Got to say this thread has been a laugh to read, so I think I'm done with writing in it.... but will keep reading it.
But to sum up, pretty sure gamers having a beef with BF comes from this..... and I'm not going to get into "Realism vs Authenticity" because to me is semantics:
- EA/DICE saying BF games strive to be gritty and realistic
- BFV puts in some believable missions (water plant is real) and French/Senegalese working together
- BFV executes missions with unbelieveable/false narratives that definitely do seem pretty liberal/SJW like
So on one hand, BFV tries to give off a sense of real life WWII gaming, but the storylines are far fetched. Just doesn't seem to mesh coherently.
It would be like Street Fighter with it's crazy characters, beat your ass attitudes and revenge storylines suddenly getting changed in the next SF game where Ryu and Ken want to beat up Bison becasue Bison thinks any opponent wearing pink costumes is gay. It's a fictitious game where any stroyline can be written in without needing history lessons, but that storyline just doesn't fit the game.
You could kind of see the Street Fighter example happening though in the right (wrong) kind of circumstances.
Has anyone here ever been exposed to Christian rock music? Or Christian comedy?
I was sent to events as a kid and while I had a good time in the moment looking back it's all a bit cringey and lame.
The thing about content or entertainment like that is that it's very prescriptive. To really enjoy it you already have to be on board with the fundamental tenets of what the content is going to refer too.
If you don't "get" Jesus then you're gonna be standing at a Christian rock event thinking "what the f is going on here, this is so lame". Unless maybe you are there to impress a cute girl or something.
So, you could have just a regular rock group that "finds Jesus" and suddenly starts doing all this really preachy, really Jesus focused content.
In a similar way if Capcom and the specific team developing the Street Fighter game became full of people who were fully indoctrinated into a specific set of beliefs then you could end up with a very focused and very preachy SF game.
And the fan base would meltdown, of course.
Similar seems to have happened with BFV. The developers appear to have a set of beliefs and it follows then that the game tries to impose those on the player.
Just like an Atheist being made to feel unwelcome at the Christian rock event the message is get on board with us or shut up or get the F out.
I see a lot of people saying things like there would be no issue if it was a modern setting or a futuristic setting or a highly stylized version of WW2 or even just an actual authentic portrayal of womens roles in the conflict. That is all true.
I think it begs the question though, did Dice/EA deliberately choose WW2 with a view to changing the narrative?
A bit conspiratorial maybe but, if you think about it, that kind of makes sense to me.
One of the fundamental beliefs is that games are aimed at white men too often. Another fundamental belief is that popular history in entertainment media focuses too much on the stories of white men.
So it does kind of make sense that a very social justice conscious development team would literally think "let's rewrite history". It would certainly achieve their goals.
So now you are preaching to an audience that basically does not want to be preached to. On top of that you can literally see where the game ends and the preaching begins. Then of course to top it off people criticizing this need to be vilified and smeared etc because otherwise you lose control of the narrative that this "is a plausible scenario".
It' funny isn't it? For years and years the gaming community is told "guys, you need to be open to criticism of games",
Games are not above criticism.
Super Mario promotes sexism and misogyny.
You need to be willing to criticism the media you love.
Etc etc etc.
OK, cool. So I can have a go at criticism of BFV? Cos the way they've changed the story in this Norwegian mission is seriously fucked u-
"OH MY GOD YOU SEXIST RACIST ALT-RIGHT INCEL TROLL RUSSIAN BOT GAMERGATE MANBABY. ITS JUST A GAME! CAN'T YOU JUST PLAY AND HAVE FUN. YOUR SILLY PEW PEW GAME ELECTRONIC TOYS AREN'T EVEN CLOSE TO ACCURATE"
I see. Hm. So we shouldn't criticize now?
Some big boobed lady in a fantasy game wearing bikini-like armor? Oh my god how could she even survive in a battle? It's so impractical and stupid.
Women fighting on the front lines of WW2? It's totally plausible and anyone who suggests otherwise is an entitled manbaby and it's just a game anyway.