Excuse my ignorance, but does airsoft leave some sort of mark (like paintball paint) to show when you've been hit? Or when you play is it based off the honor system? That's a neat looking gun. I wouldn't want to carry it around in public - it looks real to me. 
I've always wanted to try paintball. Heck even lasertag. I didn't know airsoft guns were used like paintball. I just thought you shot targets and cans and stuff with 'em. :oops:
They dont leave a physical paint splat like paintball does so it is an honor system... but since pretty much all the guns are full auto, when you start getting hit you'll yell out that you are hit to stop the rain of bb's hehe.
Paintball is a lot of fun, but airsoft is quickly overtaking paintball. The guns are comparably priced, but cheaper to operate. They also look a lot cooler than most paintball markers and you dont go home nearly as dirty. Now if you do a lot of diving into brush and crawling around, you'll get dirty, but not the sticky nasty paint all over you dirty that you get with paintball.
Paintball, you have to get your air tanks filled each time and paintballs themselves expire after a while. With airsoft, your gun typically uses a battery you charge at home (there are some green gas powered weapons, mostly sidearms though) and the plastic bb's are cheap and dont degrade like paintballs do. So once you've got a gun, its very inexpensive to play.
Like paintball, you can spend a little or a lot on a gun. The cheap $20 to $50 walmart airsoft guns are very low end and wouldn't hold up in a real game... there are guns for around $150 or so that are perfectly servicable though. They are typically considered entry level, but in the right hands can hold their own against people with much more expensive guns. My gun is a KWA G36C and is considered a mid/high end gun. Most mid/high end guns run in the $250 to $400 range. Upgrades are available to tailor your gun to whatever style you like to play.
Like my gun, I spent about $50 on a red dot sight, another $40 on the suppressor and $35 on a longer, tighter bore barrel. The suppressor is there for looks and to house the longer barrel (which provides a little more accuracy over stock)
All in all its a lot of fun and for a geek like me its good physical outdoorsy exercise of which i get very little of hehe.
This is an extreme example of some airsoft play (they've got a ton of people AND money) but gives an idea of what its like:
That minigun they use there... yeah its about $3500 lol.
With all that said... back to the video game haulies!!!
