Form or Function

[Jacob Wright]

I don’t really know where I fit, I’ve got a couple of rifles that do everything I need that have only been tinkered with by me… and then a couple that I’ve had in and out of the local tech. 
 

I buy what works (or what I think will), and if it doesn’t then I’ll sell it to fund something else. My collection is ever growing and shrinking, but I have narrowed it down to two rifles and two pistols currently. Oh and the Minimi, and the AK on its way ?

 

[Sneaky]

I’m a bit of both.  My primaries are my SR25 and my TM SCAR (which I have worked on and am very happy with the performance of both). - cost, let’s not go there.  
 

Then my most trusty side arm WE G23, cheap as chips and had for a very long time.  I was reluctant to do any work in my glock, but after one game of stacking up pistol kills, I thought yeah let’s do it. Again now it is even better.

When I first started airsoft, I insisted of having genuine Crye products and now I am not too fussed, partly due to shipping and other out landish costs (he says eyeing up a Crye plate carrier). - Buying things like that is not an issue, it is just getting it past customs, which I mean my wife! ?

 

[Jaylordofwaargh]

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.

This comment isnt getting the recognition it really deserves, playing last week i was often running with both rentals and people with expensive kit. Both groups happened to be good people whom i would gladly play with again.

The budget boys want to yell from the roof tops that they're keeping up for a third of the price (they aren't),

I do proudly sit in the budget boy slot, i have 1 primary that i will tinker with if/when it breaks and i have a back up cheap shotty that would keep me occupied in a cqb site. I would argue that although i cant get that first shot kill at 70m i can and will get most at 65m with a couple of range finder shots.

BUT I’d put money on it that if the players with the cheap set up could pick up a high end gun and a full set up of pukka kit for not a lot of beer tokens they’d be on it like a tramp on a dropped kebab !

Kit, maybe, i am super comfy in my simple chest rig and ammo grab bag (with hydration pack if required). 

Weapon though....yes, if i had the beer tokens saved and a gun on my (stable) wish list came up, yes. I am currently saving for a mid tier aeg but the idea of buying a full price gun.....

I do sit in the function over form. My only aeg i picked up at 50% off, i wouldnt have gone for that model/style at full price.  It has a cheap knock off railed Magpul style handgaurd that people are interested in until i tell them its made of cheap plastic and not high end plastic. My peq box is huge, like 10cm long and looks outrageous. 

At the same time i spent lots of beer tokens on powering my aeg, but again this is function based purchase. 

People come and look at my aeg because they have either seen the range or have been shot by it, as a rule people become uninterested when i tell them its a cheap piece of kit. 

 

[Druid799]

People come and look at my aeg because they have either seen the range or have been shot by it, as a rule people become uninterested when i tell them its a cheap piece of kit. 

If this is there attitude I wouldn’t want anything to do with them , I couldn’t give a flying fornication how cheap or expensive your kit/gun is if your playing th game for the games sake and to have good laugh with friends I’ll welcome you with open arms but if you look down on another play for these kind of reasons ? F**k off not interested in you .

 

[Rogerborg]

People come and look at my aeg because they have either seen the range or have been shot by it

Do they, though?

Do they really?

 

[Jaylordofwaargh]

Do they, though?

Do they really?

Yes! Well it could be the reasons i said or it could just be politeness after they circle jerk about what on thier tables and look over at lonely me and ask..... but i'd like to think.....

 

[PopRocket123]

Do they, though?

Do they really?

I did once have a sniper come find find me after a game to find out what I was shooting at him with. He had a good laugh when he saw that was a little 10" M4. 

 

[TheFull9]

I've read a lot of threads that are basically this over the years, I'd imagine others who've been on multiple forums for long enough are in the same boat.  What always happens is exactly what's happened here and we learn that actually despite the initial supposition it turns out there are a LOT of different niche little ways that people choose to enjoy an already super niche thing, which is the beauty of the world we live in at the moment when you look at it in the context of all of history.

Still productive to keep having the discussion though given the way a lot of the player base churns through the hobby.  Rationalising your (speaking generally) position through this sort of talking and being exposed to all the ways of thinking and points of view you've never considered previously is important.  Helps decrease general instances of douchebaggery over people doing things a different way to the way people think they 'should' be done.  Snobs, reverse-snobs, not-milsim-enough, not-speedsoft-enough etc etc.

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.

And the former will probably always stay wealthy and the latter always stay poor.  Not super relevant but I have to say it; getting in to any debt over airsoft is stupidly bonkers.

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.

Realising you have a problem is the first step.  I heard a very intelligent person r.e. this topic recently say something along the lines of 'nobody's addicted to anything (alcohol, sex, shopping, gambling, social media), everyone's just addicted to serotonin', which I think is good info to know when trying to break any bad habit you deem necessary to break in your life.  Doesn't fix the problem but more understanding is always better.

Personally I have a pretty deep-running passion for financial management as essentially a hobby and that in itself dictates basically everything I do and that includes airsoft, which is why I hugely prioritise quality and more importantly reliability along with protecting and subsequently maintaining what I do have.  I'd recommend anyone putting just the tiniest bit of money in the stock market, or even just signing up for eToro (free) and playing the simulator with fake money to start - long as you take it seriously.  Once you realise the possibilities and start learning more and following the right people online it has a good potential to affect the way you do everything else in life, even health and fitness.

 

[DoooomRider]

Honestly I buy guns because they look pretty,

I've just picked up a Specna Arms H21 (it's a HK416) purely because it's one of my favourite guns appearance-wise, if it doesn't perform I'll put money into it to get it up there, but the main reason was I liked the aesthetic, gun before that was an Umarex h8r gen2, again purely on looks. I don't do it to show off I buy my kit cause it looks cool to me, deep down I want outstanding performance but that comes with the dark sorcery of teching which I haven't the foggiest about.

I think I fall into the category of "I don't care if its cheap or expensive if it works good I'm happy" though it's always nice when people come over asking questions about your kit. My intro to the hobby was rocky and I think that's kinda made my way of thinking focus on the practical (Weirdly I've developed a slight stigma towards anything Marui and I'm not sure why) I want my kit to look a certain way but I'm not dropping loads on the official stuff as long as a cheap knock-off looks the part & does the job, and I want my guns to shoot well enough I'm not at a huge disadvantage on the field.

 

[Joe142]

Like others I don’t think I really fit into either scenario either, I run my Tm mws the majority of the time and want to grab myself an MP7 for CQB then I’ll be happy with my loadouts