[Drake]

Wow this is still going on.

Around here I actually don't even see that many people wearing official patches; those wearing patches are either team patches and/or various moral patches and other non-official stuff (Ghost Recon etc).

I can only speak from my own observations and opinions, but I'll take a stab at answering Mike's questions:

Why do people feel the need that they have to have these patches? Would you still not look like a Soldier, or whatever look you're going for without them?

I think it's easy to get caught up in trying to get an impression "right." I do a lot of USMC stuff myself; I recently found myself getting hung up about shit like Coyote Brown actually being USMC Coyote 499 (or at least very close to it), and not Khaki, Tan, MJK or other color, when picking a vest. But THEN, I found a pic of a Force Recon dude wearing an MBSS that looked more like BHI's khaki-coyote (he was flanked by Marines wearing IBAs so it was a perfect reference).

So now BHI's not-so-Coyote-Brown (and similar counterparts) is an acceptable option to me.

Is this symptomatic of a form of mental illness? Maybe. I've been exposed to more than my fair share of Krylon fumes over the past decade. But point in case is it's easy to get really anal about little details. I can easily see how some people would think it's cool to nail the look perfectly, patches and all.

As I've mentioned before, I find it a bit too poser-ish and am uncomfortable wearing any sort of unit or rank. As for "Ranger", "Airborne", SF tabs, etc.. I think the media (movies, games, etc) have seriously made the value of that go down the toilet, so I can easily see how people now wouldn't think twice before slapping that on.

And, some people say they do it because they respect the real troops, etc but, if wearing the insignia pisses off real soldiers isn't that kinda defeating the point?

I'm not sure that a lot of people know it pisses off soldiers, from the start. I doubt most people who don't know see (or intend) any harm to it. Again, as mentioned before, you really don't need to look very far or have very deep pockets to get all this stuff. When I worked at the surplus I saw people do a half assed job of it every Halloween: Brit BDUs with a mix of US and Canadian patches and pins, or whatever, throw on a USN squadron patch for good measure cuz they look bad ass.

At least airsofters generally try to get it right. And if it was getting worn in public I could see them getting upset, but in the privacy of an airsoft game?

Also, would any of you wear a Police Badge for a game?

For SWAT style CQB? (I'm taking a stab in the dark here)

I suppose in the context of a milsim op, if a faction needed to be identified as the local police constabulary or something, then it serves a purpose.

But people just wearing it for shits and giggles, IMO falls into the same overly poser category as people wearing full unit and rank.