DEFCON (PC)

[GamerDad]

Simon Windmill's DEFCON (PC) article - http://www.gamerdad.com/detail.cfm?itemID=3376

[txa1265]

I like the looks of this, still haven't picked it up (OK, that consists of clicking on 'buy now' in Steam) ... but the interesting thing is the whole thought of nuclear war ... that was very different nearly 25 years ago when the movie War Games came out ...

[Tater-Dad]

... but the interesting thing is the whole thought of nuclear war ... that was very different nearly 25 years ago when the movie War Games came out ...

is it really? Kim Jong Il? Tehran next...India, Pakistan, Former Soviet Union...our own wildcard in the oval office? I live inside the blast radius of a military base. Nuclear war is still very real & terrifying.

[txa1265]

I hate to call you 'too young to remember', but the MAD of the 80's presented a world in which *everyone* was glued to 'The Day After' as possible reality based on the massive escalation of superpowers.

Now we have wackos. A bunch of crazies with 'little man syndrome' - these scenarios existed back then, and were looked upon the same way - some crazy gets a warhead and explodes it. And there are a million potential scenarios of how that plays out.

Whereas in the 80's there were two - either us vs. the soviets, or us vs. the chinese and the world ends.

And despite what many neo-cons seem to want, I don't see the nuke coming from us any time soon.

[SiW]

My last line in the Kid Factor might seem cute, but it holds some truth - like many of my friends, I was at times actively worried about a nuclear holocaust. Nowadays, there's still a worry, but it's down there in the depths of my mind, along with global warming and running out of fossil fuels.

I think that's what makes DEFCON so interesting. It is straight out of the 80s, there's no mistaking that, but it doesn't try and simulate the geopolitical boundaries of that time, nor current events.

[txa1265]

Nowadays, there's still a worry, but it's down there in the depths of my mind, along with global warming and running out of fossil fuels.

I worry a heck of a lot more about the possibility that my little boy who just hit 'double digits' could be drafted into some inane war like we have right now to die for nothing on the other side of the world ...

[SiW]

I worry a heck of a lot more about the possibility that my little boy who just hit 'double digits' could be drafted into some inane war like we have right now to die for nothing on the other side of the world ...

Oh, Sam has already decided we're leaving the country if the possibility of him being drafted ever arises.

[txa1265]

Random aside ... my father in law died a couple of weeks ago. My wife and her sister basically don't talk anymore, so we haven't seen her kids since a presumed 'last supper' for him three years ago, and quite a few years before that.

So at the funeral, he had been a field medic in Korea so he got the full military treatment - but looking at the soldiers and then at our neice and nephew ... she is a freshman in college and he's a high school senior ... so they are almost the same age as the young soldiers doing the honor guard. Her nephew is in the ROTC program, too ... it is kind of scary ...

[momGamer]

I'm sorry to hear about your father-in-law, Mike.

My eldest son is signed up for the Army. For Airborne Infantry. He passed his PT tests last week. Thanks to some bureaucratic genius moves he probably won't be leaving until after the Holidays, but we're a raised right hand and some solemn words away from this.

I don't handle this subject too gracefully right now, I'm afraid. Can we stick with flashbacks of nuclear drills in school and that scene in The Day After with that house being blown to smithereens? It seems safer to me right now. Please.

[Tater-Dad]

*ducks & covers w/ wet newspapers*


I remember the threat of mutually assured destruction, as my dad was so quick to point out when me and several classmates were chanting Nuke'em as Saddam invaded Kuwait.


I didn't pay much attention to the news. I just new if we shot first, we melted last.

[txa1265]

I'm sorry to hear about your father-in-law, Mike.

I thought I had mentioned it somewhere here ... that was why I was gone for a week or so ...

Can we stick with flashbacks of nuclear drills in school and that scene in The Day After with that house being blown to smithereens?

Have any of you watched War Games recently?

[SiW]

Colleen, I thought about your son before I made the remark about Sam wanting to avoid the draft - as I wasn't making a joke and he actually means it, I didn't think it would be insensitive to mention.

I hate war. I really do. Regulars know that this extends to most war games too. I think the reason why I like DEFCON is that it provides me with that level of abstraction but plays on the fact that I still think of every life extinguished when those missiles find their target.

[txa1265]

I thought we weren't talking about this

The cast in War Games was really cool:
Matthew Broderick - David
Dabney Coleman - McKittrick
John Wood - Falken
Ally Sheedy - Jennifer
Barry Corbin - Gen. Beringer

...what has happened to Ally Sheedy since the 80's? And it is interesting that until recently the first thought that entered my kids' minds when they saw Matthew Broderick was 'Inspector Gadget' ... now it is Bueller ... Ferris Bueller ...

[momGamer]

It's all right Simon. I'm sorry I said it.

As far as Ally Sheedy, she seems to be working pretty steadily. See http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000639/

They all seem to be pretty busy, just not in big blockbusters.

[txa1265]

They all seem to be pretty busy, just not in big blockbusters.

Oh I know that - that stuff isn't a big deal for me - I'm often more interested in 'the rest of the story' - some people really do focus on their families, explore stage or other options, and so on.

I loved Dabney Coleman in 'Cloak & Dagger'