Why do you play Silent Hunter?

[Boris]

G'day fellow Silent Hunter players,

I need to conceptualise a study for a university assignment and need your help.

Basically, all I would like is for you to explain why you play Silent Hunter 3/4.
What are your motivations, what do you get out of it, and anything else that pops into mind.
Also, do you tend to play alone, with others, online etc.

Don't take these questions too rigidly, just write generally whatever you think about why you like playing Silent Hunter games.

The main thing is, why do you play Silent Hunter?

I hope you guys can help, the more responses I get, the better.

Cheers

Boris

[clayp]

To take care of the hours of the day and kill the enemy..

[Raptor1]

I'm a Naval History freak (among other things), i know pretty much everything there is to know about Naval History in the last 150 years, and currently SH4 is the game that recreates WWII Naval combat the best way (atleast that i've seen)

Game-play wise, It's the dynamic campaign, which is truly awesome...

[Torplexed]

It's a combination of a lot of things. Fascination with fighting ships and naval history. The ability to operate deep behind enemy lines alone, without being tied to a squadron or task force. The stealth factor. I've also always been taken by the unique and somewhat flawed hybrid nature of diesel subs. Not quite a complete submarine, not quite a surface ship.
It's also a pleasant diversion from mundane real life.

[tennozan]

History, the asthetics of the ocean, era and cause involved. Probably the entertainment of the cat and mouse chase of it all.

[maerean_m]

It's fun

and a nice change from the likes of Bioshock, Portal, NFS and Freecell.

[Boris]

Originally Posted by maerean_m

It's fun

and a nice change from the likes of Bioshock, Portal, NFS and Freecell.

On that... (@ everyone) what does Silent Hunter give you that other games can't? ... and where would you rank SH among all the games you play?

Thanks for the answers so far guys

[DeepIron]

I play SH4 as a Fleet boat skipper, not U-boats, because I've had a life-long facination with the US Submarine Service in WWII. I've studied and read extensively on the subject and its history for over 35 years. Currently, SH4 is the only subsim I can purchase that allows me to "experience" that history at least partially.

BTW, FWIW, I'm a "hardcore" PTO player and I'm interested more in historical accuracy than eye-candy...

[Raptor1]

I already answered what SH gives me that other games don't in my last post

As for how i rank it, currently it's on the top of my "Naval Simulation" category (I can't really compare it to Portal, Bioshock and all the rest of them because it's an entirely different game)

[Deerdiver]

It's a great Sim. It has stimulated an interest in WWII naval history that I never had before. Always been interested in things nautical as my Uncle was in the Royal Navy and I always thought he was just the bees knees. When I was just a wee boy, he took me down to the Submarine Museum at HMS Dolphin. Great stuff. I am even off to Truk lagoon in 2010 to dive the wrecks of the Japanese fleet so I can combine my love of scuba diving and link it into the game. Not many computer games you can do that with!

[Rockin Robbins]

As a teenager, I read Edward Beach's "Run Silent Run Deep" trilogy, was fascinated and just put them down. I got a glimpse into a world I would never get to inhabit.

Ten years later I was married, and my wife's grandfather was a crewmember aboard the USS Kraken. He never talked about his own personal role on the sub except that he was almost ten years older than all his crew except for the officers. But he made up for his reluctance to talk about himself by his enthusiasm for the US submarine program in WWII.

He was an active member of the US Submarine Veterans of WWII and always sent me their newsletters, from which I learned much of what I know. That explains why my viewpoint is often in conflict with history books. The newsletters gave me a taste for primary sources. When Warren Watkins passed, he willed me his entire library of submarine books, most of them signed by the authors, predominately books written by the sub sailors who fought in the war.

An important part of his library was a collection of books on German U-Boats, the character of which made it crystal clear that the American submariner looked at U-Boat sailors as brothers worthy of respect and admiration. "Iron Coffins" began my fascination with the U-Boats and "U-505" by Daniel Gallery was saturated with the respect and admiration of American seamen toward the U-Boat organization.

So I had no resistance to picking up Silent Hunter 3 last October, especially since it was on sale. I learned more about U-Boats from the game than I had learned about in the books just in the limited time I played SH3.

But then SH4 hit the market and stuck the chord: maybe I could command the USS Kraken and maybe she could have a career a bit more in keeping with the spirit of the sailors aboard her than the lackluster career begging for targets that Kraken actually had by virtue of joining the war too late.

SH4 delivered that and more. Thanks to a collection of bits and bytes, I've been able to experience some of the choices, face some of the hardships and feel some of the frustration and joy that the real heroes of WWII faced. Although my life didn't depend on the outcome, I've experienced the frustration of dud after dud, circle running torpedoes, perfect solutions that miss, perfect approaches ruined by a too-alert airplane, great explosions, ships that refused to sink with four hits, fuel leaks and hull damage. I've had both periscope heads turned into scrap metal during a depth charge attack and had to return 3700 miles back to Pearl Harbor blind, depending only on my radar to keep me safe.

It is only a game, but it remains the best way to experience some commonality with the men who fought. As such the purpose of playing SH4 is to honor these heroes by experiencing their lives in as realistic a way as possible.

Down scope!

[THE_MASK]

I dont really play it , i just look at files .

[Kirby_TFS]

I used to fly several different types of plane sims, and fps army combat sims. Playing onnliine usually included playing with people that used cheats. Got really tired of playing against the aim bots etc. It got so bad that I would only play the scripted games and quite playing online. But that got boreing after you've beat the game several times on all the levels. Then I bought SH3 and loved the dynamic feature of the game. No cheating just you againt the enemy, and not fast paced. I guess one of the features I love the most about both SH3 and SH4 is all the mods that are available. They are not created as a cheat, but as an enhancement to the game and to improve on the great games that UBI gave us. You know it is this community that keeps me comming back to read the fourms and watch for mods each and every day. What a great bunch of guys.

[Digital_Trucker]

Some of my first games were sims of one sort or another. Mostly helo and sub sims. While flight simulators (and shoot 'em ups and RTSs) require good reflexes and quick action, sub sims are a thinking man's game. Not that you don't have to make quick decisions, mind you, it's just a different kind of process. I enjoy the thrill of the chase and even the frustration of the SNAFUs. And, not least of all, by any means, the comraderie of the folks that tend to gravitate to sub sims is a major factor.

[Gezoes]

Originally Posted by sober

I dont really play it , i just look at files .

:rotfl:

Keep at it