quantity

I feel personally attacked ?

 

[Adolf Hamster]

I'd say you're missing category 3, which is the one I'd tend to fit in which is a few RIFs which have had some money thrown at them to improve them (be that performance, reliability, or both). I guess I'd call it the "quality over quantity" elitist pricks.

being in category 3 doesn't necessarily mean elitist.

i pretty much fit that category these days but i will openly admit that a lot of what's gone into a super shiny pew doesn't necessarily result in better performance and definitely doesn't stop you getting winged from the bushes by some kid with a battered rental g36.

indeed it could arguably be worse, picking an e&l over a cyma to deck out doesn't result in better bb lobbing performance but it does mean a much heavier gun.

of course that adds to feel, which kinda loops round to form rather than function.

ultimately we all strike a balance between form and function, otherwise we'd all be running those hpa'd m4 pistol abominations with a barrel length described as "yes".

 

[alxndrhll]

I feel personally attacked ?

In this hobby (I'd argue it extends past it, but we'll stick with this hobby for now), everyone is a prick in some way, shape or form. Make peace with it and move on.

The budget boys want to yell from the roof tops that they're keeping up for a third of the price (they aren't), the gucci gang think more expensive will always mean more good (it doesn't) and the folks that have a different RIF for every day of the week will question why you'd ever spend so much on one RIF when you could have bought 4 for that price (and never use any of them).

Everyone has their own view and, albeit intentionally tongue in cheek (which seems to have been entirely missed courtesy of the interpretation of typed text), folks with a differing view point tend to fall in the category of prick... so for every person that agrees with you, there are at least two categories of people that think you're a prick.

I guess my answer to the 'form or function' question is quite simply, both. And fortunately my personal preferences for what I like the look of line up with what I like the function of.

 

[Cr0-Magnon]

I'd say you're missing category 3, which is the one I'd tend to fit in which is a few RIFs which have had some money thrown at them to improve them (be that performance, reliability, or both). I guess I'd call it the "quality over quantity" elitist pricks.

Yeah, I did think that there must be at least one more.

(which is why I'm selling my bolty).

I genuinely read that as "selling my body"

 

[Lozart]

Yeah, I did think that there must be at least one more.

I genuinely read that as "selling my body"

Yeah, I'm saving up for a BB.

 

[Rogerborg]

While you're actually skirmishing, do you care about how your guns look etc

Only in the reverse-snobbish sense of wanting to be clear that I'm not playing with a TM NGRS or small-bore-paintball-marker.  I have thrown on a silencer just for looks a couple of times, but mostly because it was in the bag and idle hands are the speedsofter's devil's workshop.

I'm strongly in the camp of play over pay, although I have made a couple of mistakes - I'm looking at you, AEP.  Dropping a whopping £140 on the cheapest metal bodied Specna Arms Edge was uncharted territory for me, it was like the start of 2001 when the Monolith showed up.

View attachment 76946

 

[concretesnail]

Im in the middle,  few different rifs for different roles and sites, but leaning on function is what I like. I use warrior kit as its taken years of abuse but if its not something useful its not getting mount to a rif for style points.

 

[Cr0-Magnon]

I've been playing five years and have never even worn out a hop rubber!

 

[Adolf Hamster]

I've been playing five years and have never even worn out a hop rubber!

over ten years and i haven't either.

but then as a serial tinkerer i don't think i've ever fired the same gun twice.

 

[Cr0-Magnon]

Only in the reverse-snobbish sense of wanting to be clear that I'm not playing with a TM NGRS or small-bore-paintball-marker.

Do you also walk around reciting Luke's "Don't Buy a Tokyo Marui Recoil" rant, like it's the opening monologue from Trainspotting?

 

[ImTriggerHappy]

I would say there are several different categories.

I have no interest in collecting gear or how it looks everything is about performance. But at the same time I don't scrimp on cost and my few main guns have probably cost more individually than most people spend on their whole collection but that is for me only and not for gucci bragging rights. All I want is to the have best performing and most reliable tool I can have and who it is made by or how it looks is irrelevant as the game is all that matters. Have one or hundreds, spend little or loads just be happy in your own choices.

I do appreciate a good load out though and the effort people put into it, right up until they start prancing and preening for attention then I consign everything about them to the nobhead category.

There are actually probably nearly as many categories as there are claimed genders but for ease of use the two broad categories are people who you want playing next to you and those you don't, everything else is irrelevant.

 

[Rogerborg]

Do you also walk around reciting Luke's "Don't Buy a Tokyo Marui Recoil" rant, like it's the opening monologue from Trainspotting?

And I lull myself to sleep with this image.

View attachment 74661

I've been playing five years and have never even worn out a hop rubber!

I will never not be amused by people asserting that you have to fit a mosfet to protect your £4.50 trigger contacts.

 

[Fatboy40]

Going by your threads subject, "Form or Function", for me it's the exact phrase "Form Follows Function".

I really don't care how I look in the eye's of others as long as I'm enjoying myself, feel comfortable, and at least get a few kills so that's my "function" and I'll take whatever "form" provides that. The financial problem is that there's a minimum you need to spend to achieve this.

I'm not a trained soldier, we're not operating in Helmand, so I don't need to spend thousands on mock realism (I'd run around with a big pink dildo with a trigger if it fired accurately to 60m, got me lots of hits and was dirt cheap).