Airbana Blog

I’ve been in Hong Kong for a couple of weeks now and it would be a shame to miss out on the Skirmish scene here so I started looking around but unfortunately Hong Kong doesn’t have any websites like Airbana [it will in 48 hours!] and other than visiting each and every retailer I found it difficult to ascertain what games were happening, where they were and what sort of environment it was. After a chance meeting with a couple of guys who were also looking for somewhere to go I signed up for a War Game.

Unlike Skirmishing in the UK it seems that most of the Skirmish sites are owned or at least organised through the retail outlets on Kwong Wa Street. It would appear that most organisers prefer that you prebook and upon paying your money you’ll receive a ticket (or two). These tickets will allow you to board the buses that line the road outside the old post office. Unlike the UK Hong Kong’s public transport is amazing (and very cost effective) so few people own cars and the Skirmish sites are deep in the rural parts of the New Territories so Site organised transport is a must.

As I was heading to the pick up point in Mong Kok I realised that not only was everyone in full camo (to be expected) but they were also carrying their weapons in plain sight. Pistols in drop legs, rifles slung etc. The Public and the Police took no notice of these people and I think the only person looking on in awe was me.

Upon arrival guns are checked for power limits which initially gave me some reassurance (especially with some shops selling 2.5 Joule guns!) but such reassurance was short-lived when it turned out that the testing was simply firing at the bottom of a coke can (any coke can, even if you brought it along with you), with whatever weight ammo you decide to use. Once ‘tested’ you are giving a tamper proof sticker which seems impressively official in spite of the test.

The Skirmish I attended had around 40 – 50 people but instead of two teams of twenty odd we were split into several smaller groups which were then split again (tagged and untagged) and it was these people that we fought with / against for the duration of the day.

The majority of games were simply ‘Last man standing’ but during the break I took the opportunity to discuss other game play types. Objective based game play coupled with respawns etc seem quite rare here and everyone I talked with was intrigued by the idea of large teams and the ability to ‘respawn’ via medics or a walk back to a safe zone to keep the game going until the objective was achieved.

As in the UK the lunch break came with food (Rice and some meat) with a 750ml bottle of water (it was over 31°). The on-site shop sold Water, electrolyte drinks, Coca Cola and ice lollies! But no Guns or Tactical gear as far as I could see.

Whilst there are a couple of Electroworkz style CQB places starting to open up there is nothing like we have in England with envious sites like Urban Assault and The Mall . With that said the places that I’ve seen and the places I have been told about certainly sound well organised and damn good fun with awe inspiring scenery and breathtaking views (although its hard to admire it all when .32G BB’s are flying at you at a speed capable of chipping brickwork!)

If someone asked me if I had any suggestions to offer I would say:

Hong Kong

Chronographs aren’t that expensive! (I have several new holes in my skin that will probably scar)

Objective based game play is enjoyed and a welcome change of pace - (After some requests we got in a game of Capture the flag!)

Sell Mosquito Repellent – It wasn’t till I ran out (the stuff wasn’t very resistant to River water / sweat) that I realised there was no more to be purchased. Itching aside Hong Kong has had incidents of Dengue Fever, Malaria and Japanese Encephalitis

UK

Petrol Generators aren’t that expensive and ice cold beverages make all the difference!

Not everyone drives – Organising some form of transport from the nearest Railway station might make all the difference to attendance numbers!

In short, assuming I haven’t caught anything from those damned Mosquito’s I had a brilliant time and I would thoroughly recommend that if you come to Hong Kong pack your Camo and webbing / vests and pick yourself up a Chinese clone (£30 – £70) – they aren’t brilliant but they work, look good, are cheap, easy enough to bring back (well I’ll find out that bit in a few weeks) and might make a nice addition to your collection.

Thanks go out to Gareth, Jimmy & Berton for watching my back, translating and letting me tag along.

As mentioned earlier in this post I will be launching Airbana.asia in the next few days.

Its been just over a year since Airbana the community powered Airsoft Mapping project launched and I’m pleased to say that with everyone’s help this is now the most up to date Airsoft map of Sites in the UK!

As the Airsoft Map below shows there are loads of sites in the UK now with more being added every month!

As part of Airbana’s continued development I’ll soon be disclosing details of the upcoming 3.3 release which should include requested features such as Update History, write access to the API and much more.

I’ll also be revealing the latest Skirmish feature that ties into Airbana in a way that will change the way you think about Capture the Flag / King of the Hill type games.

Before we start let me make it clear that this article does not pertain to the player database!

For those of you involved in the Web and more specifically Web 2.0 the idea of an API and Mashups is almost natural and with the Web 2.0 influences in Airbana I got to thinking about the UKARA database.

Assuming the UKARA datbase is normalised and designed properly imagine if there was an external API allowing us to pull up information about a site?

This information should be available through the Freedom of Information act (and if you are registered then I guess the Data Protection Act applies as well) so why not make it easier to access and see what people do with it?

We can make some basic assumptions about what the API should offer:

Search for site based on Post Code or GPS (Airbana will have this soon)
    $API->FindSiteByPostCode(RG1 2NN)

Return the UID / Primary Key of this site (i.e Site ABC = 12)

Pull single lines information from the database based on the UID
    $API->GetName(12);
    $API->GetInsuranceExpireDate(12);

Return an entire sites details in a Serialized Array

From looking at the Application form we can get a good idea of the sort of data that could be available:

SiteName

Names of Site Owners

Registered Postal Address

Company Number

Website URL

Contact Email

Contact Phone

Site Prefix

Application date

An image / pdf of the insurance certificate

In order to maintain your membership the sites have to keep a record of member visits so there is another opportunity for data mining:

View amount of members
    $API->GetMemberCount(12);

Get Number of Registered Members who gamed on Date or Date Range
    $API->GetMemberCountOnDate(12,20-03-2008);
    $API->GetMemberCountDateRange(12,20-01-2008,20-03-2008);

Get the Number of unregistered vistiors who gamed on a Date / Date Range
    $API->GetUnRegisteredVistorCount(12,20-01-2008);

When you start considering the player database (and as I mentioned before I am NOT suggesting the Player database be opened) you could start putting these numbers into context, imagine a graph that shows the uptake of registered players on a National scale, or evaluate the impact of Open Days / freebies have on your future player count.

An API would allow websites like AirBana and potentially even the sites in question to pull the contact details such as the Site mobile phone number from a single source. No longer would a Site Operator have to worry about trawling all the websites / forum posts / contact us pages etc to find the old phone number and update it. Simply update it on the UKARA database and its instantly available to all the sites that use the API.

The Retail side of UKARA also offers us some other intriging opportunities. Using a combination of the functions listed earlier a user could query the API to find out if the Retail site in question has had any complaints in the past [UKARA already publishes an Annual Report to 'Monitor Performance'].

We could utilise AirBana’s XMLRPC files / internal Price Database and the UKARA API to centralise a price list for an all manner of things.

It can be assumed that retailers keep tracks of who buys what, but I doubt that makes it back to UKARA but if it did that would be another opportunity for stats gathering. You’d be able to correlate sales vs player counts at a nearby site without having to brandish a clipboard and get your feet muddy [with that said if you're reading this / care about sales vs player counts you're probably there to get your feet muddy!]

Its only an idea, don’t get too offended if you have any criticisms, opinions or suggestions feel free to put them in the comments or email me at gareth[at]airbana.co.uk