Arma 3 hails people of every flavor from all over the world. To get to know them a little better, we're hosting a series of mini-interviews with some of our amazing community members. These aim to give you a personal insight into their backgrounds, why they got into Arma, and how they typically experience the game. In this issue, we interview long-time community legend Melle!
BIO
Melle (left) with Arma 3 Project Lead Joris-Jan van 't Land (right) during a fire station tour
Name: Melle
Nickname: A3_Melle
Age: 42
Location: Netherlands
Occupation: Logistics Manager / Volunteer Firefighter
BASELINE
Can you provide us with one random fact about yourself?
I am a workaholic!
What's the first Arma game you played?
Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis.
What is your current Arma 3 playtime?
I now have a total of 10,251 hours split across two Steam accounts.
What is your favorite game of all time?
Arma 3 - if it is the game I have the most hours in, it must be my favorite!
Outside of video games, what other hobbies do you enjoy?
I enjoy going to the gym, swimming, taking long walks and bike trips around nature areas with my family, and visiting military training grounds and museums. I also coach and mentor new rookie firefighters and keep up to date with new techniques for firefighters and follow new research being done in that line of work (yes this can be called a hobby by the amount of time it can take up to find and research!).
Can you show us your PC setup?
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
How and why did you get into Arma?
I started with Operation Flashpoint. I was a long time player in the old NovaLogic scene (Delta Force, Armored Fist, Comanche, F-22 Raptor) and of course read an article in a Dutch game tabloid about OFP and little bits and pieces on the internet (this was in a time when internet hardware, dial up modems, still made noises in your PC and we did not have Google yet!). I then got the demo, played it, and was hooked on the game. I then made a trip to Germany as all Dutch stores were already sold out of copies of OFP and got hooked to the franchise ever since.
How do you play or engage with Arma 3 nowadays?
Much less than I did almost 10 years ago around the Alpha, Beta and full release of the game. Besides, the game is almost 10 years old and a lot has changed for me with work and the family.
Real life caught up with me. I became a manager at work five years ago, and since then I also have less time on my social media (Twitter mostly), even though I hope to be catching up again doing it on a more regular basis.
But when I play, I mostly hang out around some active co-op servers or with some friends doing some co-op missions casually. I also have had the honor of meeting (and playing missions alongside) some great names within the Arma Platform community in real life and on social media!
Besides that, I am also a moderator on the Arma Platform Discord and help out monitoring mostly the “Multiplayer / Communities” sections.
What is your favorite piece of Arma 3 user-created content (mod, addon, scenario, game mode, tool) and why?
I’ve got quite a few favorites, and all of them are very good - But to mention one community made scenario that I have played too many hours of - Pilgrimage by Rydygier, 2nd place winner in the “Make Arma Not War'' contest for single player game modes.
In this mission you are a “big brother” in search of the body of your younger brother in a country at war (many mods / maps are compatible, even some with a multiplayer mode!) and need to bring him back home again. Looting buildings for intel / resources, encountering civilians with intel, as well as enemy checkpoints / patrols / bases that also can provide intel about the whereabouts of his body’s location.
My longest playthrough lasted for 36 hours, moving over Altis by truck and on foot gathering intel and surviving to get the body of my brother back home again. If you want to escape reality and just roam and survive a bit on one of the great maps of Arma 3, play the scenario and possibly add some extra flavor by playing with some nice mods to spice up the challenges!
Can you tell us about your most remarkable Arma moment?
Well there are a few, including meeting a lot of developers and Marek Španěl in real life, But the most remarkable was the release of Laws of War DLC (Project Orange), produced and created (mostly) by the Bohemia Interactive Amsterdam office.
I gave a long promised tour to the project lead Joris-Jan van 't Land at my fire station and he was taking a lot of pictures for reference in the then upcoming DLC (whose theme I did not know at that time), and during that same production timeline I also met Jay Crowe, Korneel van 't Land, Karel Mořický, and many more!
And as a thank you for my support on this great humanitarian DLC, I got my name in the credits, and if you spawn an IDAP ambulance from the DLC you will find my name written in some dirt on the right side at the back of the van!
Can you share your #1 pro-tip for any Arma 3 player?
Situational awareness! Think ahead before and when you move; always remember where you can take “hard cover” quickly once the bullets start flying.
With the release of Arma Reforger and modding tools for Enfusion Engine, what are you looking forward to with the franchise as we move along the road to Arma 4?
Expectations are high, and Arma Reforger with the workbench is the stepping stone on the Road to Arma 4. Luckily we are seeing more and more mods being made and people that are just playing around with the tools for the Enfusion engine, and Arma Reforger is also becoming more stable with each and every update. Yet, there is still a long path to walk before full release.
The most exciting thing for me right now is cross-platform capability. Playing an Arma game with PC and console players, which could not be done with Arma 3, has been made possible with Reforger and will hopefully carry over to Arma 4. Also, a BI controlled and hosted Mod Workshop where all platforms can be able to download the needed mods to play side by side in the same missions has been great too.
Hopefully the console players can enjoy the same experience we have been enjoying for years now with the PC Arma Platform community!
BONUS: If you were a super-hero, what powers would you have?
Stay underwater as long as needed. I love to swim!
CLOSING
To finish the interview, do you have anything you'd like to share with the Arma community?
Please be patient. It is a long #RoadToArma4 and for Reforger’s development, but also be patient with the future players that are coming into the community with zero experience. Make them feel welcome to the Arma Platform so they can enjoy the future titles just like we PC players have been doing for over 20 years now!