Welcome to Common Gamers!

Our members have been participating in the ArmA community for years but we're just getting our feet wet as an individual and official gaming group and are happy to see that you've found your way to our little community.

What's Common Gamers?

Common is a collection of like minded gamers focused on working as a team in the ArmA series. Yes, we realize that there are many other gaming groups, or clans, in the ArmA community but we feel that Common is unique in several ways. The first being that while we do use an ingame ranking structure, each and every member of Common is equal in the community. The ranking system is primarily meant to help us organize our in-game efforts and has no effect on the "weight" of a member's opinion in the community. In other words, while I or another member may be the most brilliant battlefield commander ever known to mankind, we might not have the best ideas when it comes to running a community so sticking to in-game ranks only helps to keep things sensible. Another way that we feel we are unique is that we do not prohibit or discourage our members from participating in the events of or belonging to another gaming group or clan. In fact, you don't even have to wear our tags and our membership requirements are rather modest so the demands on your time in order to remain a member are non-existant. The overall feel of Common is that we are a group of gamers who simply enjoy gaming but would like to add a touch of organization to our gameplay.

What games do you play?

We've dabbled in the Battlefield and CoD series, mostly Battlefield, but we've settled on Arma2:Operation Arrowhead. ArmA2 has it all:

• Huge environments
• Customizable gameplay
• Endless replayability
• Intelligent AI
• and so on...

But most of all, we play ArmA for all the same reasons you play ArmA...it's great! But that doesn't mean that we'll only ever play ArmA. With newer releases coming out for BF and CoD, we may decide to expand beyond ArmA.

What mods do you use?

Officially, none. We've tried a bunch of them out and they're all really cool but in the end, we've decided that's its just easiest to stick with vanilla ArmA2:Operation Arrowhead. We're Common Gamers. We have jobs, responsibilities and lives away from the computer (some of us at least) and trying to coordinate mod installations among a group can be a real PITA so for us, it's easier to keep it vanilla.

What types of missions do you play?

We play some home grown missions and other custom missions if they fit. The primary mission type is COOP though. Our community is rather small and because we enjoy teamwork so much, we usually end up working together against AI opponents but that doesn't mean we play COOP exclusively. We're always ready for a little PvP or TvT.

Do you keep track of missions?

We sure do. In a way, it ties into our ranking system. At the end of any mission whether it's just playing on the public server or in a private session, a member can submit a review or post comments to a members profile. We can then use this information to track how well a given member is doing and if warranted (later validated by a vote), that person can then be promoted. Now, apart from the ranking system, it's also pretty damn cool to keep track of this stuff and to see what other members have posted. It's all on the honor system which is why it's "members only" but why be dishonest? We're all equal and ranks only apply ingame so there's really no point in cheating by submitting fake reviews.

How often do you play?

All throughout the week on our public server but we do try to put together member only/invite only sessions every once and a while but we hope to make it more regular. Typically, our private sessions are scheduled for weekend evenings.

How do your ranks work?

Our ranks are used in-game only. We feel that everyone should have a say in what goes on in the community but we also recognize that some of our members may be more knowledgable and capable leaders than others in ArmA. The system isn't meant to be abused so that a higher rank can "order" a lower rank around whenever and whereever they feel like it. Ranks are in-game only and are not intended to be used as an "I'm more important than you" mechanism. The true purpose of our ranking system is to help organize our efforts in-game to promote teamwork. We're Common Gamers that want to belong to a community and want to work together and it just makes sense to have at least some organization when we play together. Being of a lower rank, it makes sense in some circumstances to look to a higher ranked member for guidance and being of a higher rank, it makes sense to help the members who aren't as knowledgable. Teamwork is our objective and the ranking system helps us to achieve that.

How do you get promoted?

Well, as I said before, Common Gamers is all about community so how better to decide when to award a rank increase than through a community vote? Each and every member has the right to nominate a fellow member (hopefully someone other than themself) and every other member has the right to vote on it. That being said, it could get out of hand pretty quickly so to make it simple, everyone is [COMMON]. If someone's above average, nominate them and get them promoted to [unCOMMON]. The idea is that if someone is uncommonly good, they should be raised up a bit as a signal to other members that that person is someone they can go to for help, look to for guidance in a mission and/or when that person starts giving out orders in game, it's probably in your best interests to follow them. Of course, we're merely Common Gamers so you don't have to "follow orders" but you should because that person was elected to a position where he or she should know, better than the rest of us, what orders to give. Also, the promotion does apply to your tags so if you use [COMMON] tags and you get promoted, change your tags to [unCOMMON]. Another thing to keep in mind is that there is a 10% cap on the ratio of [unCOMMON] to [COMMON] so a member can't be promoted unless there are at least 10 members, then 20, then 30, and so on and so on. Also, the founding member(s) (admins) of Common Gamers are not eligible for promotion to [unCOMMON].

Can you be demoted?

Yes. A member may be demoted from [unCOMMON] back to [COMMON] like the rest of us average joe's. A person may be demoted for any number of reasons including a lack of participation, a major change in the community, etc but it'll be pretty hard to demote someone forcefully. A promotion requires a simple majority vote. A demotion requires a 75% minimum agreement. If you have ten members, you'll need 8 cause 7 won't reach the 75% minimum. A demotion is usually the first step towards retiring a cherished member who simply doesn't have the time to participate anymore and it's really a loss for our little community. Also, while a member cannot nominate themselves for an [unCOMMON] promotion, an [unCOMMON] member may choose to call a vote for their demotion to [COMMON]. Again, this could be for any number of reasons but the idea would be that the decision is made with the best intentions for the community. With the 10% cap, only those who can fulfill, either by availability or ability, the intended responsibilities of the [unCOMMON] role should retain that position.

Sounds great! Where do I sign-up?

You want to sign up? Fabulous! We have almost NO requirements other than filling out the form on our Membership page. Welcome to the community, Common Gamer!