I've been thinking allot about this whole thing and relating to it the whole ruining the hobby element of various things within airsoft. And further whether I'm contributing to it if I'm honest. The reason in my case is long range shooting more so than ROF, but the same principle applies or is along the same lines. When I started playing again most of my guns were 400fps and under builds from way back in the day and it took allot to get them back on track and fully functional again. But I also built out my bolt gun since I always wanted to try sniping and that was the reason behind the purchase years before I just never got around to upgrading since the interim years I hadn't played. None the less I built out something that could shoot 100+ yards took a while but it was done. And afterwards I noticed an uptick in velocity at our games, guys who normally were shooting 400fps all of a sudden started pushing that further. Then I went ahead and built out my M16 which also shoots very long ranges, it's basically a semi auto sniper rifle running in the 550fps range as well. This allowed that long range combined with a quicker fire rate. Which again seemed to push guys further that direction more commonly. And I'm not saying I'm purely responsible for that change, or that it was in response to my builds it might have happened anyways. But it seems like it was related.
Now the point of this, is that several guys have moved that direction and had various issues much like high ROF guns. They aren't typically that reliable as a platform especially compared to stock FPS/ROF builds. They can be, but often times they just break down more often. Which takes more time and money to repair etc. So some of those guys who may have built stuff to respond to things I built haven't been playing as often and I wonder if that's also part of the problem. IE as the arms race continues whether it's in ROF or FPS that you see a dropping off of guys who either don't have the time/money to compete at those levels or don't have the patience or generally get irritated that things aren't reliable at those levels.
So that's my theory of sorts and it applies to ROF or FPS. But in the same token my own 2 cents is that I like the classes of the system. IE I like long range shooting, and it plays to my patience now that I'm older on the field. As well I'm not much for pushing up and assault, I can do it but it's really not my normal role. I tend to hang back and shoot long range, use concealment much more often etc. But I think some guys might see that shot come in from long range and think hey he's got an advantage. But the reality is while yes I do at that 65-110 yard range, once I get in under 65 yards the advantage tips fast in the direction of a normal AEG. So it makes me wonder if maybe the class roles need to be cleanly separated and further taught and understood by players. The reason I say that is I don't think guys realize how many headaches can go into higher end builds and the disadvantages of said setups. If they did it might help slow/stop the common arms race mentality. And I'm not saying stop guys from taking on a new role or type of play. If they want to play higher ROF or higher FPS that's fine it's really up to all of us to determine our play style. But I guess the question is do we the players somewhat driving that arms race have a responsibility to do something different to help keep the sport fair and fun for those with lesser time or money.
Hope that makes sense, bit of an essay but I'm curious what other guys think about this sort of thing as well as ideas on how to keep things fun. Since that really plays into the ROF stuff.
Luke
