With the rise of more realistic and immersive milsim events being offered today, is it inevitable that old school milsim producers will go extinct unless they evolve? The answer is not a simple answer, depending on whom one speaks with and their opinion on today’s airsoft/milsim community. Those who seem to focus on the hardcore milsim players will agree that old school event companies must evolve their game play if they want to survive. On the other hand, those who understand the whole airsoft community feel more casual games offer a way for newer players to enter into the airsoft community;  and gives players a stepping stone between playing in one’s backyard to immersive game play. So what are some things to consider in this debate?

What really set off this conversation off and has people wondering about the future of airsoft/milsim? The wild success of Milsim West and then Raptac made a splash that caught a lot of attention. Both event producers are pushing all known boundaries to redefine milsim as not just force on force battles in large fast engagements, but slowing down the pace to immerse its players in a more widely encompassing experience that pushes the player into the details of a grunt in combat. Think of these games as the more stretched out ride of a deployment, or movie if you have not been deployed. You slowly build up to those moments of intensity that are the hallmarks of combat and not run at the constant full throttle of old school games. This lets you become comfortable with the role and explore the details of being a grunt beyond just the shooting. These immersive events have captured the hearts of a many veteran players and those looking for more realism in their game play.

Now the old guard or more traditional milsim game play is the American Milsim or Operation Lion Claws Military Simulation Series type events. These games are large, fast moving, engagements that look to keep the tempo of battle high. A simpler way to think about older style events or more common events, is that you are living a snapshot or short clip of combat. You are experiencing the intense aspect of combat the entire time in shorter iterations. Some will argue that it is not the entire time but in comparison to the more immersive events, it is just about. You are almost living the mad minute in each interval of combat, with periods of off the field rest or sleep in between. The fast pace and intensity gives a rush and the sudden, constant reaction brings groups of strangers quickly together in comradery. While you are not exploring the more in depth details of being a grunt, you do feel that rush and experience the quick paced fire and maneuver tactics needed in large scale open warfare.

It doesn’t matter if you prefer the immersive concepts of modern game play or the old school, fast paced play, both are all still milsim. They are just different shades of the game, and it is ignorant to try and say one is not or that one is better than the other. In real combat situations, which airsoft/milsim bases itself off of, there are many shades of combat, from simple villages in civilian clothes, fighting force on force, or large nations deploying well equipped, special operations to conflict against a similar nation. It is not necessarily the clothes, the gear, or the length of time that makes milsim. The common thread is combat, chain of command, and unified strategy. You see combat in a war as a grunt so you’ll get that at an event. How much of it you see depends on the event. You will have a chain of command in real war, it could be officers and NCOs or simply the village elder. So you will see someone giving orders in a structure or simply as the most experienced player in an event. The degree of chain of command is all dependent on the event's size and needs. You will have a unified strategy for victory in real warfare but many tactics or skills for going about this victory. Obviously you want to win your event or at least the battles in the event, so a plan will be developed and tactics will be used. Plans will be in-depth battle strategies, requiring maneuvering units and other will be as simple as a wave assault used for centuries. At the end of the day everything else is just fluff and every event producer is giving your milsim just what shade is your preference.

Since it is not about what is or is not milsim really, the need for all styles of play and different event producers is and always will be there. Not everyone is going to jump into the deep end of immersive game play, and a player has to grow in airsoft. So what some might consider a lesser form of airsoft, is actually critical rungs in the latter that every player must climb as they progress. Now of course you want things to change a bit, but evolving as a result of other more realistic play is not the real drive of change. For op producers of events like Lion Claws and AMS, longevity has come through a solid formula in which the spices are changed to make game play more interesting or bring fun in a new way, but the overall style of game play that has made them successful probably won’t change. Now before guys go saying that American Milsim has not been around that long, you have to consider something. Understand that they came out of what was once Milsim Events and that had been around a while. So the staff has been doing this a while with a successful formula and did not reinvent the wheel.

Now yes, older producers are seeing lower attendance at some events, and yes the new flavor of the week is longer and more immersive play. This is capturing the attention of sponsors because they are all about riding the latest trend that their customers might be into. But, the events are not driving the old guard down or driving them to extinction. The reality is there are just more producers in the game now at all levels. This means less money to go around to all the event producers as they lose market share to regional event producers and newer national producers. Also, some event producers like Blacksheep Milsim have taken a hard hit from bad public relations and now have distrust in the community. So where do people go when the choice is a new cool producer or an older one that is having PR issues? Of course you see the shift and players lend their support in other directions. One can’t blame anyone other than themselves when that happens and attendance rates drop. So rather than the success or failure of event styles being hinged on realism is more simple economics and the level of good or bad press you get.

I for one do not want to see any kind of event producer go out of business. I think variety is exactly what we need to provide a pipeline for players to grow in and to keep things different. One day you may want to run and gun in a high paced contest of shear fire power. On other days you might want to be a sponge that soaks in every bit of an event that immerses you into a way of life that has you speaking in a strange accent. How happy would you be if those options suddenly went away and it was just one flavor? I know it would suck because I like to try it all as it all offers something a little different. I will also say that the rivalries between event producers are actually mostly hype created by players. Most producers have great relationships with each other and understand like I mentioned that you need them all. Do not get me wrong, everyone has their shady instances, but overall it is not the open war some would like you to believe. Everyone targets a demographic in hopes of gaining some market share in what is a small niche community of a sport/hobby. So before you go hoping for the extinction of an event producer or tell them they must change, think about those guys behind you coming up from the local field level needing that happy medium to develop and find their fun.

Just one grunt’s opinion,

Javier ”Darkhorse”

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About The Author

Javier "Darkhorse" Franco, formerly from This Week In Airsoft, runs his own Airsoft Blog on Facebook called "One Grunt's Opinion." This article has been posted here with the author's permission.