We are a Peculiar People

[Canoerebel]

We AE players know that our familiarity with the Pacific War and Pacific geography is specialized (exceedingly so for some of the prodigies). For many of us, our knowledge is confined to the game and the community, where it is the norm and therefore unremarkable. Only occasionally does our mania become available to those outside the community, as when some unknown city or island comes up in discussion and we sheepishly (or bodly, depending on one's personality) reveal it's location. Places like Kalgoorlie, Moulmein and Morotai.

Do you recall any instances in which you're "secret life as an AE player or WWII afficionado" has spilled over into regular life?

This happened to me a few days ago, when my wife and I joined seven other adults for dinner and some word games. One game was a challenge to answer a series of 20 questions, each answer to be a word repeated, like "boo boo" or "Walla Walla."

Question five: "A gun."

My answer: "Pom pom."

This was correct with the AE universe, of course, but the answer everybody else gave: "bee bee."

[geofflambert]

'Peculiar people'? I am not a 'people' (I'll admit to being peculiar, though). Too bad there wasn't an answer Pago Pago where you could have demonstrated the correct pronunciation. Now that I'm playing the Japanese, it does seem to me that the "Nates" are indeed armed with BB guns. Some of my planes seem to go Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

[morganbj]

Well, either is technically correct. I think I would have said A.A. or ack ack, myself.

No, we are not peculiar. We are informed.

[Grfin Zeppelin]

Well for some reason people are always surprised. A few months ago someone said that the war in the pacific changed when the Japanese lost 5 carriers at Hawaii (he meant that Midways thingie).... I took a deep breath and was going into full nerd mode ending with something like Shokaku and Zuikaku couldnt join that battle because.....ya kwow the jazz.

[Cribtop]

Many, many times have I gotten the "here he goes into pontification mode" eye roll. I'm a researcher, and my co-workers call me a geek. However, one grad student knows as much as I do. A rarity for that generation. We have had many long talks about PTO issues, armaments, etc.

[Chickenboy]

Sure. I'll bite. I'm a geekwad-dorkwad hybrid too. I immediately recognized the islands from the recent Cyclone, having relatively recently been on one of them personally. I regularly tell my wife "I know where that is" when reading about seemingly obscure PTO locations that come up in the news.

[John 3rd]

I recently heard of some strange island named 'Savaii' and KNEW exactly where it was. HAH! Take that Bainbridge Scholars...

Happy Holiday CR!

[JeffroK]

My Storeman is from Baguio.

He loves that I know where it is, we often have talks about the differing views of things that we learnt at school.

Wargaming & Stamp Collection has led me into learning about the World, luckily in later years I have been able to visit a few of these places.

[Yaab]

Baguio is not on the stock map. How do you know its location?

[CT Grognard]

Perhaps because Baguio City was the location of General Yamashita's surrender in 1945?

[Yaab]

Right, I was thinking strictly in game-lore terms.

[Chris21wen]

ORIGINAL: JeffK



Wargaming & Stamp Collection has led me into learning about the World, luckily in later years I have been able to visit a few of these places.

And here I was thinking I was the only person with these two interests. Next you'll be telling me you have an interest in Bird (feathered varity) watching.

[tocaff]

Yep, it happens all to often that a remote place is mentioned in the news and I tell my wife where it is. I was always good with geography, but this game sharpened it for much of the globe.

I was a history major and love it when somebody starts talking about WWII, especially the PTO, and their "facts" are all wrong. Sometimes I hear my wife's voice saying "Down Boy" to me.

[wdolson]

When my SO and I are watching TV and they touch on some subject related to geography and/or WW II and they get it wrong, she hears me take in a breath and says, "they got it wrong didn't they?" She's pretty quick to do the same about anything legal they get wrong on TV (she's a lawyer), so I don't feel bad about doing it.

A few years back my SO and I were in the bank and I asked the manager about her accent. She sounded like a Kiwi, but she looked like a Pacific Islander. I figured she was probably Maori. It turned out she was from Suva Island. She was impressed I knew where it was. My SO could tell I was about to geek out and changed the subject.

Lately I've also been reading a book about two people who spent a year on Tuin Island in the Torres Strait in the 1980s. The book has some mention of some other landmarks WitP gamers would know like Horn Island. Tuin itself is one of the little black dots on the map a little north of Horn Island.

Bill

[berto]

ORIGINAL: CT Grognard

Perhaps because Baguio City was the location of General Yamashita's surrender in 1945?

Yes, and no.

Yamashita really surrendered first at Kiangan, Ifugao. See here. He was afterward taken to Baguio for the formal surrender ceremonies.

How do I know this? Our adopted son's mother is from Kiangan (his father is my wife's brother), and we have visited the place several times. Been inside the Yamashita Shrine too.

Not strictly speaking in terms of the game, how's that for geekiness? [:'(] [8|]

[Blind Sniper]

You are all a bunch of nerds! [:D]

Speaking about our hobby is almost impossible for me, no one is willing to listen someone that voluntary play this kind of games [>:]
I.e: when I say that my best board-wargame is Advanced Squad Leader then 90.0% of the people don't know what I'm saying, 9.0% (wargamers like me) think that I'm a nerd-geek combo and the rest 1.0% say cool! Unfortunately almost no one from 1.0% is close to me [:(]

I guess WitP is the same for pc-wargame.

[Coach Zuck]

I coach High School Football and I have a player from the Philippines.
When I asked him what city he didnlt think I'd know. Then when I asked which island he told me Mindanao.
"Oh the Southern most island"
"Coach you really know about the Philippines. Do you know where Davao is, that's where i was from"
"Of course I know where Davao is, biggest city on the south of the island"
"Damn Coach, you know everything"

[:D][:D][:D][:D][:D][:D]

[nashvillen]

It comes in handy sometimes. When the last Typhoon tore through the Philippines, my mother, who works with some international relief agencies as a volunteer was telling me about a letter they got requesting aid from someone in the Philippines. I asked her where he was writing from. She said some island named Mindanao and a place called Davao. She told me about his story about his neighborhood was a shambles and his church was torn down, etc.

This is where I combined several of my interests, Geographic Information Systems, Weather, and WitP:AE. I used WitP:AE to know where the guy was writing from, Weather to know a Typhoon does damage in a relatively narrow path of the catastrophic variety, and GIS to look up the path and measure its distance from Tocloban to Davao.

Once they challenged him on his claims he just went away. My mother and her agency were impressed. [:D]

[Lokasenna]

A friend of mine used to play PTO2 in tandem with me, way back in the day (10-15 years ago). We learned a lot about Pacific Ocean geography from it, as well as about IJN ship classes, even if it's nowhere near as detailed as WITP. He played a little WITP for a while but doesn't have the patience to play for real, which is too bad because then I'd have a PBEM opponent for life. In any case, he knows just enough about the game that he enjoys being kept informed of my progress in games. So that's fun.

Doesn't come up often in conversation, but sometimes I'm able to say "No, that's closer to Australia" or "Know where Fiji or Tahiti is? X is Y from there", etc. Used to happen more often when I conversed with Australians over a MUD.

[nashvillen]

I love meeting people from the Pacific regions for the same reasons Coach and Lokasenna have mentioned. You make an instant connection to them if you even know a little about where they are from. You can then expand on that and learn even more about the geography of the region that person is from.