This post is a response to the article on ZAM by Jody Macgregor “Lest We Forget: World War 1 In Video Games”. This article looks at the portrayal of the First World War in Video Games. I found this article particularly interesting as I have not played many World War One video games, nor have I heard of many. I thought that Jody’s descriptions of the video games were very insightful, for example,
“WWI Medic is an arcade-style game by Dwarf Fortress creators Bay 12. You play a tiny pixel medic who shuffles along a line of soldiers, ducking into a crawl when bombs threaten to fall, patching up your men when they wave blood-soaked arms for aid. Occasionally a bugle sounds and soldiers charge into no man’s land, dying faster than you or the opposing medic you compete against can possibly save them. Even if you “win” there’s always another no man’s land waiting: WWI Medic doesn’t end until you fall, joining the piles of injured men waving for help that will never arrive.”
Off to a side point, I really appreciate the fact that developers are really trying to portray the War as the absolutely horrific event that it was, and not glorifying it. Anyways, back to the article, I thought Jody’s introduction paragraph was well written and I found it particularly relate-able being and Australian myself. This really helped me to connect to the author and to really be more accepting of his ideas. Overall I thought this article was very well written and I really enjoyed reading it.
alexkassabian 