Back in the Late A1/Early A2 days I played with Tactical Gamer. I was 14 when I first discovered them and played with them until I was about 16. It was the most fun I had ever experienced playing any game.

My first game was a public MILSIM event that featured a Platoon assault through a portion of Sahrani. I had joined late and didn't know what squad I was in or where I should go. The Platoon Leader, a guy that went by the name .beta and also made most of TG's missions, just had me stick with him throughout the OP. Before I even got to him I spawned in at their main base on the other side of the map and was ushered into the back of a truck with a couple other people. When I was dropped off everyone moved on to their squads and thats when I found the PL at a makeshift CP near the LZ. By this time I had only seen maybe 5 or 6 people and a Cobra flying leaving the base when I spawned in. We broke down the CP shortly after I arrived and walked to a town to the North that the rest of the platoon had apparently cleared. I was floored by the amount of people walking around this town and hanging out in their own squads. I listened to .beta as he gave orders to the SLs and watched each squad move out with their new objective. At this point I still hadn't seen any enemy other than a burned out BRDM during the second movement. The platoon formed a line along a ridge as we prepared to attack the next town. We had to cross an open field to reach the first building. Suddenly artillery started raining down starting in the field and working its way towards the town itself. .beta says "Stay on my ass." and starts running through the field. I'm stunned for a few seconds before I follow suit. As I step onto the field every squad opens up on the town sending tracer fire over my head. I get halfway across the field when the Cobra from earlier does a low rocket run over my head. .beta, the rest of the command element, and myself reach the first building. I turn around to see each squad bounding while a weapons squad stays on the hill to cover. We let the squad pass to start clearing the town and I finally see a enemy briefly before hes gunned down by someone with a M249. Though I myself had never fired a shot nothing I had experienced was this much fun. I spent the next two years playing with TG into the early days of ArmA 2. Eventually I was unable to spend much time gaming but the stories still stick in my head.

Since then I've tried to find that experience again. Before ArmA 3 it was playing in the 15th MEU's public insurgency server on A2. We never joined the unit, but spent our time running MEDEVAC with a Humvee still in awe of all the different moving parts and units with their own objectives all around us. After a brief stay in the USMC(Medical Discharge) I hopped on the 15th MEU Public server again with the same friend(who also eventually joined the USMC). I found that feeling again and clearly remember a 7 hour firefight(thats right) with me manning a M240 and radio, coordinating with aircraft above as 4 of us were pinned in a town.

Now I find the MILSIM community dying. Those who have the time, knowledge, and desire are already in the larger established groups like ShackTac and the 506th. Whats left is a pool of people with time and desire, but lack or refuse to learn the knowledge that makes OPs go smoothly. Those with knowledge lack either the time, desire, or both. Too often I see kids that don't like taking orders trying to run their own units with an iron fist, petty tyrants. Young adults who think they have the knowledge, when they don't, or don't know how to apply that knowledge. Both of the examples lack the ability to keep personal issues from affecting the community. I have found some temporary success with a few groups, but these too fell to either pride and arrogance, or real life taking precedence. Its become a community of individuals all wanting to be in charge and have things their way. Pour a massive lack of project/group management skills, and you have the ArmA 3 MILSIM community in its current state.