Why I Don't Have The Stomach For 'Battlefield 1'

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This guy says he doesn't have the stomach for Battlefield 1 because every kill in the game will remind him of "the real lives lost." Obviously this is an opinion piece but I wanted to know what you guys thought about his stance a game based on a 100 year old war.

It's something I've been thinking about since I saw the game unveiled at an EA/Dice event last Friday. I play plenty of violent games myself, and while graphic executions occasionally make me cringe, I'm not going to say no to taking control of Nathan Drake in Uncharted 4 and gunning down hordes of attacking mercenaries. But apparently, I find it easier to look the other way at the atrocities my character is committing when it's in a made-up universe, or when I'm slicing up orcs in fantasy games. Real, up-close-and-personal, human-on-human violence -- like crushing a soldier's head with a mace -- is a bit much for me.
 
While I can understand his basic point it's not like this is the first shooter based on a real conflict, so I have to wonder if he had the same objection to games that take place in WW2 or other conflicts?
 
BF1: 30 hours of game play where you crouch in a trench shitting your pants in horror during artillery barrages. Then the order comes to charge into the enemy position and you die in a hail of fire from the worlds first crew-served machine guns. Roll credits, featuring CG cut scene of the officers at HQ drinking tea speaking highly of your sacrifice while lamenting the lack of good scotch for the evening bridge game.
 
Talk about "desperately scraping for a topic to write about"....I guess this clown didn't play the 300 or so World War II based FPS's that came before MW? The ones that re-created endless World War 2 battles in games that actual World War 2 veterans could play themselves?? And....since there were 300+ of them give or take a dozen, we can assume that the Social Justice Warrior flags were not flown from the tops of VFW roofs protesting...unreal. Maybe the author is crying into his black scarf right now at the humanity of it all........
 
I don't have the stomach for Battlefield 1 because it will almost inevitably be the exact same game I played in 2002 (Battlefield 1942) with upgraded graphics.

EDIT: Added clarification.
 
I wouldn't want to play a game about something that my family went through especially if I met a survivor from that time period. My dad enlisted just after WWII during the occupancy of Germany. 99% of his stories were about bars, hookers, Fraulein, getting drunk, falling asleep while on watch, etc. He also told me about the time his first lieutenant got drunk, started ranting, and ended up called them the "N" word. A mob of men beat him to death and gutted him on the spot. My dad recalls holding his best friends arm to keep him from using his rifle. This ended up saving his life in the long run as he surely would have went on trial for the murder.

Or the times that they used to toss white phosphorous grenades out of the back of the half-track or whatever they were riding in for fun, and one day hit a woman that they were passing. My dad personally went to her house, even though he didn't toss the grenade, and gave her money and food. She rode her bike everyday carrying wood, and waved at them in such a friendly manner, that they the guys took turns checking in on her. She was not really hurt, but they felt bad for what happened to her. Not going to get into the people that my dad knew that actually went off to fight in WWII and died there.

If you bring up the subject of Vietnam, I have an uncle that won't talk about it to this very day. He was so messed up that he brought back pictures of him wearing the ears of his victims, and kept souvenirs from the women over there. To this very day if asked about Vietnam, he swears that he worked in the field hospital and never shot a bullet.

So I can see where he's coming from. But I think that it's something that he should keep to himself. Everyone is not as sensitive to certain media as others. I wouldn't want to push my agenda onto others to make them feel bad about enjoying something that they are getting enjoyment from. By the same token I couldn't imagine playing a WWII game and there was a mission to liberate a concentration camp and have a real life victim of said camp in the room with me. I'm reading "Rena's Promise" and the author can barely get coherent stories from the Holocaust survivor that she is interviewing. If I were her grandson, I'd think about her at least once while playing the game.

In short these experiences mean different things to different people based on their life experiences. Personally I'm probably going to play the game and pretend I'm my dad asleep in a jeep and forgetting to pick up his company commander on time. ;)
 
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Steve said:
...because every kill in the game will remind him of "the real lives lost." Obviously this is an opinion piece ...
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A vegetable don't have opinions, Steve. This guy obviously can't form one being so dumb.

cageymaru said:
I wouldn't want to play a game about something that my family went through especially if I met a survivor from that time period.
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I'm of a different opinion, I think it would be a good (or bad) alternative look at the situation.
 
No one who fought in WWI is even alive unless they're in the competition for the oldest person on earth. This is just manufactured clickbait controversy.
 
ruffbytes said:
I don't have the stomach for Battlefield 1 because it will almost inevitably be the exact same game I played in 2002 (Battlefield 1942) with upgraded graphics.

EDIT: Added clarification.
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I would love that...unfortunately it's likely going to be more like BF3/4 but with WWI shoehorned in.
 
I don't know if anyone else feels this way, but I'm actually kind of glad they went with the WWI setting...WWI set in motion many of the major events in the 20th century, but most people today don't know much about it. If this game brings some attention to what happened in WWI, I'm all for it.
 
tetris42 said:
No one who fought in WWI is even alive unless they're in the competition for the oldest person on earth. This is just manufactured clickbait controversy.
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The point was it affected the family, a dad, grandfather, great grandfather, a brother, a uncle, great uncle, a role model, a friend.


The author of the article must be really scared to go outside, or lives in one hell of a bubble. Cars, stoplights, sun, air, heat, cold, water, lightning, kill too. Hell last year, I was taking my dog out to potty 6:30am, and 200ft on the other side of the apartment building. A person 26yrs was robbed, beaten, and then shot on the road. To simply say : life is tough and quite sadistic, its also vivacious and lovely. You take what you want of it. I get what he means, but comeon there is bad in everything.
 
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My grandfather was a POW in WWII. He was in a concentration camp and when he refused the Nazi's attempts to give him better accommodations (blonde hair blue eyes) they sent him to the fields with the Jewish and other non Aryan. He did a number marches, but of note the infamous Auschwitz death march. He survived the war only to die of a heart attack very shortly after returning home.

The stories that have been passed down are horrific. Woman giving birth in the fields and being beaten nearly to death because they stopped working. People being shot execution style for not keeping pace.

My other grandfather was a pilot and was shot down. Survived and was not taken prisoner, but was in bad shape when the allies found him. I had the opportunity to talk to him about the war and the atrocities before he passed. He was a hard man yet cried in front of me and I was no more than 13.

I can make the choice to play a WWII based game or not. I do, and I find them fun. This writer (if you want to call him that) also has this choice. I saw the same argument that this writer made in these forums after the trailer was released by a member the community. I didn't post at the time, but c'mon people - if it offends you, just don't play it. I didn't hear the same outrage with Saving Private Ryan came out, just praise... "it's the most realistic and accurate WWII movie ever made"... as a man stumbles across Normandy beach looking for his arm...
 
Cool for that guy, I guess. Myself? I'm going to love this game. I really don't give a shit about people that don't want to play it for whatever reason. I don't want to play WoW, and no one cares. And they shouldn't, because it doesn't matter.

Some things will trigger people. That's fine. But, it's up to you to avoid it. :)

I'm going to play this game and enjoy it (I hope).
 
ruffbytes said:
I don't have the stomach for Battlefield 1 because it will almost inevitably be the exact same game I played in 2002 (Battlefield 1942) with upgraded graphics.

EDIT: Added clarification.
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I totally wish they would give us BF1942 with updated graphics. If it was exactly like the original with the only difference being updated graphics it would get me to preorder 10 copies. I only have 2 PCs but I would give the game away to anyone who wanted with the remaining copies just to support it. Just to be clear, that means dedicated servers, locked kits, no unlocks, custom fan made maps, and no single player campaign. For single player its back to bots with 2 sliders for intelligence of teammates and enemies. Everything since BF Vietnam has just been graphics and cheesey gimmicks that do not belong in it.
 
I think this guy would explode if he played Condemned and had to beat someone to death with a metal locker door.

All wars are messy, shitty affairs. If you think otherwise, you've not been in them or known someone who was. My grandfather was a WW2 badass, and I can play WW2 games without worrying I'm dishonoring him in some way. He wouldn't give a shit and would call this "fake mumbo jumbo" - which it is.

See, the previous generations weren't pussies. They didn't worry about hurt feelings, they worried about getting shot.
 
Had family die in WW1, mounted cavalry, and a grandfather was captured as a resistance member/POW in WW2 by Germans. He escaped the firing squad by *jumping over them* (that superhuman strength flight or fight stuff) and that's the reason I can even type this.. crazy stuff. They saw and went through some indescribable shit alright.

I watch war footage (mostly modern war), usually not the stuff you see on the news, but the raw, nasty shit you don't see. I've seen videos of stuff you wouldn't even imagine. Ever seen ten people beheaded instantaneously with det-cord? Beheaded slowly with a dull knife? Executions with DshK .50cal or SPG-9, RPGS, 20mm cannons... etc. Didn't think so. Those are quick and painless in comparison with the former. That's not even counting the regular war stuff, people blown to bits by mortars, shot in the head still alive, RPG failures, limbs missing, etc. I've also had many discussions with people who have been in modern, mercenary war (e.g. Syria), picked up pieces of kids, seen children strapped to tanks, entire villages massacred, etc etc. It's an absolute mind bender for your average joe, they just can't comprehend it. These games are absolutely sanitised in comparison. War is war, it's absolute hell and I wouldn't want to go through it unless it was the only option.

That said I enjoy the WW style FPS and absolutely loved 1942, used to lan on it all day with my mates.
There is a time and place for reflection, remembrance and respecting sacrifices of elders. Moaning about it with a war game is not one of those places.
 
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"BF1 Release Trailer Attention Whore Page Hit Syndrome", there seems to be a rash of it in the last few days judging by all of the "watch X react to the BF1 trailer" videos on YT and pieces like this.
 
I'm glad to see almost no one bought this line of bullshit from a former Verge editor whose idea of sacrificing for his country is likely driving a Prius. Like others in this thread I'm ex-military as is most of the male side of my family, and if there's anything you should "learn" from a video game based on a real conflict its that those real conflicts are naked brutality based on the human desire to create the world in our own image. Not one has ever been anything more or anything less.

If Vergeboy wants to honor military dead he can go stand in front of the fucktards from Westboro church at a military funeral. I'm positive the microaggression would be unbearable.

Kudos to the Battlefield franchise for choosing to portray WWI in this version.
 
Seems a bit of a silly reason to not play, but to each their own.
It's his opinion, and he is welcome to it.
 
I do think it's easy to forget that some of the games we play are dealing with real events and real lives were lost. If it bothers someone, then that's a shame, but it's their right to say they don't want to play it for whatever reason. If BF1 is like BF1942, then I don't think they will glorify the killing of people and it does give us a chance to get a taste of what it was like back in those days. I'm more worried about whether the game is going to have all the issues BF4 did. Maybe I'm just old and callused
 
Does... this count as SJW whining? I mean, it's not really social justice right? maybe?
 
pothb said:
Does... this count as SJW whining? I mean, it's not really social justice right? maybe?
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I have no idea how this counts has SJW whining, other than just wanting to label anything they disagree with as SJW whining. The writer says he's not judging anyone who enjoys the game, it's just tough for him to swallow. If anything, I could see someone screaming he's a emo kid or something. Not sure about SJW whining.
 
Fanattic said:
To be fair most of us would like to forget about the cluster fuck that was the Vietnam War as well as the cluster fuck that was Battlefield: Vietnam.
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What do you think WWI ended up being for the germans? It was their vietnam...

The germans could have won WW I on multiple occaisons... but due to the popular support of the people and the new recruits in particular, they were fed up, refused to fight, or just literally went AWOL... on other occaisons they didnt exploit multiple opportunities to continue an attack... but you can say that about most battles or wars...

The problem with this guys opinion is he probably has little to no understanding of WW I... and his reference to the rise of nazi germany was also callous to say the least... its like it has to be mentioned in everything anymore....but he doesnt mention anything PRIOR to WW I, only POST WW I... so what lead to WW I? What lead to the revolutionary war? Where was Genghis Kahn or Alexander the Great mentioned? It was a purely idiotic comment to make...while yes it was just an opinion, he screwed the pooch by mentioning WW 2 and not anything that happened prior to the whole topic of WW I...thus making his opinion about as useful as any 10 yr old X Box players....

While killing another person is not something to be taken lightly, its still an immense part of our species history... if multiple millions of people hadnt been killed in battle throughout the ages maybe more of us would be here, maybe many many less of certain ethnicities cultures and religions.... WAR and all its atrocities is a part of us, and it will remain a part of us for many generations...personally i always believed Military History should be taught to every student so they actually have an understanding of what war and warfare really is... if that were the case, maybe this guy would have done a better job of expressing his opinion...
 
Steve said:
This guy says he doesn't have the stomach for Battlefield 1 because every kill in the game will remind him of "the real lives lost." Obviously this is an opinion piece but I wanted to know what you guys thought about his stance a game based on a 100 year old war.

It's something I've been thinking about since I saw the game unveiled at an EA/Dice event last Friday. I play plenty of violent games myself, and while graphic executions occasionally make me cringe, I'm not going to say no to taking control of Nathan Drake in Uncharted 4 and gunning down hordes of attacking mercenaries. But apparently, I find it easier to look the other way at the atrocities my character is committing when it's in a made-up universe, or when I'm slicing up orcs in fantasy games. Real, up-close-and-personal, human-on-human violence -- like crushing a soldier's head with a mace -- is a bit much for me.
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I agree. He has reflected my POV well.
 
pothb said:
Does... this count as SJW whining? I mean, it's not really social justice right? maybe?
Click to expand...

MadMurdock said:
I have no idea how this counts has SJW whining, other than just wanting to label anything they disagree with as SJW whining. The writer says he's not judging anyone who enjoys the game, it's just tough for him to swallow. If anything, I could see someone screaming he's a emo kid or something. Not sure about SJW whining.
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The SJW whining from my perspective is that the article is trying to equate virtual killing in war to that of being a mental equivalent of actual war fighting and death and the mental perils that come with it and how it's excruciating for him to fathom because ultimately all war is bad, in reality, and virtually and therefore even though he can't stomach it, no one should be able to as well because he highlights it in the title of his article alone "Every kill reminds me of the real lives lost."

So while he says he might be drawing to fine a line on the distinction between virtual violence vs. real violent warfare, in this article, he's clearly cross or overlapped one into the other one to belt out the screed that all war is bad, but couching it as his own personal proclivities rather than making a broader sweeping statement about the state(s) of any particular war. That's just from my perspective.
 
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