I’m sure we’ve all had a friend or 2 that got us into airsoft and made us fall in love with this great hobby. I personally have been playing for over 9 years and have seen more than my share of people come and go. Some couldn’t afford to keep going, some had a really bad experience, some just got tired and burnt out with airsoft. I found myself seemingly getting to that point.

The people who quit because it’s too expensive are incredibly hard to get to stick around. Everybody’s financial situation is different and it can be a very sensitive subject for some. $100 to you may be nothing, but to someone else it could be the difference between getting gas to go to work, or even paying rent for the month. The only stance you may be able to take as a friend trying to convince someone to keep going is remind them about how much fun they have and if it’s worth it to stop the great relief.

The unfortunate souls who’ve had the pleasure of meeting that guy with a maxed out settings HPA system on their first time playing pretty much get the worst experience on their first time out. That is pretty much all it is, the worst experience they’ll get. Remind them that 99% of the time it wont be that bad of a hit and there’s likely not going to be anything worse than that. Re-assure them that if they can survive that, they can survive anything.

Personally I’ve felt burnt out from playing for a small period and I did get bored of playing. The biggest thing that had changed for me and re-invigorated my love for the game was a simple change in primary weaponry. I sold my AEG and bought a KWA LM4. I had owned a GBBR previously but simply couldn’t afford to run it regularly at the time but now that I could I thought I’d give it another try. I fell in love all over again and have not looked back since. Another thing to keep Airsoft fresh is to try going to a new field or attend a bigger/different style event.

All in all, there is always a way you can argue someone should continue to play. At the end of the day, you can’t force someone to stick around that doesn’t want to be around. That absolutely doesn’t mean you should let them quit without a fight. Remember these points and you might be able to keep your battle buddy with you.