After a lot of soul searching, I'm going to take a break from WW2 airsoft for a while, in the hope that I can rekindle my enthusiasm for it.
As an organiser, I'm not willing to compromise in order to put bums on seats. CiA leads the way and others follow or imitate. Using gimmicky sites does not appeal to me, nor does having loads of trigger time. Unfortunately, this is the direction other organisers are taking things these days. The player base has changed dramatically as well. There are still some good people out there but, the cock brigade grows in strength every day.
As a player, I want much more from games than what's currently on offer. Only Craig's games have come close to giving me anything I am looking for as a WW2 player. There is nothing on the calendar this year that appeals to me and, I am downright pissed off with AGS for openly stealing my idea for Rattenkrieg. I can only hope that things improve in 2014.
I am still going to be around as a mod' and am not dropping out completely, just taking a good, long break. I'm selling off a lot of kit but, will get more if and when my enthusiasm returns.
When I want your opinion - I'll tell you what it is!
Well, understood as you feel that way! Strangely, I'm not finding the cock element increasing although the faces certainly are. Nor the blatting either, all games are so restricted now, even Josh's (if he is running any more!). New organisers are focussing on props rather than gameplay (but we did too for a good while). And new people think "wouldn't it be cool if..." unaware that they are reinventing the wheel and we did it all years ago. Not much we can do about that (and it is irritating) except offer an alternative experience that isn't cool props. One of the things I liked about CiA was the willingness to offer sites that gave something new, something that was worth travelling to. So much the opposite of trudging to your local open day site week after week, year after year! Sadly, I think the cost of travel has pretty much knocked that aspect on the head...
Anyway, while I'm not as despondent as you Pete and I'm still going to games and still finding it worthwhile I am desperately short of 'me time' what with all the stuff going on at work (busy re-fitting at work and trying to keep up with an economy that is taking off rapidly) and home (new kitchen to do this year as well as a garage conversion) and helping my mother out doing the 'man's jobs'. So I can't see any prospect of organising anything this year, I'll have to re-assess next year. Hell, half the year has gone already and I have no idea where!
I may well be selling more stuff during this year, if only to make space in the garage for the conversion, but not dumping it all yet.
Well, Marsha's knocking on the head too now. Just noticed she posted on FB. Then Taffyjohn posted saying that it was the fault of niche organisers:
I was seconds away from typing how it was mainly down to fragmented groups only attending certain types of game and that how some organisers throwing any old shit together had devalued the scene and made it take 50 steps backwards, when I realised it was Taffy shit games that I was describing.
"back to good old days when CiA were the dogs danglies"
Bless! True though...
However, no point looking back, the past is the past. BUT, the diary may well be clear enough next year (and enthusiasm rekindled) for CiA to do something special. (But I can't help think the short period in my life when hobbies were possible has now past 
)
Was going to put a statement in the CiA section, so that peeps don't make the story up for themselves. 
Well, 2013 didn't work out exactly as planned! We had an excellent training day for sure but the site we had booked for July for the 'Hut 9' game was unfortunately pulled and since the the whole game was based around the site's topography and features it made it next to impossible to rearrange in time, given the depth of planning we go into.
While we did have a second game almost sorted for later this year, due to time constraints and the state of the current player base we felt it was better to duck out of an overcrowded calendar and see what next year brings. There is very little point wasting valuable 'spare' time if people won't make the effort to participate.
In the 'old days' WW2 games were so 'special' players travelled to the end of the country to take part (in truth, this is what made the games so special - enthusiasm, commitment and like-mindedness). These days the trend is that players expect games to be local. Many local games for local players have been run, which is great, but it does mean there aren't enough players to guarantee a game running.
Rather than compromise and run a game for the sake of it (or a type of game we don't really want to play) we thought it best to sit it out this year and see what the future brings. The CiA organising team has changed over time to accommodate real life issues or changes of interest and this no doubt will continue. Pete is currently selling kit (actually, he always has!) and you may well see some of mine for sale (I am converting the garage to living space so storage space is vanishing) and Steve has thinned out too. But we are still around, still planning and still looking forward to sharing our vision of WW2 airsoft, where the personal journey and experience transcends uniforms, guns and airsoftyness.
Good!
Yes, good stuff.
When I want your opinion - I'll tell you what it is!