War collaborators: documentary and historical sources in First World War computer games

ABSTRACT

With the emergence of computer games focused on the First World War, representations of the conflict have begun to reach brand new audiences in ways it has been unable to before. The portrayal of the war in an interactive setting has exposed millions to new information about its origins and methods. To understand the reach and impact of these games it is necessary to also understand their backgrounds and historiography. This article presents the first in-depth examination of the source material for two of the biggest First World War focused computer games in existence; Valiant Hearts: The Great War, and Battlefield 1. Through discussions with the developers behind these games and analysis of the sources which provided them with their information, it becomes possible not just to chart the provenance of their historical messages but also to understand how themes within academic history are being disseminated by the modern media. However, it is also possible to see the extent to which understandings of the war and how it was waged are not being incorporated by games developers or their products. This article argues that more work and cooperation is needed between historians and developers if the narratives of these games is to be influenced by historical research in the same way that the visual authenticity has been.

KEYWORDS:

• Computer games
• First World War
• representation
• historiography
• popular culture

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank the various developers who gave their time to be interviewed regarding their games such as Stefan Strandberg, Martin Kopparhed, and Yoan Fanise. Furthermore I would also like to thank Prof Peter Doyle for discussing his work as a historical consultant.

Disclosure statement

I performed some consultancy services to the DigixArt, Bandai Namco, and Aardman Animations game 11-11: Memories Retold including authoring the historical text in the book accompanying the collector’s edition of the game. However, I receive no further income based on the game’s sales or success.

Notes

1. Valiant Hearts: The Great War, Microsoft Windows, MS Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One (Ubisoft Montpellier, 2014).

2. Isabelle Clarke and Daniel Costelle, ‘Apocalypse: World War 1ʹ (Francetv 2, 18 March 2014), Episode 4: Rage.

3. Kempshall, “The Evolution of First World War Computer Games,” 420.

4. Burgoyne, The Hollywood Historical Film, 7–8.

5. Burgoyne, Film Nation, 7–8.

6. Chapman, Digital Games as History, 5.

7. Ibid., 13.

8. Dawn Spring, “Gaming History,” 207–21.

9. Minotti, “EA’s Battlefield 1 Hits 25 Million Players Thanks to DLC and Discounts”.

10. McCartney and Morgan-Owen, “Commemorating the Centenary of the First World War”.

11. Kempshall, The First World War in Computer Games 7–8, 78–79.

12. ‘Harris Game Design – Axis & Allies Forums • View Topic – A&A WWI’, accessed 15 November 2014, http://www.harrisgamedesign.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=93. Despite this statement, Harris would later develop a First World War version of the game: Larry Harris Jnr, Axis & Allies: WW1 1914 (Avalon Hill (hasbro) & Wizards of the Coast, 2013).

13. Martin Kopparhed and Steffan Standberg, Questions regarding ‘Battlefield 1ʹ, Email, 9 November 2017.

14. Verdun 1914–1918, Steam (Apple OS X, Linux, Windows), PlayStation 4 (2016) and Xbox One (2017 (M2 H & Blackmill Games, 2013); Tannenberg, Microsoft Windows, OS X, & Linux (M2 H & Blackmill Games, 2017); Kempshall, The First World War in Computer Games, 94.

15. Chapman, Digital Games as History, 67.

16. For existing studies on British memory of the conflict, see: Todman, The Great War: Myth and Memory.

17. Battlefield 1, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Battlefield (EA DICE, 2016).

18. Kopparhed and Standberg, Questions regarding ‘Battlefield 1ʹ, 9 November 2017.

19. Ibid.

20. Martin Kopparhed and Steffan Standberg, Questions regarding ‘Battlefield 1ʹ, Email, 16 February 2018. The Hew Strachan piece referred to here is almost certainly; Hew Strachan, The First World War. Vol. 1, to Arms (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001). Strachan’s work also helped the developers form their ideas about the technological aspects of the war as well.

21. Kopparhed and Standberg, Questions regarding ‘Battlefield 1ʹ, 16 February 2018.

22. Daniel Todman in particular highlights the 1960 s as being the crucial decade in forming public opinion about the war. Todman, The Great War: Myth and Memory.

23. Battlefield 1, Prologue: Storm of Steel.

24. Todman, The Great War: Myth and Memory, cha 4.

25. Kempshall, The First World War in Computer Games, 28–9.

26. Ibid., 18.

27. Kopparhed and Standberg, Questions regarding ‘Battlefield 1ʹ, 9 November 2017.

28. Ibid.

29. Gault, “Battlefield 1”.

30. Wes Fenlon, ‘We Showed Battlefield 1 to a World War I Historian | PC Gamer’, PC Gamer, 20 July 2016, https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/we-showed-battlefield-1-to-a-world-war-i-historian/; Brittany Goetting, ‘World War 1 History Buffs Analyze Battlefield 1 For Accuracy, You Be The Judge’, HotHardware, 15 May 2016, https://hothardware.com/news/world-war-1-history-buffs-analyse-battlefield-1-for-accuracy-you-be-the-judge.

31. Tony Wright, ‘Opinion: The Astonishing Historical Inaccuracies of Battlefield 1ʹ, Newshub, 27 October 2016, sec. Entertainment, https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/entertainment/2016/10/opinion-the-astonishing-historical-inaccuracies-of-battlefield-1.html.

32. Bruno Di Puno, ‘Videogiochi, Il Caso: Battlefield 1 Offende Gli Alpini? La Storia è Anche Questa – Repubblica.It’, Repubblica, 26 October 2016, http://www.repubblica.it/tecnologia/prodotti/2016/10/26/news/videogiochi_il_caso_battlefield_1_offende_gli_alpini_la_storia_e_anche_questa-150620127/; Andrea Cionci, ‘L’ira Degli Alpini Su Battlefield, Il Videogioco in Cui l’Esercito Combatte La Grande Guerra – La Stampa’, Las Tampa, 25 October 2016, http://www.lastampa.it/2016/10/25/tecnologia/giochi/lira-degli-alpini-su-battlefield-il-videogioco-in-cui-lesercito-combatte-la-grande-guerra-tiR1hMv0cSwhckwz62bFhP/pagina.html.

33. ‘Battlefield 1 for PlayStation 4 – Sales, Wiki, Release Dates, Review, Cheats, Walkthrough’, 1, accessed 27 February 2020, https://www.vgchartz.com/game/110843/battlefield-1/?region=All; ‘Battlefield 1 for Xbox One – Sales, Wiki, Release Dates, Review, Cheats, Walkthrough’, 1, accessed 27 February 2020, https://www.vgchartz.com/game/110844/battlefield-1/?region=All.

34. Wackerfuss, “This Game of Sudden Death,” 237–8.

35. Stuckey, “Transitioning to the Digital.”

36. For a wider history and examination of ‘GamerGate’ see: Aghazadeh et al., “GamerGate: A Case Study in Online Harassment,” 179–207; Blodgett, “Media in the Post #GamerGate Era” 184–200.

37. Aguirre Quiroga, “Race, Battlefield 1 and the White Mythic Space of the First World War,” 189.

38. Dean Takahashi, ‘EA DICE’s Lead Designer Answers Our Questions about Battlefield 1 | VentureBeat’, accessed 27 February 2020, https://venturebeat.com/2016/05/06/ea-dices-lead-designer-answers-our-questions-about-battlefield-1/; Aguirre Quiroga, ‘Race, Battlefield 1 and the White Mythic Space of the First World War’.

39. Copplestone, “But That’s Not Accurate,” 415–38.

40. Luke Plunkett, ‘Oh No, There Are Women In Battlefield V’, Kotaku, 23 May 2018, https://kotaku.com/oh-no-there-are-women-in-battlefield-v-1826275455; Holly Nielsen, ‘There’s No Such Thing as an Apolitical Game – Wireframe’, Wireframe, 5 February 2019, https://wireframe.raspberrypi.org/features/there’s-no-such-thing-as-an-apolitical-game.

41. Megan Farokhmanesh, ‘EA on the Backlash against Women in Battlefield V: “Accept It or Don’t Buy the Game”’, The Verge, 12 June 2018, https://www.theverge.com/2018/6/12/17453728/ea-women-in-battlefield-v-backlash-response.

42. Kopparhed and Standberg, Questions regarding ‘Battlefield 1ʹ, 9 November 2017.

43. Chris Kempshall, ‘Pixel Lions – the Image of the Soldier in First World War Computer Games’, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, 19 October 2015, 666–7, https://doi.org/10.1080/01439685.2015.1096665.

44. Battlefield V, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Battlefield (EA DICE, 2018); Wesley Yin-Poole, ‘The Battlefield 5 Campaign Lets You Play from the German Perspective but “It’s Not a Hero Story”, Insists DICE • Eurogamer.Net’, Eurogamer, 18 October 2018, https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2018-10-18-the-battlefield-5-campaign-lets-you-play-as-the-nazis-but-its-not-a-hero-story-insists-dice.

45. Joe Fingas, ‘EA Apologizes after “Battlefield V” Miscast a Real-Life Antifascist’, Engadget, accessed 27 February 2020, https://www.engadget.com/2019/06/05/battlefield-v-character-has-resistance-fighter-name/.

46. Chapman and Linderoth, “Exploring the Limits of Play”.

47. Jos Hoebe, Questions regarding Verdun 1914-1918 – Blackmill Games & M2 H, Email Questionnaire, 11 May 2014, as cited in; Kempshall, The First World War in Computer Games, 78; Kopparhed and Standberg, Questions regarding ‘Battlefield 1ʹ, 16 February 2018.

48. ‘Trentino Grande Guerra – Homepage’, accessed 18 February 2018, http://www.trentinograndeguerra.it/.

49. See note 21 above.

50. Kopparhed and Standberg, Questions regarding ‘Battlefield 1ʹ, 16 February 2018; James Simpson, ‘A Remarkable Armored Train Fought Its Way Across Eurasia’, accessed 18 February 2018, https://medium.com/war-is-boring/a-remarkable-armoured-train-fought-its-way-across-eurasia-db3e3180b50c.

51. See note 21 above.

52. Ibid.

53. Kopparhed and Standberg, Questions regarding ‘Battlefield 1ʹ, 16 February 2018; Ernst Gossner, The Silent Mountain, 2014.

54. Randee Dawn, ‘Rise TV Period Dramas Creates Bigger Need for History Consultants – Variety’, Variety, 27 March 2019, https://variety.com/2019/artisans/production/tv-period-dramas-history-consultants-1203173244/.

55. Robinson, “Militarism and Opposition in the Living Room,” 255–75.

56. Kopparhed and Standberg, Questions regarding ‘Battlefield 1ʹ, 9 November 2017.

57. The Great War, Our Contribution To Battlefield 1 I THE GREAT WAR, accessed 16 February 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Shmmza-lWY0.

58. Both men were featured in the game’s publicity campaign on Twitter: @MemoriesRetold, Tweet, @MemoriesRetold, 21 September 2018, https://twitter.com/MemoriesRetold/status/1043168475965997056; @MemoriesRetold, Tweet, @MemoriesRetold, 26 November 2018, https://twitter.com/MemoriesRetold/status/1067133939784052737. In the collectors edition of the game a special graphic novel was also included which contained historical content to contextualize the events of the game: Chris Kempshall, 11–11: Memories Retold – The Graphic Novel, ed. Marc Pétronille (Houdan: Editions Pix’ n Love, 2018).

59. 11–11: Memories Retold, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows (Aardman Animations, Digixart, 2018).

60. Peter Doyle, Questions regarding ‘11–11 Memories Retold’ Historical Consultancy – Prof Peter Doyle, Email Questionnaire, 18 February 2019; Yoan Fanise, Questions regarding 11–11: Memories Retold – Yoan Fanise, Email Questionnaire, 2 January 2020.

61. Doyle, Questions regarding ‘11–11 Memories Retold’ Historical Consultancy – Prof Peter Doyle.

62. Nick Summers, ‘How Aardman Made a WWI Game Look like an Oil Painting’, Engadget, 15 November 2018, https://www.engadget.com/2018/11/15/11-11-memories-retold-paint-art-aardman/.

63. See note 61 above.

64. Fanise, Questions regarding 11–11: Memories Retold – Yoan Fanise.

65. Yoan Fanise, Questions regarding Valiant Hearts – Yoan Fanise, Email Questionnaire, 16 December 2014, cited in; Kempshall, The First World War in Computer Games, 35.

66. Fanise, Questions regarding Valiant Hearts – Yoan Fanise, 16 December 2014, cited in; Kempshall, The First World War in Computer Games, 35.

67. Yoan Fanise, Questions regarding Valiant Hearts – Yoan Fanise, Email Questionnaire, 2 December 2020.

68. Kempshall, The First World War in Computer Games, 93–94.

69. Lafon, La camaraderie au front: 1914–1918, 180–196.

70. The role of Emile in particular as a highly reluctant soldier in the French army places him at odds with ways soldiers are often portrayed generally in combat games but specifically in First World War titles; Kempshall, ‘Pixel Lions – the Image of the Soldier in First World War Computer Games’.

71. Clarke and Costelle, ‘Apocalypse: World War 1ʹ, Episode 3: Hell.

72. Stanley Kubrick, Paths of Glory (United Artists, 1957); Jacques Tardi, It Was the War of the Trenches (Seattle, WA: Fantagraphics Books, 2010).

73. Clarke and Costelle, ‘Apocalypse: World War 1ʹ, Episode 4: Rage.

74. Kempshall, The First World War in Computer Games, 36.

75. Smith, Audoin-Rouzeau, and Becker, France and the Great War, 1914–1918, 56.

76. Gault, ‘“Battlefield 1” Sacrificed Historical Accuracy to Make The Great War Fun’.

77. Michael Whelan, ‘A Quick Word On Our Historical Titles’, Total War, 5 April 2017, https://www.totalwar.com/blog/quick-word-on-historical-titles.

78. Spring, ‘Gaming History’; Chapman, Digital Games as History, 13.