Post by vanguard on Apr 15, 2012 14:03:02 GMT -5
So many places to start on this subject. I'm going to go step by step through this.
I went to East Side AirSoft for the first time yesterday (April 14th, 2012), having heard a lot of good things about it. I payed $20 for admission, with the games running from 1800 to 2300 hours (of course the games didn't start until a little after 1800 due to a lack of turn-out in people). My expectations were floored and in short the place was something of a dismal failure. Here's why:
This place isn't exactly easy to spot. There are zero signs outside of the place to tell you where it's at. My friends and I drove around the lot a few times, having seen only a few random buildings, before being prompted to call to find out where it was at. The only thing that helped was a parked pick-up truck which had their sign on it.
In short it's on the back-half of a "Sun Traveling Agency" (or something to that effect) building with an entrance marked as "Employee's Only" the way to get in.
Upon making a comment to the owner about the lack of clarity on the building, we were presented with a carefree answer of "Oh I haven't gotten around to it yet."
Now this would be understandable if he'd just moved there, but shortly thereafter he told us he'd been at this location for two-years.
I find it a bit puzzling that having been there for two-years, he'd have "never gotten around" to putting up some proper signs for customers to find his place. That doesn't exactly seem business-savvy to have an obscure business.
Their selection of products to buy was also very much limited as well, and even the pricing itself for certain products was unreasonable. I saw some customers ask about a box of six shotgun shells price, and be told the price was "$20." Anyone could go on Amazon.com and find the same thing for about $15 of the same quality/brand.
(Let it also be known that same said customer read the label off the box as "Shotgun Cartridges" and was ridiculed and mocked by the owner for referring to the munition as "cartridges," something that is linguistically correct, rather than "shells.")
Also to note they sold CO2 cartridges for $1.00 a piece, whereas with other places I've been to, as well as Amazon.com, sell them on average for about $.50 cents a piece.
More amusing was that I over-heard the owner make a remark to another customer that he was "not looking to make a profit off of this, just looking to have some fun."
His words and action contradict each other as explained above with the shell/CO2 pricing.
There is no referee; so none of the rules are enforced. That is, assuming there were any "real rules."
The owner participates in matches, something that makes no sense because seeing as to how he is the de-facto ref, he shouldn't be playing at all.
I'm not complaining he played, it was enjoyable to have him on the field; but in his place there should've been some kind of ref, which there wasn't.
Another key issue is that my friends and I were told explicitly that "Automatics are prohibited; we don't want people spraying-an-praying. You can do burst fire, or single shot, but no automatic." Of course no one actually followed this. I got shot up by automatics to the point where this "rule" was evidently non-existent.
For that matter not even the owner abided by this "rule."
I watched a lot of people (myself included) yell "Hit" repeatedly and raise their weapon to signify they were disqualified; out in the open so it was impossible to miss them and the fact that they were no longer participating in the game. Despite this, they were still shot anyways making it better to just sit behind cover than to actually risk getting up and making an attempt to leave the field.
Spawn-killing was another key issue. During many of the Capture the Flag games, the enemy team would advance and spawn kill the opposing team. It got to the point where a lot of guys just stayed behind the spawn cover rather than risk taking a step out because they would just be shot.
I myself respawned, took a couple steps around the cover that led out of my spawn, and was pelted immediately prompting me to go back and "revive" again.
This happened many times to many people.
Lastly, Chrono-testing for weapons fps was near non-existent. Though East Side Airsoft claims to have a "350 fps rule" I was hit by weapons significantly higher than this.
The owner's weapons certainly did not fall with-in this range as so many others found out.
The "Honor System" is seemingly non-existent here as well. Many players would be shot and refuse to step-out. That's not to say there weren't people who didn't abide by the Honor System, rather I wish to express that once more without a referee there was no real inclination to abide by it.
Again, all of these seemingly "minor" issues could be resolved quite simply if there was an impartial referee on the field. And though "minor" they may be, they add up pretty quickly.
The floors were covered in BBs making it more than evident no one even makes the slightest of attempt to maintain the place. I watched a lot of people run, hit a sea of BBs and fall pretty badly. Of course the game still goes on if someone gets injured, there is no "pause the game and get the injured person off the field" concept.
This could easily be resolved if someone just took a leaf-blower and blew all the BBs off to the side. Something that would be neither time consuming nor financially costly.
Secondly the so called "cover" is just flimsy pieces of boarded wood strewn together. You couldn't run (assuming you didn't fall) and slide behind cover without fear that the "wall" would fall over. I'm not exactly a big guy, but at one point I pressed my hand against some "cover" and was pretty certain that if I applied a little bit of force, it would've fallen over.
Lighting issues is another factor. Every so often some of the lights would cut out. Fortunately, and rather coincidentally, this did not happen during any of the games going on, rather having happened between games.
Ultimately between the building obscurity, lack of rules and enforcement of said rules, a bad playing field, and lastly silly pricing of products; I have no intention upon ever returning to East Side AirSoft. Furthermore I would not recommend this place to anyone interested in AirSoft in the slightest.
For $20, you could go somewhere else even if for a shorter period of time and have a more enjoyable experience.
Thank you for taking the time for reading this, and good hunting.
I went to East Side AirSoft for the first time yesterday (April 14th, 2012), having heard a lot of good things about it. I payed $20 for admission, with the games running from 1800 to 2300 hours (of course the games didn't start until a little after 1800 due to a lack of turn-out in people). My expectations were floored and in short the place was something of a dismal failure. Here's why:
Store Appearance
This place isn't exactly easy to spot. There are zero signs outside of the place to tell you where it's at. My friends and I drove around the lot a few times, having seen only a few random buildings, before being prompted to call to find out where it was at. The only thing that helped was a parked pick-up truck which had their sign on it.
In short it's on the back-half of a "Sun Traveling Agency" (or something to that effect) building with an entrance marked as "Employee's Only" the way to get in.
Upon making a comment to the owner about the lack of clarity on the building, we were presented with a carefree answer of "Oh I haven't gotten around to it yet."
Now this would be understandable if he'd just moved there, but shortly thereafter he told us he'd been at this location for two-years.
I find it a bit puzzling that having been there for two-years, he'd have "never gotten around" to putting up some proper signs for customers to find his place. That doesn't exactly seem business-savvy to have an obscure business.
Their selection of products to buy was also very much limited as well, and even the pricing itself for certain products was unreasonable. I saw some customers ask about a box of six shotgun shells price, and be told the price was "$20." Anyone could go on Amazon.com and find the same thing for about $15 of the same quality/brand.
(Let it also be known that same said customer read the label off the box as "Shotgun Cartridges" and was ridiculed and mocked by the owner for referring to the munition as "cartridges," something that is linguistically correct, rather than "shells.")
Also to note they sold CO2 cartridges for $1.00 a piece, whereas with other places I've been to, as well as Amazon.com, sell them on average for about $.50 cents a piece.
More amusing was that I over-heard the owner make a remark to another customer that he was "not looking to make a profit off of this, just looking to have some fun."
His words and action contradict each other as explained above with the shell/CO2 pricing.
Rules
There is no referee; so none of the rules are enforced. That is, assuming there were any "real rules."
The owner participates in matches, something that makes no sense because seeing as to how he is the de-facto ref, he shouldn't be playing at all.
I'm not complaining he played, it was enjoyable to have him on the field; but in his place there should've been some kind of ref, which there wasn't.
Another key issue is that my friends and I were told explicitly that "Automatics are prohibited; we don't want people spraying-an-praying. You can do burst fire, or single shot, but no automatic." Of course no one actually followed this. I got shot up by automatics to the point where this "rule" was evidently non-existent.
For that matter not even the owner abided by this "rule."
I watched a lot of people (myself included) yell "Hit" repeatedly and raise their weapon to signify they were disqualified; out in the open so it was impossible to miss them and the fact that they were no longer participating in the game. Despite this, they were still shot anyways making it better to just sit behind cover than to actually risk getting up and making an attempt to leave the field.
Spawn-killing was another key issue. During many of the Capture the Flag games, the enemy team would advance and spawn kill the opposing team. It got to the point where a lot of guys just stayed behind the spawn cover rather than risk taking a step out because they would just be shot.
I myself respawned, took a couple steps around the cover that led out of my spawn, and was pelted immediately prompting me to go back and "revive" again.
This happened many times to many people.
Lastly, Chrono-testing for weapons fps was near non-existent. Though East Side Airsoft claims to have a "350 fps rule" I was hit by weapons significantly higher than this.
The owner's weapons certainly did not fall with-in this range as so many others found out.
The "Honor System" is seemingly non-existent here as well. Many players would be shot and refuse to step-out. That's not to say there weren't people who didn't abide by the Honor System, rather I wish to express that once more without a referee there was no real inclination to abide by it.
Again, all of these seemingly "minor" issues could be resolved quite simply if there was an impartial referee on the field. And though "minor" they may be, they add up pretty quickly.
Poor Facility
The floors were covered in BBs making it more than evident no one even makes the slightest of attempt to maintain the place. I watched a lot of people run, hit a sea of BBs and fall pretty badly. Of course the game still goes on if someone gets injured, there is no "pause the game and get the injured person off the field" concept.
This could easily be resolved if someone just took a leaf-blower and blew all the BBs off to the side. Something that would be neither time consuming nor financially costly.
Secondly the so called "cover" is just flimsy pieces of boarded wood strewn together. You couldn't run (assuming you didn't fall) and slide behind cover without fear that the "wall" would fall over. I'm not exactly a big guy, but at one point I pressed my hand against some "cover" and was pretty certain that if I applied a little bit of force, it would've fallen over.
Lighting issues is another factor. Every so often some of the lights would cut out. Fortunately, and rather coincidentally, this did not happen during any of the games going on, rather having happened between games.
Synopsis
Ultimately between the building obscurity, lack of rules and enforcement of said rules, a bad playing field, and lastly silly pricing of products; I have no intention upon ever returning to East Side AirSoft. Furthermore I would not recommend this place to anyone interested in AirSoft in the slightest.
For $20, you could go somewhere else even if for a shorter period of time and have a more enjoyable experience.
Thank you for taking the time for reading this, and good hunting.