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Now that we've got the VG Air Force group officially created as a part of this website, I thought it would be good to discuss the plans and ideas for the future of the VG Air Force. First of all, I would like VG Air Force to be a home for pilots on the VG BMS Server, and should be the home for more than one VGAF Virtual Fighter Squadron, that way a VG Air Force pilot might enjoy being part of some VGAF Harriers Squadron with some unique name and number, and also take part in the events of the VGAF F-16's Strike Squadron, or something. Would like to let this thing grow into the different aspects of BMS that we enjoy, and organically let our members take up leadership roles if desired for training others, or hosting VGAF events of any kind. We should try to mix up the scheduling as well, so as to not stack too many during other events (some of us play other games here at VG, as well), so care should be taken when deciding on times for regular repeating events. It would be wise to begin creating some forum post materials that can serve as easy reference for standards we may like to encourage, from manner of dealing with in-game comms to use of in-game radio commands and communicating with ATC/AWACS/ETC. -- we can also try to discuss common multiplayer concepts and standards that we all might want to get on the same page with. Obviously, pilots learn these things as we all fly together, but having a central location to point people to will help create actual reference guides in the future. Thought it might be fun for us to all start at the 2nd Lt. and move through the ranks of this group based on some agreed upon criteria, including time with the VGAF, time on the server, and proficiency in a number of tasks from mundane to challenging, as appropriate. Needs discussion, and ideas. So, let's have at it in this thread, and flesh out this new VG Air Force into something we all enjoy!

http://i.imgur.com/EeMKDX3.png The Community of VETERANS-GAMING VETERANS-GAMING was founded by retired Marine Staff Sergeant BLuDKLoT and though we are not a veterans-only community, we do have many veterans from around the world here, and the rest of us are military enthusiasts. We are an international group with members from over 40 countries on 5 continents, and as a whole we speak English as our common language. We are more of a fraternity or community of friends than an average gaming clan, we don't want people joining if they aren't sure what VG does, which consists of merely hanging out and playing games. VG is a home with open doors for casual and mature teamwork oriented gamers. We award Clan Membership tags to anyone who proves themselves to be responsible and have team play spirit and to those that have hung out long enough to be considered part of the wallpaper. We primarily host and play co-operative and player vs. environment game modes against AI "bots" rather than humans, but many of us also play competitive PvP games as well. If people are cool with that, we're proud to have them! We have no problem with players remaining as merely players, and we are slow to recruit players into VG. Some groups push to get as many tag wearing members who are interested in a common theme as they can. VG is more about quality over quantity. People who become VG are fairly well vetted over time, and more worthy of trust and responsibility than the average online gamer who gets their tags after a week and a handshake. We've been around for a decade now, and we'll be around for more years to come. VG Brotherhood Like a group of brothers, active VG Clan Members are familiar with each other or at least the names they see often in TS3, on the website and in games - we are many. Though not every VG member knows every other member and even if certain "brothers" play different games, or don't know each other as well, or even do not get along as well as others, each one can count on the other when it is important because we all have that common COOP Gaming spirit and value that Golden Rule: "treat others as you'd have them treat you" - which can easily be translated for VG into "Don't be a dick!" - a common sense term applicable to many rules which we must spell out for those lacking in common sense. We value our players just as much as our own VG Clan Members; if you are here, you're part of the community, and welcome to get on board and participate as community members in all Public VG activities. The Round Table of VG Our forum reputation and ranking system can help show who is most active and helpful around here, but we have no true ranks; VG Clan is a Round Table - though there are those who have stepped up to even higher responsibility whom we trust to make certain command decisions not suitable for a Clan Vote, and security dictates that we have only a small portion of our group with root accesses to certain areas - in the end, we are all equals here, even among our public players, with a common goal to have a cool place to hang out and call home while gaming. Although there are times when command decisions must be made for the benefit of the entire group, we don't pull rank on each other or even public players and all rules apply to us Clan Members just as much as everyone else. VG Clan Members must maintain the standard spirit of our own rules ("Don't be a Dick!") when playing on any server anywhere - we represent our community online, and are ambassadors of friendly team-play who value fair play and camaraderie overall. VG Community Participation and Support VG Clan Members and active community members check the website often, and try to participate in discussions on the forums as appropriate to maintain an active presence among our peers, but we will not force people to be active in events, the website, TS3, or any game server. We all get busy with life at times, and our individual absences will not be held against us if we become inactive. Our level of appreciation, support, activity, and commitment to VETERANS-GAMING is up to us. Some members are able to show their support by donating to help cover our community bills (currently $4.10/day US) and others help out by taking an active administrative role on our website or one of the game servers we run, and yet others just show their support by playing on our servers when they can and helping to spread the love of VG Gaming. We value all levels of support, and appreciate anything our members are able to do at VG even if it's just being part of the wallpaper! We have a great website here and a VG Facebook and Twitter for those who use those sites. We welcome posts, military gaming links, screenshots and videos, and even just general discussions - if we want to help grow the community, the active posting and social networking is a helpful tool we can use if we wish. VG Server Administration When we administrate a server, we do so by giving players the benefit of the doubt while also sticking to our convictions regarding the well being of the server, and we adhere to the spirit of our server rules as much as, or sometimes more than, the letter of our server rules. Every public player is a potential friend, admin, or even clan member in the future, and should be treated kindly and welcomed including such times as they must be spoken to regarding a rule violation. At that time, we must use our best judgement with a primary goal to correct their behavior which sometimes must include punishment for their actions - there are clearly times when immediate and swift harsh actions are required, but as VG Clan Members and ambassadors to the public, we must also gauge when it is possible to encourage and teach better attitudes for public gaming to the players and each other in hopes to further support and define the VG style of gaming: Organized yet casual fun with respect for others and the rules of the game. Be Cool, Have Fun, and Game On! Long Live VG! "This is the oath of a Knight of King Arthur's Round Table and should be for all of us to take to heart. I will develop my life for the greater good. I will place character above riches, and concern for others above personal wealth, I will never boast, but cherish humility instead, I will speak the truth at all times, and forever keep my word, I will defend those who cannot defend themselves, I will honor and respect women, and refute sexism in all its guises, I will uphold justice by being fair to all, I will be faithful in love and loyal in friendship, I will abhor scandals and gossip-neither partake nor delight in them, I will be generous to the poor and to those who need help, I will forgive when asked, that my own mistakes will be forgiven, I will live my life with courtesy and honor from this day forward." -- King Arthur, from the book Le Morte d'Arthur: King Arthur and the Legends of the Round Table

Recently the !admins command was stripped from all but Head Admins. While the reasoning behind this clear, many admins raise the question as to why exactly this was done. It was a way for both =VG= and community admins to always know how many admins were in the server and most importantly, to notice new admin names in-game. As stated in the Admin instructions that everyone has to read upon getting admin rights, admins are required to talk with each other to set next maps etc. Why then do we get stripped of the one thing that lets us see admins directly in-game? I hate to think of admins as solo police officers, not being part of a team as a whole. I know most admin names by heart but without !admins I would not have known asquirrel or StormHawk10 before much, much later, with all the risks of mistaking a problem-fixing admin for a badly behaving/rule-breaking player. Our aim is to keep the server healthy, the players happy, and to make sure everyone follows the rules. =VG= is and will probably remain my all-time favourite server because of the regulars and playstyle. I get a huge pleasure from making sure everyone is having a good time and our player counter is high. The biggest reward for any day of being an admin is simply seeing people work together and having fun. To be at our top game of admining, it's a good thing to know who is who, and to know there's another admin who can deal with the issue when one is preoccupied. Is there a bigger reasoning behind this change that we are missing? Thanks for your answer. Have a great day! Acro

I have noticed that people's faith in the PRCOOP server is declining due to recent errors. What feeds this tremendously is a lack of communication about these problems and the efforts that are being made to solve them. Recently the PRCOOP server has been crashing more oftenly and severely than before. A short time ago the server was crashing pretty much at the 2nd map in the list. This issue has now been resolved but more and more times does the server crash and stay down for several hours until the VGeniuses can jumpstart it. This caused people to have a lesser image of our server than before. Semler and the other geeks are now working on a more stable server. Nobody knows about this though, and to the general pop it just seems like the VG server is unstable, unreliable and VG isn't doing jack shit about it. Could someone make a forum/blog/sticky thread somewhere on the Main Page to advertise the fact that the server is being worked on? So that people are aware that it might crash more oftenly or be on without Mumble sometimes but this is for the good of later? This will create a much better image of VG and the servers. In my experience, admins right now have to answer questions of players the entire time, and not even all admins know what is going on. Input and comments appreciated, as always :).