'Its not what your hobby can do for you....'

For me Hut9 sounds awesome but I cannot get the time off work. The early war Rifle game I plan to get to but I will have to get a rifle before I can commit. Hockwerk I am signed up for because the site looks so interesting on google maps and I am going to the Portsmouth Normandy game because its not hard to get to. When I say not hard to get to, all of these will be hard to get to. I don't have a car and will have to get there by a combination of train and bicycle.
There are plenty of people in the South West on this forum and I'm sure they all have different problems getting to events. Maybe someone couldn't afford the petrol, another may be short of kit. Well guess what, I might be able to pay for petrol and I might have spare kit but as we don't have an area to discuss this, I guess that could prevent 3 people going to an event. Maybe someone can get to an event but hasn't got the kit but I have the kit but can't get time off work.....

There are plenty of people in the South West on this forum and I'm sure they all have different problems getting to events. Maybe someone couldn't afford the petrol, another may be short of kit. Well guess what, I might be able to pay for petrol and I might have spare kit but as we don't have an area to discuss this, I guess that could prevent 3 people going to an event. Maybe someone can get to an event but hasn't got the kit but I have the kit but can't get time off work.....

Surely you can just discuss that in the actual event forum, seems the most obvious place to talk about it? All you'd get in regional subforums is 'who's going to 'x' game?' threads, which would be better served in the 'x' game forum.

Surely you can just discuss that in the actual event forum, seems the most obvious place to talk about it? All you'd get in regional subforums is 'who's going to 'x' game?' threads, which would be better served in the 'x' game forum.

Differently served. Unless everyone is forced to put their location in their profile, the 'X' game forum doesn't tell you who is from your area. It also doesn't tell you who wants to go but currently can't because of some problem that you may be able to fix.

Surely you can just discuss that in the actual event forum, seems the most obvious place to talk about it? All you'd get in regional subforums is 'who's going to 'x' game?' threads, which would be better served in the 'x' game forum.

Differently served. Unless everyone is forced to put their location in their profile, the 'X' game forum doesn't tell you who is from your area. It also doesn't tell you who wants to go but currently can't because of some problem that you may be able to fix.

I dunno, there's usually car sharing and kit loan threads already. Even if there wasn't, if I wanted to go to a game but couldn't get there, I'd post a thread in there asking if anyone else nearby was going? Having my location on my profile is a bit of a red herring, i'm not going to ask everyone from the nottingham area individually, i'd ask and see if anyone replied.

Why do these topics always descend into such Tit for tat arguments? Keiran stated this thread was not about blaming anyone person or type of player! This is about addressing the issues. There's far too many willing to point out what's wrong but are suspiciously absent when asked to act and put their money where their mouth is. I've put a thread up in this section trying to identify players interested in niche games. The idea being that once we have an established list, we can work with them to develop such games. Perhaps putting on a special event, once a year at a regular date? This could help people prepare, save book holidays etc and maybe even prevent clashes. Surely we can get 10-15 like minded players who can then advocate for our niche, and help drive the event and sign ups. If each man managed to recruit 2 other players then you have a decent number to attend. All we need to do is establish whether or not there's enough of a nucleus to enable this to happen. I'm sure there is! So, get onto the thread re WW2 experience and get your name down. By the way, this isn't about me taking over, leading or anything else. It's about seeing if the niche games are sustainable and if there's a fan base out there. Logistics about games and who wants to run them can be sorted once we know if it'll be worth while. Surely worth a try?

On the whole travel thing. This to me is an excuse. I don't want to sound preachy but, I do my share of miles and with a little bit of common sense and networking, I regularly arrange car shares etc. Dieselmonkey is right in that there always was the odd thread asking for / offering lifts etc on each game thread. If you're stuck then grow a pair and ask! There's a saying "if it matters to you, you'll find a way. If it does not, you'll find an excuse! "

I don't think it is very helpful to set up artificial divisions in terms of geography, 'length of service' etc. We've done the reasons why people can't or don't go to events to death, although obviously anything which introduces more barriers (cost, location, specific kit requirements or whatever) is going to hit numbers.

Kies original post was about what we as players can do to support the hobby, and particularly, to improve attendance, rather than expecting the organisers to sort it all out. Even simple stuff like car sharing, giving local but inactive players a kick, the player interest register thing etc.

Cheers
Martin

All I'm trying to do is come up with ideas. I think that it is easier to solve problems with new ideas than by blaming people. If we could just throw a lot of ideas and suggestions together there may be one that might work.

Heres another idea. What if we did a week long 'summer camp'? Get everyone together for a week in the summer and run different games each day. If a game doesn't appeal there may be an alternative activity (museum visits etc). This means that the cost of travel is less of a factor as its for a week long event. It also means that people can come in order to do the 'blatfest' type days but get coerced into trying the niche events.

Heres another idea. What if we did a week long 'summer camp'? Get everyone together for a week in the summer and run different games each day. If a game doesn't appeal there may be an alternative activity (museum visits etc). This means that the cost of travel is less of a factor as its for a week long event. It also means that people can come in order to do the 'blatfest' type days but get coerced into trying the niche events.

Sadly that pretty much rules out anyone with kids, jobs, other hobbies, or any permutation of the three. If people don't want to attend 'niche' events, there's no way of coercing them, and those niche events will stop running. Simple supply and demand.

All this talk is just dancing around the real fact of the matter, there just aren't enough people currently to warrant running most 'niche' events.

Heres another idea. What if we did a week long 'summer camp'? Get everyone together for a week in the summer and run different games each day. If a game doesn't appeal there may be an alternative activity (museum visits etc). This means that the cost of travel is less of a factor as its for a week long event. It also means that people can come in order to do the 'blatfest' type days but get coerced into trying the niche events.

Sadly that pretty much rules out anyone with kids, jobs, other hobbies, or any permutation of the three. If people don't want to attend 'niche' events, there's no way of coercing them, and those niche events will stop running. Simple supply and demand.

All this talk is just dancing around the real fact of the matter, there just aren't enough people currently to warrant running most 'niche' events.

It doesn't rule out everyone with Kids, a job or other hobbies. 1 week a year during school holidays with non airsoft activities organised alongside the games to keep kids/partners busy and if you don't want to come for the whole week you don't have to. You could even have niche camping areas where only period camping equipment is allowed. I know a week long event would be harder for some people to manage but it will also be more worthwhile for some people travelling longer distances. By rolling different types of game up into one event people may be more inclined to try the niche games they won't after all have to travel just to try something they're not sure they will like.
Plus a week long event might appeal to some of our non-UK forums members and their friends?

Or on a smaller scale, if you have a 1 day 'niche' event, why not run it on a Sunday with a non-niche event on the Saturday. You may be able to persuade people to stay for both after having made the journey?

Or on a smaller scale, if you have a 1 day 'niche' event, why not run it on a Sunday with a non-niche event on the Saturday. You may be able to persuade people to stay for both after having made the journey?

this is not a bad idea ,but it might be a nightmare to organize

It would just be a case of finding another person interested in running a game in the same area. 1 person organising both games would be a nightmare. fortunately we have these forums, so it should in theory be possible to team organisers up.