Chickenboy
Posts: 24520
Joined: 6/29/2002 From: San Antonio, TX Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Bullwinkle58 quote:
ORIGINAL: warspite1 Interesting point of view Bullwinkle. Personally I do not have a problem playing any side. My preference for any given game only tends to depend on what I am reading up on at the time, but I certainly have no problem playing Japanese and trying to sink RN ships, or playing Germans and trying to kick Winnie off the continent of Europe. After all these are only war-games. I don't claim to be consistent. Once upon a time I trained to help kill tens of millions of people in an hour's time. I would have helped launch those missiles if ordered. But I don't hunt, and I don't fish. Killing for pleasure seems a strange pastime to me. I can play chess and feel no animosity to the black or white. I don't feel bad if I play as Carthage and beat up on Romans. Even Napoleonic war scenarios have an historical argument on both sides for me. But as I get closer to home things change. I really don't enjoy playing the CSA, even though my closest thing to a hometown is in Virginia. And I have significant problems playing the Nazis or communist sides, including China or North Korea or North Vietnam. The latter two are more personal and real in my family and experience. Lately there's been a fairly big scuffle here in the USA over a new first person shooter game where the player can play the Taliban side. Huge media attention, retailers refusing to stock, calls for boycotts, etc. I guess I just push that "too soon" line back a bit farther than the average bear. Edit: I'm going to exit this thread here as I don't want it to turn political. No intention of that on my part. If nothing else, I think it's an interesting topic for wargame developers to consider when doing sales volume projections. Alfred's thoughts on geography are probably more useful than my inner decision making process. I'd be interested in seeing the sales skews for WitE broken out by nation. I hear 'ya, moose. I'm mostly there too. You give excellent personal examples that I can appreciate too. My strongest feelings along those lines pertain to the CSA personally. Haven't, can't, won't ever be able to stomach playing them. I have family and friends from both North and South that are still sensitive to the ACW. For many of them, this topic is still raw. Heck, my MIL's (unofficial) Kentucky HS motto was that "The South will Rise Again". I kid you not. Do I have 'issues'? Perhaps so, but there it is. Probably would never, for pleasure, play the VC, NVA, DPRK or Chinese sides, as these combatants are still 'too soon' IMO. Taliban? Same story, moreso. For all of my time with UV and WiTP, I only played the Allies (against the AI). My first go around with AE was as Allies against the AI too. Eventually, when this was no longer challenging, I needed to go sniffing around for a PBEM partner. My reasons since then for playing exclusively as the IJ are because of the sheer gameplay choices. IJ PBEM partners are (still) in short supply, Allied PBEM partners are commonplace. Thus far, I'm enjoying it very much. If I may suggest: I try to embrace the IJ 'dark side', but in a comical way, if that makes sense. My worthy opponents are *always* gaijin Yankee dogs. I tell 'em what the emperor ate for breakfast. I make fun of Eleanor Roosevelt's overbite. If I had to dwell on the IRL dark side to the IJ, I wouldn't enjoy myself at all, so I steer away from that with overstated humor / intentionally lopsided viewpoint and focus on gameplay. I try not to think about playing 'the bad guys'. Eventually, it gets easier. As for WiTP:AE v. WITE: The Eastern front is interesting from military history perspective, to be sure. However, WITE is unlikely to be able to produce the same combined arms rock-paper-scissors game that is AE. I've played other war games on other fronts or other wars. When I say that AE is unique, I'm not just whistling Dixie here. I'm totally p*wned by this game and have no time for others.
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