Personally I feel the "new" has had a more positive effect in general, the big gripes probably being the lack of professionalism, respect, and devotion to the sport. Might as well embrace all the good that the new has brought because we can't stop it. As for the bad... Well, sometimes we can't have the best of both worlds. Just my two cents.
Emphesis above mine.
Like I said, there's no question there's been some positive changes. However the above bolded part is where one of the big disconnects has always been.
Back in the old days, airsoft was far heavier on the former and current military. For some of them, airsofting was a reminder of days past (good and bad). The uniform and military meant a lot to them and when people disrespected the uniform you were disrespecting them. Way, way, way, back in the day when I first started playing I made the mistake of wearing an ranger beanie I got on the internet because I thought it looked cool. I made that mistake once. I had been there for maybe 5 minutes, we hadn't even started playing. Somebody came up to me and explained how they felt about me wearing the beanie. I hadn't given any thought to what the Ranger name really meant. I apologized, took it off, and it hasn't been worn since. After the game I gave it more thought and ended up adopting largely the same mindset. I know most of the "old school" players that haven't served, still feel the same way.
You can find threads on here where that sort of discussion came up. Somebody asks about wearing tabs or stripes and immediately got told "if you haven't earned it, don't wear it". Unfortunately some people choose to wear it anyways. That's one example of the lack of respect that really rubs the older players the wrong way. Unfortunately for them, it's a much bigger deal than for the new players.
There's other smaller things that again just rub the older players the wrong way, especially at the indoor fields and certain outdoor venues. Back in the "old days" you never had refs on the field. They simply weren't needed. You rarely had to remind someone to empty their gun while in the staging area or to watch where they were pointing it. You weren't worried about someone stealing your stuff that you left in the staging area. You rarely questioned if someone's gun was shooting under field limits. You never had some random person you don't know coming up to you on the field during the game and asking if you had a gun/flashlight/etc they could borrow. Repeatedly.
Obviously those don't all apply to every game. But usually at least a couple of them do. I'm younger than a lot of the "old crowd" at 30 but I feel far older at airsoft games, especially at the indoor fields. Not just because I'm fat and out of breath half the time. Some of the things you see happen only happen because of the age demographic at the particular event. You can find more than one thread on here about things going missing at a couple of particular venues. That was nearly unheard of back in the old days.
All of that are signs of a lack of professionalism and a lack of respect. While any one of those at face value don't seem that bad, when you add them all up and throw them in the face of someone who's not used to having to deal with it.... It's a pretty big buzz kill.
I think we will see some changes back towards the way things were. But I don't see airsoft ever returning completely back to the way things were. There's simply been too much lost that can't be recreated.
