[Turnbull]

Damn. Well, I guess I'll just start from the begining... So, if I'm not mistaken, you and your friends attend AK games, and the other players seem to "look down" upon your group. From what I gather from these forums, most people play Airsoft for the realism factor. Hell, thats exactly why I decided to switch from paintball to Airsoft, although I was never an avid paintball player. Perhaps the sheer lack of gear is the problem, as you thought. From what I've read, many players don't enjoy playing with other players who show up in blue jeans and a sweatshirt.

Another reason why this might be happening is that often large groups of people tend to ostracize others for many reasons, sometimes because they aren't familiar with the new individuals, other times for petty reasons, such as "He doesn't have the same level of gear", etc. In other instances, it may just be an attempt to "initiate" these new players, in an attempt to see how far they're willing to go to be a part of the sport.

Now these are all conservative explanations, I don't know exactly how bad they were behaving, or for that matter exactly what they were doing. Did you try to talk to the regular players at AK? Maybe certain players are just more fanatical about realism and military simulation than others? Without a personal experience I can't really do any more but fire off suggestions and ask for more information..

In terms of the group of individuals you're attempting to introduce to the sport, how do they act while at the game? Perhaps there was something they did to offend some players? Sometimes people can get offended by simple things, such as a glance that was misinterpretted as a challenge, or a harmless comment which was over heard. From what you've already said, it seems like your group is behaving well, they seem to be getting involved in the games, not to mention that they seem to be a "good sport" about it all. One of the most irritating things when it comes to a sport is when a teammate is not investing any effort into the activity, but from what you've said, it seems like they are trying to be active.

Was there any stand-out event that may have triggered the attitude they received from the other players?

Just trying to help out,

Cheers,

John

EDIT: Took awhile to write that post, sorry for accidentally reitterating the previous posts.