192: Halo on the High Seas

J.D. Levite

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Mar 9, 2009
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Halo on the High Seas

It can be hard to get your multiplayer fix when you're constantly on the move - especially when you're hundreds of miles from the nearest patch of dry land. J.D. Levite details the challenges of gaming in the Navy, and why it's worth the effort anyway.

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Solipsis

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Sep 24, 2008
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There are very few things in life that I enjoy as much as Rome: Total War before bed!

In all seriousness, my youngest brother (the only hardcore multiplayer gamer in a family of fanatics) is currently studying at a maritime academy to join the merchant marine. I know one of the things that makes him sad about his chosen profession is giving up access to online games for long periods of time while he'll be at sea -- like all summer this year. Maybe I'll point him toward this article for a few hints on surviving the droughts!
 

JojjeE

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Apr 21, 2008
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That sounds great, if I ever go out in the Navy I'll be sure to bring my Xbox and set up tournament sign-up sheets in the mess hall
 

Brotherofwill

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Jan 25, 2009
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Clemenstation said:
Soldiers play war games in their free time... surprise?
Yea, but the sheer amount of soldier games just dazzled me.
It for some reason really showed me the gaming movement for the last few years (atleast on consoles). It's all about online and in your face gameplay, also would have thought being a soldier would atleast make that scenario for a videogame a little less interesting...

Oh yea, I really wouldn't advise anyone to take their games into a holiday. I used to do that when I was 12, then realized that it goes completley against the logic of a holiday. The feeling you get from returning to your home and then starting your console after 3 weeks is a lot better than tagging them along.
 

obisean

May the Force Be With Me
Feb 3, 2009
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As a former sailor and one of the few XBOX owners with an XBOX actually on my ship, I can completely agree with everything. I can remember the days when we would be carrying televisions from one compartment to another just to put them back to back and use a LAN cable to 4v4 Halo. We eventually requested permission from the Captain to allow the ships already in place LAN/Internet to accept an XBOX so people from all over the ship could get in on multi-player action. The ITs were all for setting this up, but we were ultimately denied.

The Captain did however offer to front some money for 6 new computers and a wireless LAN for our own computers to connect to. He even bought us games of our choice as long as they were not overly violent/bloody, but that never stopped us from doing so on our OWN laptops. There was much Jedi Knight and Warcraft 3 to be had in the days after that. There was a medium sized room next to the mess hall that was (rarely) used for meetings and other such things, and he let us use that for our computer room. So we were able to put the wireless part of the LAN in the mess hall itself and setup our laptops in the mess hall during non-meal/cleaning hours. It's a shame that the gaming scene didn't ultimately catch on until I was almost done with my 4 years in 2005. I probably would have enjoyed it a lot more.
 

TOGSolid

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Jul 15, 2008
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Solipsis said:
There are very few things in life that I enjoy as much as Rome: Total War before bed!

In all seriousness, my youngest brother (the only hardcore multiplayer gamer in a family of fanatics) is currently studying at a maritime academy to join the merchant marine. I know one of the things that makes him sad about his chosen profession is giving up access to online games for long periods of time while he'll be at sea -- like all summer this year. Maybe I'll point him toward this article for a few hints on surviving the droughts!
I'm a sailor and I can tell you it kinda sucks, but if he gets lucky he'll end up on a ship where half the crew are gamers. The Alaskan Explorer, a ship with Alaska Tanker Company had two big screen TVs in each of the lounges, a wireless network throughout the ship, a tv in every room, and 360's on both of the big screens.

Needless to say, it didn't take much work to put 4 guys in each lounge, and then have anyone in their rooms jump on via the wireless. Now, this is a rare case, but those kinda ships are out there (usually they're tankers. Tell him to stay the fuck away from Liberty ships, that company is pretty damn cheap).
I actually suggest a good gaming laptop. With his officer pay, a high end gaming laptop won't even dent his bank account if he saves/spends intelligently. I'm only an unliscenced Oiler and even I just giggled like a school girl when I hit the "order" button. I have a Sager 9262 and a wired 360 gamepad, and I can play most of the big name 360 games on my laptop since the 360's port to pc ratio is kinda retardedly high (almost to the point that it makes me wonder why the hell I got a 360 in the first place). A lot of guys out their bring laptops with them along with external hard drives (piracey ahoy!) and you'd be surprised how many of them are closet gamers. Apart from our 360 multiplayer matches, more than a few games of Counter Strike 1.6 were played on the ship computers (nothing like raging your Chief Engineer after constantly stabbing him in the face).

If he wants to drag out a console with him, he can, but I don't really recommend it. Not until he gets steady work on one ship that he knows it'll get used a lot on, otherwise a solid laptop is the way to go.

Oh and do remind him to bring a cross connect cable with him. Those things are handy at the strangest times. My usual "at work" loadout is: Laptop/Mouse/Cross Connect/External Hard Drive/In-Ear Speakers (I don't like bringing out a headset since it's just too damn big and I've never actually used the mic for anything), and I always just no-cd crack all my games that aren't run via Steam.
 

laserwulf

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Dec 30, 2007
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carenebeth said:
maybe they should integrate 360 controllers into machine guns
You joke, but there are unmanned drones (for Explosive Ordinance Disposal, I believe) that use 360 controllers. Considering that they can be used on a PC, it makes sense. At my base in Iraq we used the same brand of headsets that I received with the Guild Wars special edition & UT2004.
 

Jay Cee

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Nov 27, 2008
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Personally I believe Halo would be better UNDER the sea but that's just my incredibly bias opinion, wonderful article. Nice one@
 

johnman

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Oct 14, 2008
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Well written article.
I would hate to lug my Pc about, the case alone weights ton
 

WolfThomas

Man must have a code.
Dec 21, 2007
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Yeah I have mate in the Australian army, apparently there's a whole company that plays WOW on their laptops. The use their actual company details, ranks etc online.
 

stinkypitz

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Jan 7, 2008
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My brother is in the marines, and according to him all they play is Madden, which is a bummer.
 

51gunner

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Jun 12, 2008
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I've worked for the Army Reserves for years, and there's almost always a room with a LAN set up somewhere in the barracks. Me and my friends would grind each other into the dirt at Starcraft for hours off-duty to kill time, and I'm probably going to haul the 360 up if I'm put into single instructor's quarters this year, and get my Endwar on.
 

CD-R

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Mar 1, 2009
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Funny how you never hear these stories in the mainstreem media. It's all "zomg a kid shot 10 people at his school and he played Counterstrike a few times."
 

Gilhelmi

The One Who Protects
Oct 22, 2009
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carenebeth said:
maybe they should integrate 360 controllers into machine guns
Believe me, they are trying. THEY ARE TRYING.

EDIT:
Dang, I forgot thins was a really old article. Oh well, The government is trying to add xbox functionality to most robotic weapon systems.