Gratified for "grown-ups"

[zygoma]

Hope I've posted this in the right place.....
After perusing the forum for a few months now again (I joined in 2006 when I first got SH3, but never posted).....it's pleasing to see that this sim (dare I call it a game? I think not!) is populated with a fair mix of students and .... ummm.... more "seasoned" enthusiasts. I just last month turned the same age as the B-52 bomber, and yet I see there are at least a couple of Silent Hunters older than I am.
In a era where most simmers/gamers seem to be thinking of what they want to be when they grow up, or get out of high school/secondary school, I'm enthused to see that SH3 (and its descendents, I suppose) has attracted a great number of folks who are serious about the ga......err, simulation.
Perhaps I'm projecting a bit, but I think it's great that people with a lifetime of experience in related disciplines (either computers or genuine military service and/or combat) contribute to making this such a great community. All of this makes for a more immersive and accurate sim. I don't know if Ubisoft envisioned the kind of loyal following it fomented with the publication of this series, but I'm grateful for their existence.
It's even more gratifying for me to see this kind of age spread in SH3 because I've been involved in Eve Online for a few years now. Unlike a U-boat simulation, it's impossible to visit a Caldari "Raven" battleship in a museum and see the shield boosters and microwarp drives installed in its "mid slots" and the Siege Missile (torpedo) or Cruise Missile Launchers in its high slots, to see how well the game mimics "real life" spaceships.
I alreay know that, at 60 years old, I'm the oldest player by about 15 years in my player corporation (think of it as a "guild" for WoW folks).
I went to Reykjavik in March 2011 for the Eve Fanfest. Out of the few thousand attendees, I was pretty easily the oldest guy in the room during the large presentations and small workshops.
It was amusing to be the subject of so many fans' photos as I wandered around. I can imagine the people going home and saying, "...And there was this old dude there, he was in the Player-vs.-Player competition!" when they shared their pictures.
It's very nice to feel not so out-of-place here.
Are there ever any "real world" gatherings of Silent Hunter fans? I hope to get to see a diesel electric boat again one day. The last one was the USS Ling, now in New Jersey, but at the Brooklyn (New York) Navy Shipyard when I toured it with my Boy Scout troop around 1967 or so.
And I've seen the pictures that one of our Kaleuns posted about a U-boat in Finland. Any others still intact enough to be on display anywhere?
Thank you to all who help, interact, instruct, improve, mod, etc., this game and participate in the forums.
My two careers have been in commercial two-way communications maintenance, and public safety (firefighter-paramedic, then Alaska State Troopers). I may not be a better boat's captain now than I was when I got Motorboating merit badge, but I've learned a lot about things I have no experience with.
Thank you to all for making this better.
-- Zygoma -- (perpetual n00b)

[Herr-Berbunch]

The age range here is great, I think there are more than a couple older than you - I sit nicely in the middle (although the wrong side).

There are meets organised but to do it properly takes a lot of effort. Occasionally there are smaller gatherings and I think Gimpy117 was talking very recently about a such a meet around Chicago (??? I think???) in the coming months.

There are a few U-boats around the world, the best examples, I think, are at Chicago and Laboe (Germany).

I'm envious of your trip to Iceland, but not for your reason for going.

Have fun,

Herr-B

[Laufen zum Ziel]

Got you beat. My mother was nursing me when the news of the Pearl Harbor attack came over the radio

I am probably the oldest player in the forum.

[andwii]

Originally Posted by Laufen zum Ziel

Got you beat. My mother was nursing me when the news of the Pearl Harbor attack came over the radio

I am probably the oldest player in the forum.

you win

I am probably one of the youngest around here, just last month turned 18. Yet I feel I was born in the way wrong generation. You ask a random teenager what a simulator is, they will either not know or call it a game. lol

[u crank]

Originally Posted by Laufen zum Ziel

Got you beat. My mother was nursing me when the news of the Pearl Harbor attack came over the radio

I am probably the oldest player in the forum.

Hey Laufen zum Ziel, you're making me feel like a teenager, a 61 year old one.
I think it's great that there are sims like the SH series that appeal to a broad range of ages. It's a great way to stay young.

And of course hats off to Subsim for having the same appeal to young people
and old geezers alike.They got to be doing something right.

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by zygoma

Are there ever any "real world" gatherings of Silent Hunter fans?

There have been many. The first was in 2000, London in 2003, Houston in 2004, Amsterdam in 2005, Houston again in 2008, Copenhagen in 2009 and the minimeet in New England in 2010 ("mini" only because Neal wasn't there).

The only one I attended was Houston 2008. You can read about that one here:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=143186

[Boompus]

I wonder how old the oldest Kaleun was in active duty, and if there's still one or more alive...

[andwii]

Originally Posted by Boompus

I wonder how old the oldest Kaleun was in active duty, and if there's still one or more alive...

I think there are still a few around I think Reinhard Hardegen is still alive not sure though, and the oldest I can think of would be Bruno Mahn who was 55.
http://uboat.net/men/commanders/youngest-oldest.html

[Herr-Berbunch]

Originally Posted by andwii

just last month turned 18. Yet I feel I was born in the way wrong generation. You ask a random teenager what a simulator is, they will either not know or call it a game.l

That's the beauty of SUBSIM, where else can 18 year-olds and 60, 61, and 62 year-olds hang out and shoot the breeze on a daily basis - not forgetting the odd 37 year-old. It is indeed, I believe, mostly due to the running of the site - there's no (or not much) 'I know the answers, I'm not going to tell you the answers - find out for yourself' that appear on many other fora. Ask a question and get a honest and decent response, everybody here seems to know that they, too, once didn't know it all. Obviously the type of games and the community help, but that guiding hand that has created this beast should get a lot of the credit.

[Telemon]

Greetings,

Who's the oldest in the forum?

I'm throwing down the gaunlet!

Born 1932 and wil be 80 in August.

Incidently I celebrated my Diamond wedding anniversary on the 5th of this month.

Get some in laddie!!

[Jimbuna]

@zygoma

This community is definitely amongst the best you'll find on the internet and I put that down to the community members themselves as well as Neal the site owner.

SINK EM ALL MATEY

Congratulations Telemon

My mother and father enjoyed sixty five years of marriage until my father passed away on the anniversary of the Pearl Harbour attack in 2009.

[RConch]

Originally Posted by Telemon

Greetings,

Who's the oldest in the forum?

I'm throwing down the gaunlet!

Born 1932 and wil be 80 in August.

Incidently I celebrated my Diamond wedding anniversary on the 5th of this month.

Get some in laddie!!

Super fantastic!
I celebrate my 28th anniversery tomorrow and I am 62 years young. I intend to skipper till the day I die, can't say that about any other game. Thinking is what counts in this, not youthful reflexes.
Not too many still come here from when I joined in 2002.
But each group of skippers always bring something to the table.
Great site and a great simulation.
This has always been a friendly, flame free place to visit.

[VONHARRIS]

@Telemon and Rconch

Sirs ,
Congartulations on your long lived marriages.

I hope that I will be able to celebrate as well.
I am 40 years old and married for 10 years.

I admire your courage to be able to play.
Happy hunting!

[Frenchy849]

I think I'm the youngest here,13 years old.
I discovered simulators when I saw my dad playing some,and then I asked him if I could try.
I preferred CFS3,but then I slowly switched to IL2:Sturmovik.
I discovered SH3 when my dad discovered it when he was browsing through old games,at first it was too complicated for me but a few years later I dug it up again and actually tried to understand it,even without a manual,and then I discovered GWX and this site.
As you can see,I have the luck to live where 97% of the U-boat aces have been stationed,and I go drink with my parents next to Doenitz's HQ which is opened some times and acts as a museum.
The U-boat bunkers are still in good conditions,you can still see the blockships and we put a decommisioned Diesel-electric sub called the "Flore" next to them,and we can visit it once in a while as well as a museum about U-boat warfare,actually there are 2,one has a sea mine and a torpedo in front of it and is pretty boring aside from where they trained our sailors for evacuating a sub,and the other is really epic and I also touched an 88mm gun that we always use to blast merchant shipping in early war,or was it another torpedo? I don't really remember that.

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by Telemon

Greetings,

Who's the oldest in the forum?

I'm throwing down the gaunlet!

Born 1932 and wil be 80 in August.

Incidently I celebrated my Diamond wedding anniversary on the 5th of this month.

Get some in laddie!!

I think we may have a winnah! There have been members in their 70s, but I haven't seen any of them post lately. You're only four years younger than my dad. Way to go, and may you have many more years.

Oh, and congratulation to your wife for putting up with you all those years.