2nd Bat
Master sergeant
Posts: 11,813
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Post by 2nd Bat on Aug 4, 2019 16:41:13 GMT -5
PSAC splintered into a widely varied assortment of sub groups each with their own unique view of what airsoft should be. Some wanting more emmersion some only interested in CQB and some wanting a historical or themed bent. We also lost the Hole in the Wall venue which became a housing development. The WAR Department was formed and we put on a couple Recondos and the last Jump to Destiny. All were great events but due to the effort and expenses kind of burnt people out. For groups to thrive and persist a few critical mavins have to shoulder the load, capitalize what needs to be done and dedicate the energy and time to catalyse events. This is seldom appreciated to the extent that it should be which is why I try to support and encourage anyone willing to take it on.
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Post by hunterj on Sept 24, 2019 21:28:18 GMT -5
2nd Bat is right when he talks about the sheer amount of time and effort and money put in to hosting events. Since I have begun hosting my Gothic Line series of WWII Airsoft Immersion events, it is pretty much the only event I have time for between Airsoft and Reenacting since every other spare weekend is spent prepping the field (400 acres) or some item for the next event. I do have a good core that attend my events and help out though, which is extremely valuable. @owo Jima, I completely agree with what you’re saying. “It’s just airsoft” hurts the community and all of us, I know most of you guys are on the coasts but here in the Midwest I have been fighting hard to change that mentality with my events. Writing intensely long authenticity guidelines for the specific units represented at my event to help new reenactors, as well as making the field replicate northern Italy and a portion of the Gothic line with authentic signposts, bunkers, trenches, and everything I can. I 110% agree, WWII Airsoft should be WWII Reenacting with Airsoft guns. Having done both Airsoft and Reenacting for many years now, both sides have their Farbs. To hold a high authenticity immersion event, one must impose some strict authenticity guidelines. We have a solid mix of both Reenactors and Airsofters who come out to my events, with 38 coming to Gothic Line II, and already 51 registered for Gothic Line III. We have a historical Armored car and Willys jeeps as well. On to @2nd Bat response to OwO, I definitely agree it has to be made clear what an event is and what it wants to be. Some guys just want an all fronts Meh authenticity shoot em up game, which is absolutely fine. But those guys and the guys who want to sleep in a foxhole for 3 days in everything period correct, generally don’t enjoy the same events. I also think we're pooling from a very niche demographic. As airsofters seem to enjoy airsofting obviously, and Reenactors love multiple day authenticity events. However, not vice versa. Which is why we've got such a small group of people to pool from and why I think it's important we, as a community, keep talking and seeing what we can do to work together.
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2nd Bat
Master sergeant
Posts: 11,813
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Post by 2nd Bat on Sept 25, 2019 17:45:50 GMT -5
the Nam event (liberty Canyon) had gteat turnout and by all reports most everyone had a great time. The Host charged $45.00 and provided full impressions for anyone needing them which certainly encouraged attendance. he had fabulous tentage, signage, PRC radios, vehicles props and the filed was prepped beautifully. He had oodles of pyro and combined blankfire with airsoft so it looked and sounded great. He had a little over 110 players although the numbers varied throughout the weekend with people coming and going. He had a meal plan set up for folks who wanted to be fed and had arranged a caterer who's team arrived in costumes. (Awesome) a significant number of players did not arrive prepared to function for the weekend (Not adequate water of food or sleeping items, airsoft weapons didn't work or no spare or charged batteries.) He carried them as he had anticipated it. They got fed and he had plenty of water, spare cots, sleeping bags, loaned out his own guns some that came back broken and he allowed them to go through the chow line.
When the weekend was over he was somehow shocked to discover that his costs significantly exceeded his revenues. I'm sure most of the players thought he made a killing financially and some clearly resent that notion. My fear is he won't keep doing them. The amount of thought and effort he put into even this one event was incredible. Event sponsors are the key and they are so under appreciated.
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Post by volkssturm on Sept 26, 2019 12:42:04 GMT -5
Sounds like an incredible event and worth more than the $45. Sadly most people don't have any concept of what goes into these things.
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2nd Bat
Master sergeant
Posts: 11,813
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Post by 2nd Bat on Oct 23, 2019 2:11:01 GMT -5
I see hunters event in Kansas in November has 50 plus enrolled with 2 1/2 weeks to go. He is charging what you really need to charge to cover props, field fees, insurance and miscellaneous costs as typically for anticipate. Even at a reasonable entry fee with decent turnout you're lucky to break even.
Events like Lion class with 500 to 700 players actually make decent money but they are unusual and for the sponsor its a full time job with 18 hour days finding venues, promoting and marketing listening with support staff and the military. He also raises tens of thousands of dollars for military charities.
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2nd Bat
Master sergeant
Posts: 11,813
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Post by 2nd Bat on Dec 10, 2019 0:47:53 GMT -5
I had a small community event held in the neighborhood common area 18 acres of greenbelt. It is my eighth time holding it and it is always the weekend after Thanksgiving. Attendance was off a bit as a lot of my original players have grown up and headed off to college. It has always promoted as a father/son living history deal and I supply most everything. (Costumes, airport guns even BBs). The fee is 65.00 for parent and child. To get permission to use the common area all proceeds go to the neighborhoods charity of choice which this year was the food bank. We had 18 participants. My returning college aged kids played the Germans and there were only 5 of them but by design my US forces never knew that. The Germans were an aggressor unit that I controlled so they defended locations for some scenarios, deliberately walked into ambushes and in one case ambushed most of my US team. It was a fun event but small. We had 2 GP Small tents and 3 arctic tents and my Jeep for props. The camp looked pretty good with signage I had on hand from previous events. Two of the players used the event to support history reports for school and one of the moms cooked up a yummy stew and served it in a GI uniform which was cool. We did mail call for the U.S. And during mail call two of the "Germans " walked into camp to surrender and get warm chow. One of the college kids is in ROTC and is trying to recruit amongst his fellow cadets for a spring game.
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Post by Mr. Spank on Dec 10, 2019 12:24:32 GMT -5
1) exposure 2) accessibility
EXPOSURE: Who even knows we exist? Besides those of us who are already here! This community is great, but what good is that to anyone who doesn't know about it? Besides the lack of exposure of this group, the lack of exposure to this epoch is not garnering any interest in looking for us. Luckily 2019-2020 has some WWII movies out or in development which will help give some exposure to the epoch and that is kind of like free advertising for us. We need to capitalize on that!
ACCESSIBILITY: forums are easy for those that "grew up" with them, so to speak. I was using forums with other hobbies before I discovered airsoft. And then I was using different forums for different regions I played in and forums for subsections of the hobby like this one. However we are in a bee age of Facebook and apps. Using FB and specifically made apps is much easier to use on phones. Frankly I rarely use an actual computer for something other than my job. All my personal stuff including this post is done on my phone. Forums don't work nearly as well on phones compared to apps built for it. I'm confident that most people are in the same boat. Even if someone found this forum, how likely are they to use it if posting is more complicated and getting notifications to responses is more complicated than using GB?
This forum is a treasure trove of useful information of kit and projects. But at the same time its offputting in that it can feel like info overload to some who look at it for the first time. Those that give it more than one shot can put out off by having to actually dig through these archives of posts. We can not change the financial situations of people who are interested in getting into this niche hobby. But we can make it easier for them to find it and use it. So we don't dissuade interested people just because our platform is olde fashioned and intimidating to use for those who don't have spare time to dig into the archives.
We need to address these two things (exposure + accessibility) instead of worrying about things like kit requirements and availability of kits. Those things will fall on the organizers of events and participants of those events. We need to build a platform for the organizers and participants that will breath life into the community. Once we have life we can grow with events.
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2nd Bat
Master sergeant
Posts: 11,813
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Post by 2nd Bat on Dec 11, 2019 1:56:28 GMT -5
Great post Mr. Spank. My issue with FB is simply that from a professional and to an extent a social exposure I am not comfortable letting all who know me become aware of my affiliation with a hobby they might not understand. It literally can cost me work. I do however see FB as an increasingly viable platform for promoting events.
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Post by wyatthudson on Dec 12, 2019 21:42:43 GMT -5
I think a private/hidden Facebook group would be great. We could cross promote within other airsoft groups, which accomplishes both the goal of spreading knowledge of events and maintaining confidentiality in professional/social/family aspects. For example, I had no idea there was a WW2 event at Zulu24- it might make sense to have a general WW2 airsoft group for discussion, sales and any and all event promoters to share
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2nd Bat
Master sergeant
Posts: 11,813
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Post by 2nd Bat on Dec 12, 2019 23:37:10 GMT -5
I know too little about social media in general and FB specifically to know how to go about that. I know Hunter J and Sgt Diaz both promote their events pretty much exclusively on Facebook. There are probably others who occasionally visit this site and do the same.
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Post by volkssturm on Dec 13, 2019 13:09:22 GMT -5
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Post by hunterj on Dec 13, 2019 15:52:35 GMT -5
I definitely do the vast majority of my advertising and exposure via Facebook. It is currently the place where most Airsofters and Reenactors have their communities and networks built so that is why I went with that initially. I do think there might be better ways, but this currently seems to be the most active or engaging way I have found currently. I think having this forum to store the treasure trove of knowledge up though is helpful. Especially with all of those technical how to guides on custom gun building and such before there were many WWII Airsoft guns on the market. I look through those a lot and use them for inspiration when starting new builds. I have a closed group page with ~650 members or such for the sole purpose of discussing WWII Airsoft related things. From all over the nation and even other groups from other parts of the world being active on it. Here is the group: www.facebook.com/groups/WWIIAirsoftCentralUSA/
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