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Airsoft |
Air'soft n. Sport involving a bunch of froods running around blazing away at each other with peashooters. From Latin aear, "Ow!" and softe, "That bloody hurts!"
Hmmm. That more or less sums it up. Except, the sort of peashooter an airsoft-mad frood is likely to use is something like the one on the right. Mwahahaha. A frood, by the way, is the unisex version of guy, cos I have this irresistible compulsion to yell "Guys!" but I don't want to be clobbered by feminists... Thanks, H2G2...
I had better calm down and get some real explaining done. Of course you've heard of paintball, where a bunch of froods run around shooting at each other with gas guns that fire little balls of paint. Airsoft is better in every way imaginable, and the best way in which it's better is that it doesn't hurt as much. You use airguns, known as BB guns, that spit little 6mm balls of happily coloured plastic. The actual point of the thing is to blast other people without getting blasted yourself, and this is accomplished through a variety of games such as capture the flag, team play, blah.
...is the typical reaction around this point. Then people do one of two things: they get that "You'll put someone's eye out" look, or they start foaming at the mouth and run off to sit in a room and Google things. For the "you'll put someone's eye out" people, I offer the following safety warning. Airsoft, when practiced equipped with the correct safety wear and according to the correct safety rules, is utterly safe. Well, about as safe as anything in life is. I mean, this computer screen could theoretically implode at any time and blast my head off, but that doesn't stop me surfing, does it?
Anyway, you and a bunch of friends just shoot at each other for a few hours, have some coffee and sandwiches, and go home. Sounds simple. Ain't.
These vary immensely. There's team play, free-for-alls and whatnot. The most important variable is what happens if you get hit- sometimes you're out of the game, sometimes you have to go and sit in a corner for ten minutes. I like the system where, for example, if you get hit in the arm you can't use that arm, because it's realistic- and airsoft is about realism!
Propulsion for the BBs varies. There are three main types of weapon.
Spring pistols
The simplest. You pull back the slide, which simultaneously pulls back and locks a spring-powered piston and loads a pellet into the firing chamber. When you pull the trigger, the piston is released and a blast of air slams the pellet down the barrel. Then someone says "Ow." The pellets are stored in a row inside a magazine which fits inside the gun's handle.
Realism is the important thing here. Unlike painball guns, which look like something out of Star Wars in toddler's colours, airsoft gear looks exactly like the "real thing." You can get copies of about every common firearm, for example that little one that James Bond used to use. This sometimes poses problems- airsoft guns look exactly real, and so must not be waved about on front of police officers...
Gas pistolsAEGs- Automatic Electric Guns
These guns are larger, because the mechanism is too big to fit into a pistol. They come in the form of assault rifles or submachine guns. Because gas is expensive and difficult to refill, they use batteries and a motor to operate a piston in the same fashion as a spring pistol. The rate of fire is immense- several rounds a second, usually- and fully automatic, which means you just hold down the trigger and wait until it goes "click."
AEGs are your standard main battle weapon. Players only use pistols for emergency backup under normal circumstances. And AEGs are of course, better; their typical result is something like "OwOwOwOwOwOw!"
Finally, you get specialty weapons, such as high-powered sniper rifles for long distances or shotguns that fire several BBs at once. Grenade launchers fire hundreds...Mmm, there have been rather a lot of "Ow"'s, haven't there? Explanations are in order. Yes, it hurts a little, and you get a small bruise that fades away after half an hour or so- but no damage can be done. Players always wear masks to protect their faces, but a hit anywhere else on the body is fine. The pain factor is in fact an integral part of the game, since it means you run faster, and you get the thrill of knowing that if you make a mistake you're likely to be rubbing your chest for a few minutes...
Gah! I've been going at this article for weeks, and it's not going anywhere at the rate of ten lines a day- that's the basics, anyway. If you're interested, stick Airsoft into Google and see what comes up... LOL... Peeace!