Battlefield 5 wants to portray wars of war – met by hat storm

16 years after the breakthrough of Battlefield in 1942, the game studio Dice returns in the Second World War. Then, in 2002, the opportunity to discover the most famous genre of the war caused a sensation. 2018 is the rebound rug after hundreds of games, just like Battlefield. A fact that presents a challenge:

– We can no longer land in Normandy on D-Day. We had to find an interesting new entry, and that's where Battlefield 5 started, "said Lars Gustavsson, Creative Director at Dice.

Lars Gustavsson is sometimes called Mr. Battlefield. It's been part of Swedish success since its inception 20 years ago and has seen Dice go from a small twitter of 12 employees to a global giant counting millions of people.

For him, the solution was found in the history books: What are the forgotten stories of the Second World War? The answer was closer than he thought, 50 miles to the west, to Norway.

"Norway is very close, but few Swedes know how much the Second World War has colored the country and traces the trails that still exist today," said Lars Gustavsson.

"We saw a story barely spoken in the game: the resistance movement, and then we could reflect that with a banal woman and tell us something about history that is relevant today.

Fascist PK and feminazisters

In Battlefield 5, you turn away from classic battles to reflect the conflict through personal stories, the decline of the massive war war. The women of the Norwegian resistance movement, the criminals seeking reconciliation in the United Kingdom's specialized federation, or the Senegalese troops, known as tirailleurs, who fought and died to regain the colonial power of France.

"These people were called to fight for a country they had never visited before, and in many cases did not like who they were or where they came from." The skirmishers were considered soldiers. second hand, both by themselves and by the enemy, said Lars Gustavsson.

The search for new stories by Lars Gustavsson has often become a political issue and the choice to include women and blacks has quickly become controversial. The players contradicted what they saw as a reduction in the number of white men who died during the war and launched a campaign under the name #notmybattlefield.

"Feminazister who confuses the story", "Genusfield 5" and "Did my grandfather from Normandy beat for that ?!" Is a bunch of thousands of comments that join the game on social media, which is at present half a million.

"We will not change the game"

Radical feminism forced, according to critics. But is politics behind the decision?

"If I had a crown for every time I explained why we had no woman in the games, I would be a happy and rich man today," said Lars Gustavsson.

"But now, when we can finally do that, this question arises, it is not a political agenda," he continues.

Perhaps there is an irony in this Dice, who made a fortune representing men at war for two decades, now kölhalas after raising one of the women of the war.

Or maybe just a sign of the time: political trends have been recurrent in the cultural world in recent years, whether female ghosts, white actors in Japanese history or the constant question of the joke. Hat storms seem to be here to stay, the question is how cultural creatures should handle them.

"In the end, just defend what you believe in and do not bother you.We know with experience that there are enough rotten apples to give the impression that it is much worse.

How to change the game was not on the wallpaper?

– No, I think it would be a big part of our audience who is there and who wants it. The women in our game are drawn from reality, they were part of the war.

Battlefield 5 will be released on November 20th.