A Review of 2017 & The Roadmap for 2018

I wanted to put a short post out there to say Happy New Year to everyone in the Airsoft Nation Community. Last year was awesome with a lot of growth and development throughout the site and I can’t wait to continue this momentum through 2018.

Looking back on the last year, here is a look at some of the big features that were released through 2017.

Airsoft Nation Live Show

The weekly live stream was something new and untried and it worked extremely well. I was blown away with the positive response by both the community and the guests who came onto the show. Over 2 Seasons we had more than 50,000 views with a great average watch time across each show. While I don’t plan on releasing a Season 3 early in 2018 it gives me a lot to consider later down the line..

The Mobile App

Version 2.0 of the mobile app was completely rebuilt and released in the Summer of 2017 and it’s had a huge impact already. While the social aspects of the app are still rather lacking, the marketplace, stock checker and map are heavily used each month.

Version 3.0 is primed to release later this week (Apple are currently reviewing the app right now) which enables sub-menus, GPS locations and more optimisations throughout the app.

The app is now #1 priority for me through 2018 as I intend to grow the functionality and community aspects to make this a solid tool for the Airsoft Nation Community.

Stock Checker

AirsoftDB opened up their beta access to integrate their search engine with third party apps during IWA 2017. By the Summer I had a UK only search built into Airsoft Nation and have been promoting it to UK Retailers throughout the year. The guys at AirsoftDB have done an amazing job and I’m so glad to get access to this and allow the UK Community to get behind it.

You will notice more reliance on this tool through 2018 as I try to get more UK Retailers on board, after all – it’s FREE for them.

Airsoft Map

The last huge feature we released was the new Airsoft Map. We’ve done many revisions of this over the last 2 years but at this point I’m very satisfied with the current setup. With over 300 listings it has been a huge task to get every site and retailer added to the map and through 2018 we will be getting sites to claim their own listings and request that Players leave their reviews.

2018 RoadMap:

Moving into 2018 I want to continue with regular new features spread throughout the year, everything will be centred around the mobile app as that is where I see Airsoft Nation making the biggest impact to the community. With all that said, here is my roadmap of features being planned through 2018:

• The Marketplace will have more updates and I aim to be the #1 2nd hand sales platform –  New features include a ‘Sold’ marker and better Searching Capabilities.
• The Map will continue to grow and have Search Filters (Site facilities, joule limits etc). I’m planning to use Player’s mobile GPS to show local sites and retailers.
• An FPS-Energy Calculator will be released and a campaign will be released later in 2018.
• To replace AN:Live, I will be regularly featuring in an Airsoft Podcast. More details coming soon!
• AN:TV will be released – this is a collection of Airsoft channels on YouTube to watch straight within the app.
• Social Features will be implemented, it’s the one point of Airsoft Nation that’s severely lacking. I’m still looking into the best way to bring community interactions within the app.
• Finally, I’ll be looking at bringing an events calendar to the community. This will probably be late in the year but the aim is to have one place to find your local events.

With each one of the above features the aim is to continue building this platform and become the best resource for the UK Airsoft Community. By providing the tools, resources and interaction in one place I believe that Airsoft Nation can be that hub for the UK Players.

With all that said, I take community feedback very seriously. If you do have any suggestions or requests for me through 2018 please feel free to reach out and PM me – @gtech

I hope you all have a great 2018 and I look forward to building Airsoft Nation with you all.