What's more important to you?

As I'm new-ish to the scene, I thought I'd ask a couple of questions to see what the local attitude is. This has been debated elsewhere many times, and there are always shifts as airsoft evolves.

What's more important to you as a player?

Realism versus Performance:
- Would you rather have your gun look/act as realistic as possible, or shoot further/straighter?
- Would you rather have your camo be your favorite, or would you prefer the ability to hide the best?
- Would you rather have your gear look cool or to be effective?
- Would you carry/wear pieces to complete a look, or would you dump any extra weight for speed?
- Would you rather run your favorite gun, or be able to share magazines, batteries, etc with your team-mates?
- Would you rather airsoft focus more on simulation, or on becoming a competitive sport?

Keep in mind that you cannot have one in the extreme without the other, as there will always be a balance between the two. So the question is, what do you lean towards?

- Would you rather have your gun look/act as realistic as possible, or shoot further/straighter?
- Would you rather have your camo be your favorite, or would you prefer the ability to hide the best?
- Would you rather have your gear look cool or to be effective?
- Would you carry/wear pieces to complete a look, or would you dump any extra weight for speed?
- Would you rather run your favorite gun, or be able to share magazines, batteries, etc with your team-mates?
- Would you rather airsoft focus more on simulation, or on becoming a competitive sport?

Funny thing, I want all performance but I want simulation over competitive sport, merely because competitive makes me think of speedball, which I wouldn't want for airsoft.

Would you rather have your gun look/act as realistic as possible, or shoot further/straighter?-
Would you rather have your camo be your favorite, or would you prefer the ability to hide the best?-
Would you rather have your gear look cool or to be effective?
- Would you carry/wear pieces to complete a look, or would you dump any extra weight for speed?
- Would you rather run your favorite gun, or be able to share magazines, batteries, etc with your team-mates?
- Would you rather airsoft focus more on simulation, or on becoming a competitive sport?

of course there are alternatives to each of these questions:
if your gun shoots further or straighter isnt that more realistic?
My gear looks cool and is very effective.
Run my favourite gun, not a lot of people use the same weights

[Pinoy]

BOTH can be achieve so I say BOTH on each of them.

And my preference when playing airsoft... speed, mobility, effectiveness, accuracy

I personally feel that with my AEG and gear that I have found a good balance for all of those questions. My SR15 works great (will work even better once claymore re-wires it and tosses in a mosfet) and achieves a pretty good range. My gear, although it is a bit of a copy of a US NSW load out is pretty HS/LD and is pretty comfy as well.

But I have found that the down side is that to find the perfect balance of the two can cost a pretty penny.

I like the "professional" partisan style, what ever you got make it work the best you can, what ever works and what ever is comfortable.

my gear hardly ever matches but I can carry everything I need, being prepared is what I strive for.

I wont except a poor gun, so I guess I would rather have a gun that works over how it looks!

So a pretty healthy mix then? Other than guns it seems, everyone leans more towards performance. I guess that makes sense. It really is a tough set of questions to answer, as it could pertain to a hundred different things. Obviously this is assuming everyone's guns already "look" fairly realistic, that's a given, plastic body or no.

I myself usually lean towards performance/effectiveness, not always, but mostly. I find it's a split when it comes to gear. You can't be blamed if you're stuck in a sheer budget limitation obviously, but if you had a choice is where I find it interesting. For example, I try and buy gear that, although is modern military style, is meant to enhance my abilities in game. I never carry anything that serves no function, nor try to mimic a specific military group. I won't lie, I always try and look good if I can, but that's a far secondary or tertiary priority for me.

I'd hate for primary airsoft to fall towards a speedball style of play as well, but I don't think it will. Many things military or combat based really enhance airsoft, and act as one of the many draws to the game. Some things do not translate over well I find though. Due to the limitations or unique nature of airsoft itself, sometimes you have to make a choice. Do you make it more about the gameplay, or stick trying to simulate instead?

There's no real wrong answer, but it is interesting to see how different people view it.

[jsae]

1. Our guns can't shoot as far as real ones, so this first question might not work as asked. I want my gun to look realistic and shoot farther and straighter
2. Camouflage that hides best
3. Effective gear
4. Favourite gun
5. Simulations

Also, you can have competitive games without speedball format. Speedball is really for spectators.

Imagine games that run for about a half hour and involve two small, squad-sized teams to achieve a quick simple mission on a 5 acre field (150 m x 150 m). You run the mission one way and then switch ends, and play again to finish off.

You can fit 6 or more pairings in a day and run the league once a month.

[jsae]

Plus, 4 teams will fill a one-day round robin tournament of 6 games.

Here's an example for the first question. After years and years of playing airsoft, I decided to build a sniper rifle as a project gun. After doing some research I found that two systems had a performance advantage at higher FPS, gas and spring. At least as far as sniping platforms went. As a PTW owner, I can tell you where performance can be found. I decided though, if there was any chance of me even running this gun, it would have to outshoot my Systema for sure, or what's the point?

Anyways, I went with the Lapua 96 Arctic Warfare style by Accuracy International. Two of the better platforms to work with I found was the Tokyo Marui L96 AWS which used their very own VSR system, and the Ares .338 AW licensed by Accuracy International. Externally, the Ares was gorgeous. It was real-steel weight and feel. All the aesthetics of its real steel counterpart were there, including a folding stock, stylized barrel and flash-hider, bolt indicator, real sized magazines, etc, etc, etc. the Tokyo Marui on the other hand is what your expect, very simplified. No flash-hider, straight barrel, picatinny scope rings, 2/3 real weight, etc, etc, very plastic.

Out of the box, the Ares had a distinct distance advantage, but the Tokyo Marui had an accuracy advantage, so it all comes down to upgrades. After all was said an done, the Ares was made to be way more accurate than it was stock, but there was not a large increase. Downsides included a FPS swing (usual in a gas system), often to above 500 FPS. Against the Systema (which shoots 410 FPS), it fell short. The PTW outshot it by about 60 plus feet, and overall was more consistant with accuracy.

Once the Tokyo Marui was full upgraded, which minus the magazines was way more expensive, it's weight increased quite a bit to help a little with the realism. Performance wise, the Tokyo Marui hop-up is one if the most dominant hop-ups in airsoft, and keeps round stability for longer distances. The spring powered cylinder also produces a very stable air cushion. All in all the Tokyo Marui shot further, more accurately, and more consistently. Also it can be made to be very quiet, and a person could argue that lighter weight is a boon instead of a curse. There are barrel and receiver options available to increase the guns realism overall, but they are quite an investment, and still don't quite make it nearly as realistic as the Ares. So the Marui next to the Systema has a slight range/accuracy advantage, where the Marui will maintain straighter BB out at the end of its trajectory. An AR however is way more modular, way easier to move and shoot, and has semi and full-auto fire modes. So any real advantage of the Tokyo Marui is its ability to hide and be quiet. Also, putting BBs on much smaller areas at distance. The Marui is firing at about 450 FPS, so more than the PTW, but less than the Ares.

So what's the moral of the story? All in all, both rifles are very field able, and could be fun to play with. To stay competitive however, the Tokyo Marui is for sure the better rifle by far, while the Ares is by far more realistic. I went with the Marui for overall performance, but some people would prefer the Ares.

So in this specific example, you can't real have the best of both worlds.