playing war

[Schöneboom]

Guten Tag, ichso,

I regard SH3 as more than an intellectual exercise -- yes, there is real satisfaction in doing something difficult, like manual torpedo shooting. But at its best, one can experience genuine emotions, like when watching a very good film (naturlich, you know which one I mean). This includes conflicted emotions: the pleasure of successful patrols & advancing one's career, vs. the dismay at the waste of life on both sides, for a government that one does not admire.

My Kaleun-persona is not just a dumb tool of the Reich; in idle moments I think about the tragic turn of events from the perspective of a German who is not eager to take on the whole world. Having travelled widely in Europe, this Kaleun is familiar with the neighbors, & has no quarrel with them personally. When possible (1939-41) I try to stop to help the survivors, & feel regret when a ship sinks too quickly for her crew to escape. This feeling is soon replaced by the desire to just survive against an enemy that grows ever more powerful. A complex experience, to be in this position, eh?

I suspect it may be easier for non-Germans to do this role-playing -- since we have not been raised with all the emotional baggage of war guilt. Whether one wishes to apply the lessons of the past to the present day or not, that's up to the individual, nicht wahr?

Mach's gut,

[ichso]

This includes conflicted emotions: the pleasure of successful patrols & advancing one's career, vs. the dismay at the waste of life on both sides, for a government that one does not admire.

This feeling is soon replaced by the desire to just survive against an enemy that grows ever more powerful. A complex experience, to be in this position, eh?

Pointed that out very well. Bringing home your own crew when it gets harder and harder is the challenge I'm looking for when playing SH3. Although not yet as I am still in 1940 in my current career.
It's just nice to read that other players have the same thoughts about sinking ships instead of just rampaging over an ocean and shooting at some big swimming steel chunks from time to time
Bit this would in fact be the exact opposite extreme, and such people wouldn't be the ones populating the mass at a board like subsim's.

[bigboywooly]

Well I may differ from some due to modding but in the course of GWX I have had to learn all I can about the Black Sea operations\Kreigsmarine surface units\Convoy tactics and routes\Airforces from WW2 and countries at war
The list is endless

Even before working on GWX questions asked in here led to searching the web for one thing which led to another and another

I probably have over 200 bookmarks on my comp from all sorts of things related to WW2

You say you couldnt learn much about Europe Ichso as you come from there
Well you will be surprised
I was
Who owned what towns\regions at what times etc
All very interesting and still learning today

Still thats only if you want to know more
I do\did which only came from playing SH3 and being a member here

No other game I have played has led me to find out so much from the past for myself

Meh

[ichso]

That you can learn much about a specific war in a sim game related to that war is not much of a surprise
I've too learned many things about WW2 playing such games, be it at the Atlantic, Pacific or somewhere in Russia.
My point was more about the morale question behind this. A game like SH simulates the war itself, but nothing surrounding it. The civil population of concerned countries for example, or what lead to the war and could it had been prevented.

There are some things I learned about that just because of SH3. Some time ago I stumbled upon an article what it meant to the french people living in the towns where the germans built there submarine bunkers. That many people died through allied bombardment just because of those bunkers.

I just wanted to discuss a little where there are more people thinking of stuff like that while playing SH3. These are things that no war sim teaches you.
If you're interested in submarine warfare in WW2, the whole SH series is the right place for you, that's right. And this is why I own the first 3 games of it.
And by saying that: thx for the whole GWX thing btw

[Hitman]

ichso (Das heisst ich-so, also mich-selbst, oder? Mein deutsch ist leider ein bisschen eingeröstet :hmm: )

I have left this thread going on because it has been a very civil and mature discussion, and you asked it very politely, but I also would like to point out that the thread you have linked to was not casually closed. Closing it was a purposeful action taken by a moderator at a certain point, because that topic has been more or less discussed here many times before, and at certain moments some people get angry and the need to draw an end line appears. Right now there is a similar thread going on in the general topics forum, started in the SH4 forum and moved there by moderators.

This thread here has kept the close relation with SH3 that is required for such a topic to stay here at this forum, but I want to friendly remind that if things get out of that path and steer towards more general discussion, I will move the thread to the "General Topics" forum.

Thanks

[Foghladh_mhara]

This game is very much like a busmans holiday for me.

I work as a civil engineer on roads and major excavations and spend a lot of my time working out angles, chords and tangents. I hated trigonometry as a kid and really wasn't much good at it. Then on my first job after college I spent 5 months sitting in an office on a building site converting endless lists of grid co-ordinates down into whole circle bearings and distances relative to the co-ordinated points we had on site. Mind numbingly boring but it certainly improved my grasp of trigonometry and geometry

Dont know why I spend all day bitchin' about having to do this stuff for work and then when the kids are in bed jump on to the computer and do it for fun:hmm:

Maybe because in GWX land if theres a loud bang, a plume of smoke and a mushroom cloud of fire it means I've done something right whereas at work the same result means I'm very, very wrong