I have played on and off for years dating back to somewhere around late 2000/early 2001. I have always liked the physics of the game. The VR experience is top notch. I have no interest in flying with a squad. I did briefly join a squad for the first time ever last year. I confirmed it is not my thing. I prefer flying early war aircraft, especially the P-40C and small, hard fought dogfights where the combination of pilot skills/aircraft performance are balanced enough to make it fun even if I lose most of the time. But the MA rarely generates the conditions I enjoy, therefore I don't have much fun when flying in the MA. So, even though I have been subscribed for months, I rarely log on to the game. When the arenas were packed to the max with 400+ people and the strategy was much simpler, I had a little more fun, but there really isn't anything you can do to make it "better" that would magically bring me back to the main arena. I will say that I was very interested in the tour of duty concept and was very disappointed when it came to nothing after years of waiting. I would probably love the historical scenarios, but after all these years, I have never signed up for one. One thing I always looked forward to was updates. At one time, there was a meaningful update to the game every few weeks or so. Now, just minor patches. No new aircraft, no new features, no upgrades of existing aircraft. The static nature of the webpage reflects that, too. It used to be updated as frequently as the news section of the forums.
I fly almost every night with DCS World, though sometimes I fly Aerofly FS2 for its awesome VR experience, P3D, X-Plane, IL-2 Battle Over X series, and the Third Wire Strike Fighters series. It is just a matter of what type of flying I feel like doing, what type of airplane I would like to fly, and where I would like to fly it. But I have a lot more fun doing exactly what I want to do with the hour or two I have to fly. Whereas in the main arena, I am waiting for my P-40C to get to a decent altitude, transit to the airfield where the action is, and then get shot down almost instantly as I enter a furball of high, fast late war monsters, then repeating this process until I catch the right moment where the balance in numbers and aircraft types lets me actually maneuver and shoot... unless its over an enemy airfield and I get hit by flak, then its back to the runway to start the next climb/transit all over again. My experience could be much better if I flew with a squad for mutual support and training and flew a more competitive aircraft. But for me, that is even less fun than getting shot down instantly by a rear quarter bnz for not paying attention during a boring transit.
As for the forums, I generally check the forums daily. The forums are filled with people who love military aviation and air to air combat in particular. In case you haven't noticed, such people are a small minority, so I still enjoy the online community even if I don't play the game. After browsing these forums for so many years, I have watched some of my favorite posters fade away to posting little or nothing. Some just got bored, some retired, and sadly some died. Fortunately, there are still some around that post a lot of what I enjoy reading. But like the game, even the forums have slowed down over the years. There used to be tons of posts in the aircraft and vehicles section: new information on existing aircraft, suggestions for new aircraft, history, etc. Now sometimes that forum is lucky if it gets one new topic per day. The hardware forum has always been a great place to keep up with current PC flight sim tech and at least that one is still fairly active, but still slower than it once was. As the forums slowed down, my frequency of browsing them has to. Sometimes I have gone weeks or even months without following them.
