Paintball Vs Airsoft
"What is the one true war game?"
March 4th, 2007
By Jamie Innes
On saturday, february 24th, I played my first ever games of airsoft, at
The Ultimate Game, Christchurch. This is a field I frequent on sundays,
it's very rare for me to be there on a saturday (the day the Canterbury Softair Group (CSG) is there). But this particular saturday was an exception.
I waited, and waited, and waited some more... for the paintballers
to arrive. Not many arrived that day, so I decided to go and say hello
to the CSG who were arriving in droves, just past midday. It didn't
take me long to find Warren, a member of the CSG I'd met once about 2
years ago, and I was amazed at how inviting and easygoing the crowd
was. The reality is, once you get past the guns, paintballers and
airsofters have a lot in common.
However; getting past the guns seems to be the one thing that
completely segregates paintballers from airsofters. Both groups seem to
have 1 or 2 particular 'hang ups' which end up completely defining
their game of choice.
- Every paintballer I've ever talked to, say the same thing... "The bbs don't leave a mark, you can't rely on honesty"
- Every airsofter I've ever talked to, say the same thing... "The guns just don't look real, I want it to look real"
Now me being a paintballer, I guess I can safely voice my opinions
after now having actually played, and seen played by others... Airsoft.
Within the realm of paintball, there once was a time when I figured "If it doesn't look like the real thing, then why bother?"
I did everything in my power to 'milsim' my guns, and considering the
logistical limitations of paintball guns, I did a damn good job of it.
I turned ordinary tippmanns into M4's, MP5's, and even a 1928 Thompson.
But eventually I got over that hang up, when I came to appreciate
function over form. I came to value the performance, reliability, ease
of use and overall weight of the gun... rather than how it looks.
So here's where I come out and say that I still don't 'get' airsoft.
After having played, and now being able to compare it to paintball, I
have to make the following observations;-
- The rounds when fired are a lot louder in paintball, meaning you are taking a greater risk of giving away your position.
- The rounds when
fired in paintball, in general, have more recoil, due to the larger
volume of gas required to fire a larger projectile.
- The rounds when fired in paintball, leave a mark, wheras the ones in airsoft do not. Airsoft relies (more) on honesty.
- The rounds when
fired in airsoft, have a greater variance of velocity and impact,
wheras in paintball, where velocity is highly standardised, the ball
stings at 50 meters, aswell as 5 meters.
Now with these things in mind, and bearing in mind I am a paintballer,
I believe that paintball is the more realistic war game since I think
these things totaled up override the novelty value of having a
realistic looking weapon. In fact you could probably assume that it's
woods paintballers that are the mainstream wheras the airsofters are on
the fringe. You could assume that...
...But you would be wrong. The average turnout of woods paintballers in
Christchurch every weekend is about 6. There are of course more players
overall, but this is a typical turnout. On the other hand, the CSG has
a much larger number of players, and a much larger average weekly
turnout. On february 24th, there were around 20 guys there.
Past the guns, the games are not dissimilar. They both involve 'armed
conflict'. A scenario or simple game of two opposing forces trying to
achieve a goal. They both involve camouflage, every responsible player
wears or it, or at least looks the part in some fashion. They both
involve stealth, and tactics, and teamwork;- the bread and butter of
any rifleman. They both involve eye protection, albiet in paintball
it's necessary to protect the whole face and ears.
So what is the one true war game? Well anybody with half a brain will
know that the answer to this question is only ever going to be hearsay.
I'll tell you one thing, an airsofter will probably tell you something
different. I think the most interesting thing about it is, the simple
hangups that decide the game for each person... is the same fundamental
thinking that seperates the tournament paintballers from the woods
paintballers.
You don't see many people that play both, or equal quantities of woods AND tournament paintball, and the same goes for woods paintball AND
airsoft. I suppose it's a shame that we're all so fragmented, but I
guess that's life on a small island nation with a small population, we
all have to just deal with it.
I
would invite any airsofters who read this article to send me an email
with their thoughts. I would be happy to amend this article with some
'airsofter input', since this is not a stab at airsoft, it's a
comparison.
RedCyborg (CSG) adds...
Take into account some snipers shoot at anywhere from 500-600fps and a
normal aeg shoots at about 350fps. In terms of "realism", of course a
sniper will be able to shoot further than a rifle. In terms of the sting factor, you obviously have not been
shot by a sniper shooting at 600fps at 30 meters, hurts more than a
paintball gun at 3 meters!
I'll also add in that airsoft guns can shoot anywhere from 60-80 meters accurately (as in a human size object) and can penetrate semi-dense bush.
Bushball.co.nz
Site best viewed in Mozilla Firefox, on
1024x768 Resolution |
|