Abstract
This article examines the imagery and portrayal of First World War soldiers within modern computer games. The role of a soldier is a staple of computer games and the Second World War remains the most referenced and depicted conflict within the medium. Second World War games are highly influenced by cinematic portrayals of the conflict. The depiction of First World War soldiers, however, is a more recent and complicated development. Films focused on the First World War are not as populous as those depicting the Second and they also exist within different narrative conventions. By examining games such as Valiant Hearts: The Great War, Trenches 2, Verdun 1914–1918 and Trench Warfare, this article argues that soldiers fall into two major groups largely defined by trends in narrative portrayal: the Individuals and the Mass. However, because of the more morally complicated nature of the First World War and the audience’s expectations regarding the deadly nature of the conflict, figures within these groups come to represent competing visions of heroism and survival whilst in war time. By also considering the implications of these portrayals along national lines, this article highlights the complicated nature of media portrayals of the war and how computer games are evolving in a new direction to cope with it.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. Martin Stephen, The Price of Pity: Poetry, History, and Myth in the Great War (London: L. Cooper, 1996), 78.
2. Alistair Thomson, Anzac Memories : Living with the Legend (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1994), Appendix 1; Daniel Todman, The Great War : Myth and Memory (London: Hambledon, 2005), chap. 6.
3. ‘Letter to an Unknown Soldier’, Letter to an Unkown Soldier, http://www.1418now.org.uk/letter/ (accessed January 6, 2015).
4. Todman, The Great War : Myth and Memory, 65–6.
5. Chris Kempshall, First World War in Computer Games ([S.l.]: Palgrave Pivot, 2015), chap. 3.
6. ‘14 Games That Borrowed Their Best Bits from Movies | GamesRadar’, http://www.gamesradar.com/14-games-that-borrowed-their-best-bits-from-movies/ (accessed October 26, 2014).
7. Paths of Glory (Stanley Kubrick, United Artists, USA, 1957); The Trench (William Boyd, Arts Council of England, UK, 1999).
8. Joanna Bourke, Dismembering the Male; Men’s Bodies, Britain and the Great War (London: Reaktion, 1999).
9. Stanley Kubrick, Spartacus (Universal International, 1960).
10. Spartacus (Stanley Kubrick, Universal International, USA, 1960).
11. Joanna Bourke, Working-Class Cultures in Britain: 1890–1960: Gender, Class and Ethnicity (London: Routledge, 1994); Paul Richard Thompson, The Edwardians: The Remaking of British Society (London: Weidenfeld, 1975).
12. War Horse (Steven Spielberg, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, USA, 2011).
13. Valiant Hearts: The Great War, Microsoft Windows (Ubisoft Montpellier, 2014).
14. Die Hard (John McTiernan, 20th Century Fox, USA, 1988).
15. ‘Common Form by Rudyard Kipling’, http://allpoetry.com/Common-Form (accessed February 26, 2015).
16. Over The Top (Canada: Canadian War Museum, n.d.), http://www.warmuseum.ca/overthetop/.
17. Trenches 2, iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad (Thunder Game Works, 2011).
18. ‘BBC – Schools Online World War One – HQ – Trench Warfare’, http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/worldwarone/hq/trenchwarfare.shtml (accessed November 3, 2014).
19. Pat Mills, Charley’s War: A Boy Soldier in the Great War (London: Titan Books, 2014).
20. Jacques Tardi, It Was the War of the Trenches (Seattle, WA: Fantagraphics Books, 2010).
21. Joe Sacco, The Great War: July 1, 1916 : The First Day of the Battle of the Somme : An Illustrated Panorama (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2013).
22. ‘Red Shirt – TV Tropes’, http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RedShirt (accessed February 26, 2015).
23. Eva Kingsepp, ‘Apocalypse the Spielberg Way: Representations of Death and Ethics in Saving Private Ryan, Band of Brothers and the Videogame Medal of Honor: Frontline’ (DiGRA ’03 – Proceedings of the 2003 DiGRA International Conference: Level Up, Utrecht, Netherlands, 2014 Vol 2., n.d.); Lisbeth Klastrup, ‘Why Death Matters: Understanding Gameworld Experience’, JVRB – Journal of Virtual Reality and Broadcasting 4, no. 3 (April 25, 2007), http://www.jvrb.org/past-issues/4.2007/1022.
24. Edward Spears, Liaison 1914 (London: Cassell, 2000), 69.
25. Anthony Clayton, Paths of Glory : The French Army, 1914–1918 (London: Cassell Military, 2003), 27.
26. Max Arthur, Forgotten Voices of the Great War (London: Ebury, 2002), 25–6; Clayton, Paths of Glory : The French Army, 1914–1918, 73.
27. The Great War Mod, Microsoft Windows (The Great War Dev Team, 2013).
28. Chris Kempshall, ‘Unwilling Allies? : Tommy-Poilu Relations on the Western Front 1914–1918’ (Ph.D., University of Sussex, 2013), 96–7, http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/45092/; Leonard V. Smith, Stephane Audoin-Rouzeau, and Annette Becker, France and the Great War, 1914–1918 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 76.
29. Adam Chapman and Jonas Linderoth, ‘Exploring the Limits of Play – A Case Study of Representations of Nazism in Games’, in The Dark Side of Game Play: Controversial Issues in Playful Environments, ed. Torill Elvira Mortensen, Jonas Linderoth, and Ashley M.L. Brown, Routledge Advances in Game Studies (New York: Routledge, 2015), 137–154.
30. Olivier Szymanezyk, Patrick Dickinson, and Tom Duckett, ‘From Individual Characters to Large Crowds: Augmenting the Believability of Open-World Games through Exploring Social Emotion in Pedestrian Groups’ (DiGRA ’11 – Proceedings of the 2011 DiGRA International Conference: Think Design Play DiGRA/Utrecht School of the Arts, Hilversum, The Netherlands, January, 2011 Volume: 6, n.d.).