What is it about World War 2 that captivates us so? Sixty-six years after it ended we still can’t get enough information about the greatest global war of all-time. Maybe it’s because so many of us had relatives who fought in that war. Maybe it’s because WWII seemed to clearly define in our minds good vs. evil. Whatever the reason, online games like Aces High which are based in part on World War II are as popular as ever. Let’s take a look at a brief outline of the war and then discuss the online simulations a bit more.
As any school kid knows, WWII officially began September 1, 1939 when Germany invaded Poland. The war officially ended on August 15, 1945 when Japan surrendered. In-between those dates over 100 million military personnel took part in the war which spanned the world and accounted for approximately 70 million fatalities. No other war in the history of mankind even comes close to the destruction that occurred during the Second World War and hopefully we will never again witness anything like it.
The United States entered the war on December 7, 1941, the Day of Infamy, when Japan attacked the U.S. Naval Fleet in Pearl Harbor. Our participation in the Battle of Midway, Guadalcanal, the Invasion of Sicily and Normandy, and countless other battles has etched a permanent place in our minds and hearts. Stories of heroism in aerial dogfights and ground and naval attacks have been told to most of us by our grandparents, and a sense of duty and honor flows through our veins as Americans.
Online WWII games do not in any way glorify war but they do give a player some sense of what it must be like during combat. The instantaneous decisions that must be made, the strategy involved in any battle plan, the movement of support troops in an offensive, they are all available and quite realistic in any quality combat simulation. In the wildly popular online simulation game Aces High players coordinate land assault vehicles, ships, and planes in competition against gamers from around the world. The scenarios keep changing, the variables keep changing, and decisions must be made literally and figuratively on the fly during the competitions.
So what is it about World War 2 that captivates us so? Whatever it is, online combat simulations seem to reflect that captivation and fascination as players experience in their own way what combat must be like.
