I started playing War Commander in October 2016 and continued to play the game till around June 2017. In the time I was a War Commander and in the time I have spent watching my boyfriend play War Commander with dedication, we have had many conversations around the game and the structure of power in it. Today I attempt to bring those conversations together and ponder what I have seen and learned.
My Journey in War Commander
I was born in Sector 5 and in the first few hours, I had to collect resources — oil and metal to build buildings to get stronger. While my base was Level 1–2, I had protection from enemies. As I put more time and effort into my base, adding walls, producers of and storage for oil and metals, I grew stronger and a target. I remember logging in some time in the first few days and finding out that my base had been destroyed by a Level 10 player. Nothing too drastic — bases heal in an hour if you have the right amount of resources and you are protected from an attack for 36 hours if the base was completely destroyed. My base was fine when I got to it and yet I felt frustrated and angry. What could I, a Level 3, have that a Level 10 wanted? The answer was mine was an easy base and the game was all about attacking bases, so I could not expect to be ignored.
I moved to the sector where my boyfriend had been residing for a couple years then. He is a strong player, Level 42 when I joined him, well respected by the people who live there — there are 200 Sectors in all and each has hundreds of players — as he is a great fighter. He keeps all his defensives as well as offensives up to date and has a strategic mind.
The players in War Commander are organized into Clans. These Clans were built by the people — they were not originally part of the game or assigned by the game. You can build your own Clan, which shows as a Tag. The rules set by the players in this Sector were such that if your Tag was friendly, other friendly tags would not attack you. Since my boyfriend was well known there, he had not needed a tag so far but with me joining the sector as a low level player, he built a new tag and through his friendships, I obtained protection and help from the people in the sector and automatically made enemies with the people who were not friendly.
The sector has a chat and people’s real names are hidden — only the ones in the game are visible. Which means that it is hard to find someone on social media but it is not impossible and it has been done. Another challenge with the world chat is that the mix of languages (I have seen English, Spanish, Gujarati, Hindi to name a few) makes it hard to discern very quickly and the more people on chat, the higher the number of separate conversations going on there.
One night, I had finished getting all the resources I needed, completed the battles for the week for medals, and was just hanging out. I was not chatting because I had nothing to say. I explored the whole sector — each sector is on a 500 by 500 grid — and hours later realized that I was the silent vigilante watching over my people. I had already gotten into the routine of checking the friendly/foe list when new tags came up and battling out players who were my level. I could spend hours doing nothing in the game.
The History of War Commander
I was curious and asked my boyfriend how the alliances came to be and what the tags meant. He said that the earliest known clans are — AAF (Allied Arab Forces) and TP (Team Philippines). It is not clear which one came up in response to the other. TAO (full form unknown) is another old clan which came sometime after these two. Originally the clans were formed based on the locality of the people who were in it, however, in the last couple years, as more and more players have joined in and there has been restructuring of clans and emergence of new ones, members in the clans are no longer from one country or continent.
There are 200 sectors in War Commander of which most are either AAF allied, meaning all clans in the sectors are friends to AAF, or TAO allied, where the clans are supporters of TAO. There are a few sectors that are neutral, more like passing sectors where everyone is welcome, similar to _ in World of Warcraft. I came across and still hear about a number of clans — KT is a huge clan allied to TAO, there is also GORKHE which has many members who speak Nepali, HHB, SB-I, HR are others. Clans and their alliances play an important role when sectors are being invaded as clans ask allies to help attack or defend.
Each big clan has its facebook page or group (check out the ones of AAF, TAO, TP and KT) and many sectors have their respective closed facebook groups. There are also visitor pages of the sectors for allies who are passing by and staying for a couple of days.
What War Commander shows about Human Nature
We crave balance and we crave companionship.
Even if you do not know who a person really is, in the game, all that matters is how they are in the chat, if they come to defend the sector when it is under attack, if they are on the friendly/foe list, if they cheat or they don’t.
There are admins for each Clan and there are admins for most sectors. These are the people who solve disputes, deal with unjustified hits, are on the front lines where the sector is under attack, call for help when the sector/clan needs it, coordinates raids and so on. They are the leaders. They are volunteers who have taken up the role of admins in their leisure time to keep the world of War Commander, specifically their sector or clan, at peace.
This is quite interesting because we seem to consistently create a hierarchy of command. Most people in the game associate themselves to a clan, falling under its control. The clans normally have a leader or 2–3 leaders followed by a small group of officers then everyone else. There are still lone rangers in the game but even they make friends and alliances with large groups for protection.
The clans have survived for many years — some big ones have had fights amongst themselves and broken down into smaller clans and formed new alliances. It is human nature to have disagreements and then go separate ways.
Some wars have destroyed sectors. One or more clans attack in large numbers and seriously hinder the locals’ ability to play. Since this is an online game, it is not possible to destroy the ‘land’ and make it inhabitable for living. It is however, possible to cause disruption of the command structure causing locals to leave, moving away to different sectors where every day is not constant war and threat from stronger players. Where your base does not get beat up every time you are not in a protection bubble.
When invasions and wars happen, the way players work together is also worth mentioning. Communications happen through the world chat and other social media, primarily facebook. The following is an image taken from a recent war in Sector 156. The leader’s base is surrounded by platoons of his clan members who are protecting him from enemies. The enemies must find a path through the platoons to get to the base.
Conclusion
There is a lot more to talk about the War Commander experience. I have not mentioned how the game plays, if there is a story line, the weaponry, the rush of adrenaline one feels when fighting a battle whether defending your own base or attacking another person’s and other details. For me, in my time of playing the game, the most fascinating part was always the comradeship — how friendly everyone was in the sector in the world chat, the dealings with players who were not residents but on friendly terms, the thrill and fear of finding an enemy or a jump team of enemies who had come to cause trouble. It was the alliances forged in this virtual world that kept me awake many a nights, often fighting with stronger people and keeping them engaged while reinforcements arrived.
A special thanks to Clinton Bunker for reviewing the draft. 🙂
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