Top Ten Subsim Events in 2012
Dec. 27, 2012

The year was 1997, the Internet was quickly catching on. AOL was sending out billions of floppies (soon to the replaced by CDs), Facebook was still 6 years away, and a young-ish chemical plant operator threw up (sic) a few html pages on submarine games and the USS Cavalla submarine in Galveston. Within the year, the website was receiving email, generating traffic on its Matts Scripts BBS, and getting mentions on the usenet. A year later, we scored our first interview with noted Aces of the Deep developer Mike Jones. And here we are, over 15 years later and firmly established as ground zero for submarine games, news, and community.

7. Women on US submarines

When the US Department of Defense announced in 2010 that the 100-year old tradition of submarines being crewed exclusively by men was over, the news generated many reactions. Some felt it was time, that if women could serve as US Marines, why not submarine sailors. Others were skeptical that females could perform the required duties "submerged for three months at a time in a space no wider than a motor home, outnumbered 70 to 1 by men, many of whom will not want them there." Others weren't even sure if this was a genuine change or a hoax. What would this mean for the Silent Service? Would this give "hot bunking" a whole new meaning? Would torpedoes be greased? Or merely painted pink? Joke as we may like, the change is real and has been a success to this point, with the first three female submariners earning their dolphins in December. We wish them all the luck and success and remind them: hairdryers are not acoustically friendly at 600 feet..

6. New Subsim services

Subsim is all about change...er, wait, no, not really. We have been running the same masthead for nearly a decade, and same forum setup and styles since 2006 (whew! don't want to go through that again!). If it works, why fix it, right? Well, there's always room for improvement, and Subsim once again migrated to a more powerful, fully managed server in 2012. We added a Chat Channel, nicer Overlord banners for heavy hitting supporters, rotating feature banners, Tapatalk support for mobile (thanks, McBeck), cleaned up our YouTube channel, and jolted our SUBSIM Facebook group back to life (thanks to Les Robertson for founding it). We improved our anti-spam process and techniques and brought new moderators onboard to manage it (Sailor Steve, Jimbuna, Herr-Berbunch). We upgraded our subscription services so that now supporters of the website have access to a special forum "Lord's Lounge" if they need assistance, and they can change their own custom avatars at will, plus have access to more downloads and photo album storage. Subsim, going strong, even after the Mayan collapse of society!

5. The LolBoot Thread & other Marathon Threads

We've seen a lot of tropes and memes at Subsim. Most originated elsewhere on the webosphere, but TLAM Strike casually gave birth to the LOLBoot meme. Clever Frau Kaleun quickly picked up on the awesomeness and suggested an LOlBoot thread.  This thread began in July 2011 and has been going full tilt ever since. Other marathon threads include The Four Word Story Game (27,000 posts), Funny Picture Thread (12,000 posts), Ok let's see women that you think are beautiful (3700 posts, most with pics of pretty girls, all PG rated--hey! We're guys, ok? Well, mostly.), and What are you doing now in real life, which highlights the daily lives of our community. Rock on, Garth!

4. Submarines in film

Nothing will ever replace Das Boot in the hearts of Subsim members, but you can't blame Hollywood for trying. But based on recent efforts, are they really trying? In May 2012 Universal Pictures heaved out Battleship, a military science fiction war film loosely inspired by the classic board game, directed by Peter Berg. Very loosely! It was met with withering criticism. The action was laudable and special effects superb, but had scenes where destroyers race around like go carts, a small group of actors play roles that unrealistically figure into every scene of the film, and paper-thin characters sank this unworthy film. Then, ABC launched a thriller/drama called Last Resort, where a boomer sub captain went rogue after defying what he thought were illegitimate orders from a illegitimate regime in Washington and went MAD and occupied a small tropical island. The actors in this far-fetched show were quality people and the production values were first rate. But again, real life physics and technology were sacrificed to the gods of action: boomers torpedoing underwater cliffs and escaping through the debris field, satellites that could see missile doors open on a sub at 200 feet, and radio comms that connect 5 different parties with nary a scratch of static. Last Resort was placed in a poor time slot, viewership declined steadily from the pilot on, and the show has been cancelled. Well, maybe there's hope that 2013's Phantom will revive the genre. We could use another Hunt for Red October.

3. Silent Hunter Online

After the beautiful and ambitious but not nearly completed Silent Hunter 5, many Subsim players were ready to lay lilies on the tomb of the longest running subsim franchise. If Ubisoft didn't follow up SH5 with support and complete the game, what makes one think they would be working on another version? Well, surprise, surprise, a new chapter in the SH saga was indeed underway, but it wasn't going to be the standard, single player game, nor is it being developed by Ubisoft Romania. Silent Hunter Online was announced in April. It is a browser-based game developed by the German studio Blue Byte and Austrian studio Sprong. The game would be free to play, and generate its revenue by offering upgrades and time-saving shortcuts to players who wanted to make small payments. Upon examination, the game shows promise. The graphics are not up to the standard set by SH5, but the campaign and game play seemed very reminiscent of Silent Hunter III. And the game is designed to create a club social atmosphere where players can join patrols with their friends and create wolfpacks. It's a different Silent Hunter, will it regain the glory of former chapters? Only time will tell.

2. Mobile & Mac subsims

The explosion of mobile gaming and apps has changed PC computing significantly. Zynga, even Facebook, have been taken offguard. People are spending more time gaming on their iPads, iPhones, Android phones, and Amazon Fires, and less time on a desktop. 2012 bore witness to a surge of naval games designed for the iPad, iPhone, and Android O/S. Sure, these games are typically arcadish, very light on the simulation aspects. To be honest, one cannot imagine plotting a TDC on a 3.5" screen. Still, the future is here, or will be very soon, and it appears there will be room for these subsims on the go. Best of the bunch include Silent Hunter: U-Boat Aces,  Battleship for Android,  Silent Hunter Mobile,  Silent Depth, and Pacific Fleet, among others. For what they are, fun and engaging "time-wasters", they sure earn the few dollars they cost when you're stuck in line at the DMV or post office.

1. Silent Hunter 5 Mod Men

At the top of our list of SUBSIM events in 2012: the Silent Hunter 5 mod makers. When SH5 was released, it was hobbled by a new and untested copy protection that required the player to be online to play. Sales were sluggish, despite the game's amazing graphics and new features such as full U-Boat access (something players clamored for over the years). But every silver lining has a cloud and this edition of Silent Hunter was doomed to a stunted life by being released incomplete and not receiving the traditional Ubisoft support of releasing patches to improve/finish the game. That's when the talent and hard work of the Subsim community stepped in to pump up the game with mods and upgrades. Driven by little more than the love of a good subsim, many Subsim members dug into the game files, tweaked, reengineered, and redesigned the game to flesh it out. What was initially and sad premise has become a glowing prospect. Some notable mods and their creators include My MegaMod by pedrobas, TheDarkWraith's Mega Mod, Environmental MOD by W_clear, MightyFine Crew Mod by Heretic (over 21,000 downloads to date), Open Horizons II by Trevally, Zedi, etheberge's Accurate German Flags and No Damn Bubbles, No Damn Halo Mod.   The game may have fallen short but the community and its love of historical submarine simulations shored it up.

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