First let me start this off by saying I'm making this post not as a member of CS, not as a Team leader, not as Capt Hart. Just as someone who has been a member of the same community for 3 years, held the same position, and seen the same patterns and types of people come and go through that time.
Second: any discussion had in this thread must be kept professional and civil. Any deviations from that will inevitably result in this thread being locked and or deleted.
Third: This is for discussion and debate. You must be able to consider other individuals points of view and allow yourself to be open enough that you can be convinced to the other side. If you are going to be involved in this thread but are not willing to allow your own mind to be changed then please don't involve yourself. This is intended to be a constructive debate and discussion of thoughts and ideas. If you just want to use this as an excuse to start more drama, don't, and kindly screw off.
I've laid these out in points that talk about a single concept. If you are going to respond to this thread, please do me a favor and actually read all of it and consider what I've said.
Point 1: You are a grown up. Act like it.
Currently in this unit we have 76 active members. At previous times in our history, and in our other variants of the unit, we have had upwards of 150. This means there will be A LOT of conflicting view points and not everyone can always be right or get their way. That idea is something taught in elementary school but for some reason because it's the internet, and people loose touch with the reality of the very real people who are also on said internet, all maturity and adult behavior goes out the window. If you had a job where you disliked the boss or the decisions they were making, the VAST majority of the civilized population would either try to change the behavior through the appropriate and professional channels, or they would quit the job and go somewhere else. But this being an online Arma 3 unit, for some reason that ability and behavior goes out the window. The incidents with Brawler, Drumheller, Harrison, and so on, prove my point. Rather than starting a coup or shutting down servers or causing a mass exodus, try to fix the problem maturely or quietly leave and go to another place you would rather be at.
Point 2: You are not always right
As previously stated, you WILL NOT get your way 100% of the time. Even in CS, though we present a united front after we have decided on a course of action, the amount of conflict and argument and opposing view points that are presented means that in about 40% of decisions we make at least half of CS has to come to some sort of compromise. On about another 40% just under half of CS (this is why we have a majority vote for things) doesn't get their way at all. There's only about 20% of the decisions we make where we all agree on what should happen. And that's just with 5 BLOODY PEOPLE. With 76? No wonder you didn't get your way and someone else did, or vice versa. That's why modern civilization has developed more appropriate means of expressing dislike and working for something better. Because throwing a hissy fit and causing drama and problems for the other 70 people in the unit only serves to make yourself feel better by putting everyone else down. 5 year old children do that on the playground. High-school bullies do that. You are all grown adults. Act like it and find ways of fixing the problems, or expressing your dislike for a situation, in a way that benefits the other 75 people in the unit rather than just your or your 5 friends.
Point 3: If you have a problem, do something constructive about it
As stated in point 2, if you just cause drama or bitch about stuff to make you feel like you have a bigger penis at the expense of everyone else, you are cancerous by definition and should stop or get out. We have a set CoC and structure so that complaints and suggestions can be sent up in a Mature and Adult manner and can be addressed as such. Being a dick in the meme thread or just bitching to those sympathetic with your bias helps no one but yourself and your similarly useless and parasitic cohorts. If you want change to actually happen or would like to see things appropriately addressed, send it up and follow up on it. Yes the CoC is imperfect. Yes things are neglected and forgotten about from time to time. Again we are only human. But it's never intentional. Its never to slight you or to make ourselves feel like our penises are bigger. And for anyone in any leadership capacity who does that intentionally or uses it as a penis enlargement pill, you should not be where you are and should resign. As for everyone else, if you find yourself guilty of pointlessly bitching or festering drama, please apply my earlier advice: Stop it, or get out. Send stuff up and be constructive about it. Try to help everyone and not just yourself.
Point 4: Command Staff isn't the enemy, or the problem.
The reason CS exists is because of my last sentence in the above paragraph. Due to people's natural inclination to be self serving and dictatorial, and that paired with the absurd level of dickish-ness that is rampant on the internet, having just one person in-charge of 76 people is likely going to result, eventually, in biased and self serving decisions. I have only to point at Drumheller to explain this. His reasoning for taking over the unit, for kicking 100 of us out of the unit, was because "It's my unit. I founded it and it was going in a direction I didn't like. So I decided to do something about it." He took control and made decisions that were self-serving and for his benefit. Not the majority of the unit. And solely because he was removed from power. The new leadership wasn't making dramatic changes to anything and the unit was functioning fine. The ONLY thing that changed was he was out of power. So he destroyed 75% of his unit because of the self-serving nature of mankind. CS has 5 voting members so we can check our own bias and stupidity. No one person is perfect enough to be unbiased when their precious ego is at stake and no one person is as community minded and non-self serving to make decisions that are always more beneficial to everyone else. There have been many times that I have been blinded by my own bias or self-serving nature and I could not see what was best for everyone else. And every. single. other. member of CS has had the same happen to them. We exist, as we are, so that we can try, and fail at times as we are only human, to make decisions that benefit the majority of the unit and uphold what we were founded to be, rather than just ourselves or a small group. We are not trying to make you hate us. We are not trying to hurt you or make your experience here a bad one. We are trying to make an enjoyable community of, and for, people who all want to play Arma the way we do, and the way it is defined officially by our definition of realism. It's easy to let CS bear the brunt of your hate and unhappiness towards everything in the unit. I did it plenty before I found myself in that position. But while its easy to do that, its better for us, you, and the rest of the unit, if you support CS and send up suggestions and complaints. Because as I said we are only human. We can and will make mistakes. Send up your thoughts and we will do our damned best to evaluate it as unbiased as possible and continue to make decisions that benefit the unit as a whole. Be constructive towards the entire unit, and don't make your dick bigger by putting down those in-charge of helping everyone.
Point 5: Structure
The idea of a structured MILLSIM unit is to provide a location where gameplay and scenarios are realistic and challenging. Those who join units like this, for that kind of experience, find fun in the successful execution of a difficult mission and in the professional mindset and semi-realistic methods we accomplish that in. If your idea of "Fun" in arma is just doing what you want, there are plenty of places out there that cater to that. This isn't one of them. In professional basketball, or soccer, or baseball or literally any other sport, the fun enjoyed there comes from winning. From being the best. From doing something incredibly difficult and coming out on top. Not just playing the game for the sake of playing it. If you want to just play basketball, just to play it, and don't find your fun in being the best or winning or anything, that's what games of pickup basketball are for. And if you want to win national or international tournaments and succeed against overwhelming odds, that's what professional basketball is for.
Fun ops, and other non-structured units or events are for those of you who just want to play the game and do what you want.
The pickup game of basketball.
This unit, the 15th, the 506th and many more are for those who want to actually get good at what you are doing and be set in that mindset and practice it.
The professional basketball.
If you are someone who wants to just play some pickup basketball in arma, go join a unit that caters to that. No one should fault you for doing that. But if you are someone who legitimately does want to play some professional basketball, then suck it up and put in the work to get good.
And branching off somewhat from the above topic to touch on this FTX cycle: Part of our fun, as stated above, is to actually get good. Not have missions catered to us, but to actually be good at what we do. That takes effort and time and work and dedication. And it takes not just doing what you want or what you have been doing. Change is difficult, and for us to change there has to be some motivation or some pressure to make that happen. Sure the grades seem a little high-schooley. So what? People complain about FTX cycles anyway, and they always have, just because its an FTX. So if you're someone who just complains at FTX cycles, why not give this change, and something that hasn't been tried before, a shot before you hate it completely. If you are not, then look at this as a great opportunity. We get to play a friendly game of our figurative basketball against our team-mates to see who is the the best and to push ourselves to become better. Friendly competition goes a long way on driving people to get better, and since getting better is where we get our fun from, we should relish the opportunity to push ourselves and get better. Try it before you knock it folks. And do your best to make it a positive experience for everyone.
Point 6: Growing Pains
The 3rd has existed in its current form for only about a year an a half of that. Through that time, only about 3/4 of a year ago, we had a massive uprooting of our leadership and structure. CS was completely replaced, Battalion was replaced, company was replaced, bravo company was dissolved, and many of the long-standing members in their previous positions were called upon to fill the MASSIVE vacancies that drama-filled event caused. I.e. Maj Ray, Maj Makowski, MSgt Wolfe, LTC Brueske, and so on. Since then, company leadership has changed hands three times, battalion has been opened and closed twice and has changed leadership twice, the S-shops have been vacated and filled at least two times each, with the somewhat exception of S-1, and S-shop leadership has changed hands too many times to count. On top of all of that, the deployment and story-building department was moved from S-3 to S-2, and the leadership of S-2 has changed at least two times now. The battle captains and zeus operators have been cycled through a few times, and to boot the FTX cycles have now been handed back over to S-3/Company.
So to say that we have been through some change is a COLOSSAL understatement.
We have had two deployments, one of which was a monumental failure (Jungle Hunter) largely due to the leadership not having adapted to the special forces mindset yet, and the fact that insta-death was turned on. The latest one, actually went reasonably well since we weren't chasing after other captured MSOTs or the entire task force being KIA every mission. Say what you will about our last deployment and the faults it may have had, but at the end of the day it was a MASSIVE step up from the last one we had.
So my point is this: We have not existed long enough, and with stable leadership long enough, to have fleshed out or even come close to perfecting what we are doing and how we are doing it. So be patient. It's going to be painful as we will have to learn from our mistakes, but if everyone in the unit was constructive and helpful and willing to work hard, we would get through these growing pains and get ourselves figured out in the fraction of the time it would take if things stay where they are now. Where currently people just complain for the sake of complaining and force good people out of their positions due to burnout and others not being willing to lend a hand or be helpful. You don't have to be in CS or an S-Shop leader or even in a leadership position to make positive change for the unit. Lend a hand and help out wherever you can. Be patient and constructive and help your friends and subordinates to do the same.
Point 7: This is an escape for us. Don't screw it up.
All 76 of us have real lives outside of this, with real problems and real shit that we have to go through. I remember last year when the 15th held a memorial service for one of their members who committed suicide. I remember when King died, a good friend of many of the older members of the unit. I remember when a close friend of mine in the unit went through an incredibly depressed and suicidal phase. And even now if you look at the LOAs thread and see Parker who had a close friend commit suicide. My girlfriend who nearly has done so on multiple occasions, Kardnal and whatever it is he is dealing with. And that's just those who feel comfortable, IN THE LAST MONTH, publicly posting about the shit they are having to go through. That doesn't even come close to the number of people IN THIS UNIT who go through hell every day and come here for an escape from the hell they live in. People come here to enjoy their time in a structured community and to escape whatever horrendous thing it is that life has put on their plate. If you come into communities like this and make our time here, our breaks from reality, our ability to escape the shitstorm of life that we normally have to deal with, into time that is more stressful more dramatic and more painful than our every-day lives, you can go to hell. Go fuck yourself, that's not what anyone here has bargained for.
There's my novel/rant. Rather than sitting on all this and letting it fester, I felt it was better to put this out where you all can see it. Feel free to comment and debate and respond to all this, as I stated above. But if there is one thing I wish everyone could take out of this; its Point 7. All this is where the idea of "I just want to play arma with my friends" comes from. Please don't put those people down and make their lives harder than they already are. Thanks for reading.
- Hart
