Characteristics of an Airsoft Player
The word “Airsoft” does not quite do justice to the high-stakes game played by thousands of people all over the world weekly. Firstly, the hits you take are not soft and the compressed air used propels hard balls at speeds that could potentially kill a person if hit in the eye. As many a participant in this sport will tell you, nobody wants to take an Airsoft pellet to the exposed body.
So what drives these men and women to hunt and shoot each other week after week in realistic battle zones across our planet? That is probably the easiest question to answer — human beings enjoy the feeling of power and accomplishment they get from playing at or waging war. This has been part of our psychology for centuries now. It is part of who we are.
Obviously, we cannot all go off and kill each other for sport and that is not what people want anyway, but we still enjoy the thrill of shooting at and being shot at. The Airsoft warrior has traded actual war in for the second best thing, high-powered air-launched pellets being fired from supremely realistic replica military small arms.
The muzzle velocity of an Airsoft pellet can range from around 100 fps (feet per second) to around 500 fps. The lower velocity being more common in indoor games while outside a higher chronograph (setting the velocity) and sniper weapons are usually at the highest end of the spectrum.
Ranges of assault rifles are usually around 40m to 60m, depending on the game and the role they are used for. That simply means you have a weapon that may fire ammunition at slower speeds than real firearms, but they are close enough to the real thing to make the sport very realistic.
An Airsoft Warrior looks like the real thing from his/her replica weapon to the gear they wear. The major exception being the face where active-duty soldiers wear basic eye protection only, an Airsoft player has to wear full industry-standard face protection. That however means an Airsoft Warrior will adapt their face wear to better express who they are.
An Airsoft Warrior has to understand how to utilize his/her weapon, body, gear, senses, and communication with other players in such a manner as to allow him/them to dominate their opponents. Therefore, they have to understand military tactics, but included with that is another dimension, that of the spawn rule, which determines how many times they can be revealed and where.
By utilizing their gear, experience, training, and using the spawn rules correctly, they can overcome their opponents. An Airsoft warrior, therefore, has to be smart as well.
Real militaries place a lot of emphasis on fitness and the same applies to the Airsoft Warrior, with the only physical exception being that their ammunition weighs less. Where a real soldier would have to lug kilograms of excess weight around, an Airsoft participant carries much less so, but they still have to move fast and in restrictive gear. Fitness does count for a lot, especially with spawn points being some distance away from the gameplay most times.
An Airsoft warrior could run to a distant spawn point and back to the action just to be shot again and having to run that distance again, especially if they knew their team depended on them. In full gear and a full face mask that takes a lot of effort.
The stresses of war take a mean toll on soldiers and the fact that the Airsoft Warrior does not have to experience that is probably the best reason to play the game. You have all the thrill of simulated combat with no real war stress. That spells real fun for every blood and bone human being.
Just like with any other highly competitive (and aggressive) team sport the players can form quite a close bond and that translates into some highly enjoyable social events with stories flowing. Human beings live for that feeling of brotherhood and it is why we join motorcycle clubs, adventure clubs, gaming clubs, and of course Airsoft Clubs.
In the end, it is all about being able to tell your story or being part of a story around a table or a barbecue fire. In Airsoft you can achieve that feeling of brotherhood, especially if you belong to a club that takes the sport seriously and creates social events for you to express yourself in.
After all, has been said and done, an Airsoft Warrior or team is a highly specialized individual or team that makes you look twice when they pass you by, because of their reputation or because of how they carry themselves.
The Airsoft Warrior is a force to be reckoned with within his/her arena, but they do it for fun in the end. They desire a sense of accomplishment and that ever-important feeling of belonging to something bigger. Everybody wants that.