BULLYING IN AIRSOFT. WHY IS THAT?
Airsoft is a fun sport and pastime for us all but the darker side of it is the bullying and name calling that seems to be growing more and more as of lately. Why is it becoming more of a trend now days.
Tactical EGO
The main reason is the ego of the player and how He or She is the best and they put people down around them either on purpose or un intentionally. With the Ego player on the field they will do their best to lead the charge or make their way to the top of the food chain as captain while knocking other players down either with words or making cliques to exclude others. With the use of social media this is allowing these players to feel higher and bigger than ever before since the world is watching them and ‘liking’ their status.
The outcome of the Tactical Ego players will be the Haters that will trash talk these ‘higher’ players every chance they get on social media. These people are able to see past the actions of the egotistical players and know that they are only seeking fame and BB wars sponsorship’s and they want to stop them or knock them down a few pegs.
We see the same trends of fans and haters in Hollywood with actors and people that will take to Twitter to bash a new movie and actor just because. So looking at this and how Airsofters are acting it still shows that we are all same but just in our own sport which is in a bubble from the outside world it seems. This battle of who is right and wrong and bashing of character is fine to a degree if it is kept among the people in the conversation but once it is spread on the internet it will create sides and cliques of the different players and teams. Now instead of just playing and having on the Airsoft field it has turned into a drama based strategy game and now players have to maneuver across the field without showing favoritism to a certain brand or Airsoft celebrity without getting a dirty look. A slight exaggeration of the drama table top game but you can see it that way sometimes with the facebook pages and interactions on the fields. The biggest strike against Airsoft in this scene will be for a new and younger player that is getting into the game and being confronted or hearing all of this and not sure what to make of it all. The younger players are the future of the game if they have a bad time or even over shot on the field that can make them not want to player Airsoft ever again. Having these Airsoft related fights are not the best solution but it might be needed but there is always a better way to go about it and without the impressionable youngsters in the middle of it.
We asked on our facebook page:
Bullying in Airsoft. Is that a big deal?
We got a mixed response of people stating they see this happen all the time or some never see it. It is not a scientific study but merely a quick facebook polling to get an idea of what is going on out there. As stated above there are the higher up Airsofters that are able to make friends and enemies for just about anything they do on or off the field but other types of ‘bullying’ on the field still can occur and again it can be on purpose or on accident by the bully. Making fun of a player on their gun or gear might be nothing to you but it could really affect the person that is on the receiving end of it. A proper solution is to be in a team to give and get those joke back and forth but only know it is a joke and make sure a new person does not become a target and not know what is going on.
Drug use on the field? Really
A recent video posted in the Airsoft world pointed out by a player about the actions of a group of players that are under the influence of drugs. Not confirmed about the drug use but we can see to how that would lead to problems on the field. Watch the video below posted by Too Tall Tom, link below the screencap as well.
Now in the video there is repeated mentioning of drug use on the field which is illegal in some locations but the bigger picture is how will it affect the other players. If a Airsoft player is under the influence of drugs that alters their mind and perception how will that make them call their hits or interact with other players or the biggest issue will be their own safety and not falling down or passing out on the field. The most common issue with today’s Airsoft scene is the ‘over shooting’ of players which is from heavy trigger fingered players or people not calling their hits so extra BBs are fired at them. Now imagine a player that is not able to feel or even know what is going on in their current state of mind but they feel pain and hear somebody yelling at them. The basic response will be to fight for most. The person doing the shooting has no idea and just thinks the player is a cheater but this can lead to a bigger ordeal and physical fight.
A while back in SoCal there was international news of an Airsoft fight at Jungle Island and we all saw it and it was shared and commented on but yet very little was done to address the issue and better the Airsoft Community to recover from this tarnish on the name.
Another example of a fight or confrontation over simple ‘over shooting’ and mixed in with an Ego was captured in this video below.
As Airsofters we will never all be on one big happy team from what I have seen over the many years as a player myself but we all can work together and make it better for us and especially the new players entering our sport, our passion, our everything in life for some. So we all need to do our part and make Airsoft fun again to welcome the newer players and still be nice to the older players of course but just make the time on the field fun again. No more fighting or name calling to further distance ourselves and break our community apart but we should be building bridges and making friends to help the community grow for us Airsofters. There is an old quote about uniting and standing as one or falling apart but I think you know where I am going with this. At the end of the day we all shoot the same 6mm BBs and dress the part to think we are this or that character but we have forgotten the FUN that got us into this sport that had us wanting to spend hundreds of our hard earned dollars on a new gun or gear.
Thanks for reading and I hope we can all work on making the Sport of Airsoft great again!
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