Hey you guys, I have seen something yesterday and I need to talk about it.
I'm German and I've been at Gamescom pretty much every year since it started with some friends.
So like every year after we visited all the main halls we went to the merchandise booths.
There was a special area for cosplaying with a stage, some events and everything, so the amount of people in costumes was even bigger than everywhere else.
I walk through the aisles and four boys, I guess 15-16, walk pass me wearing uniforms of the Wehrmacht. I'm no historian or expert on the matter, but it was absolutely clear what they were dressed as. It's not like there weren't other people wearing some sort of military attire, I saw a lot of Rainbow Six Siege cosplayers for example. But I'd say except it's some sort of promotion from one of the booths, it's pretty uncommon for people wearing uniforms from WW1, WW2 etc. It's a convention for games not some sort of WW2 historical reenactment event. Also keep in mind that this is Germany we're talking about so it's even more of an issue than maybe in other countries.
My first thought was that they portrayed characters from some Manga series like "Girl und Panzer" and maybe they did. I wanted to ask them but I was standing there confused for a second and they disappeared into the crowd too quickly. Also it didn't seem like anything Manga-related, it was pretty straight forward German uniforms from the war. (no swastikas)
And it wasn't just some military-style jacket and a kinda-German looking helmet. The costumes were pretty good quality-wise... these boys obviously put a lot of effort and/or money into these things.
Since then I can't really get this out of my head. Assuming they just dressed as German soldiers... how the fuck did they think this was a good idea? Was there no parent who stopped them on their way out to question what they were doing?
We had threads about the role of the German army in video games on this forum before. It's a difficult discussion... if a game is set in WW2 and it has multiplayer modes, one of the teams is Germany (or other Axis factions) and some of the players have to take this role. If you want to have this historical background, that's how it is. Games like Battlefield kinda circumvent this overlaying issue by just making it about two factions in a historical setting fighting each other without much politics or too much actual historical context. For example it has been pretty common in multiplayer for some time now not to use swastikas even in the international versions. I think especially in newer titles where you have more and more freedom in your loadouts and looks, the lines between the faction are even more blurred, at some point making it almost irrelevant on which side you're on and just making it about fighting in a WW2 setting. Singleplayer is an entirely different thing and obviously even more difficult. That's why it took ages for some AAA Game to touch this delicate matter.
Especially Battlefield 5 was in the news about the whole issue lately. The DLC "elite soldiers" which are basically just skins to stand out on the battlefield go against aforementioned blurry lines and introduce figures to identify with. Now you can buy a "cool looking" cosplay worthy Nazi General or a Nazi assassin skin and proudly wear it. I'm overexaggerating a bit of course but it is a topic worth discussing and it has been discussed here and even several news outlets picked it up.
The point is (and that's my worry too) games shouldn't portray the German army as just one among many who fought in the war, which also had cool figures to look up to. As I said, games in this historical setting have the difficult task to walk that fine line between including the faction but not glorifying it. I guess what games in the past have done, i.e. making it more about TeamvsTeam in a historical setting is the only way to really do this.
That being said it's also clear that games alone should not be the only source of historical education for younger generations. They should especially learn about that stuff in school to build some foundation and general context so that games can be played with a certain mindset. Of course I'm not saying that games can't be educational as well. And trust me, these boys yesterday (assuming they were German) learnt about that stuff in school.
I don't want to say people should feel bad when the game automatically puts them into the German team of course.. but there is a very real and distinct difference between playing the German side in a game and enjoying it and actually putting on WW2 uniforms in real life and going to a gaming convention to proudly show it off.
In the end I'm just worried what kind of perception these boys have about history and what this means for future generations.
Maybe I'm thinking about it way too much. Maybe (probably) a ton of people were equally as confused when they saw the boys as I was. And maybe I just came across four stupid teenagers who just didn't think this one through.
And one last thing to consider before replying... if your argument is based on the myth that the Wehrmacht was just an army of regular soldiers who just fought regular clean fights and all the evil and monstrosities were committed by other branches of the German armed forces in WW2, I'll stop you right there and urge you to educate yourself more on the matter.
It's simply not true.
I'm German and I've been at Gamescom pretty much every year since it started with some friends.
So like every year after we visited all the main halls we went to the merchandise booths.
There was a special area for cosplaying with a stage, some events and everything, so the amount of people in costumes was even bigger than everywhere else.
I walk through the aisles and four boys, I guess 15-16, walk pass me wearing uniforms of the Wehrmacht. I'm no historian or expert on the matter, but it was absolutely clear what they were dressed as. It's not like there weren't other people wearing some sort of military attire, I saw a lot of Rainbow Six Siege cosplayers for example. But I'd say except it's some sort of promotion from one of the booths, it's pretty uncommon for people wearing uniforms from WW1, WW2 etc. It's a convention for games not some sort of WW2 historical reenactment event. Also keep in mind that this is Germany we're talking about so it's even more of an issue than maybe in other countries.
My first thought was that they portrayed characters from some Manga series like "Girl und Panzer" and maybe they did. I wanted to ask them but I was standing there confused for a second and they disappeared into the crowd too quickly. Also it didn't seem like anything Manga-related, it was pretty straight forward German uniforms from the war. (no swastikas)
And it wasn't just some military-style jacket and a kinda-German looking helmet. The costumes were pretty good quality-wise... these boys obviously put a lot of effort and/or money into these things.
Since then I can't really get this out of my head. Assuming they just dressed as German soldiers... how the fuck did they think this was a good idea? Was there no parent who stopped them on their way out to question what they were doing?
We had threads about the role of the German army in video games on this forum before. It's a difficult discussion... if a game is set in WW2 and it has multiplayer modes, one of the teams is Germany (or other Axis factions) and some of the players have to take this role. If you want to have this historical background, that's how it is. Games like Battlefield kinda circumvent this overlaying issue by just making it about two factions in a historical setting fighting each other without much politics or too much actual historical context. For example it has been pretty common in multiplayer for some time now not to use swastikas even in the international versions. I think especially in newer titles where you have more and more freedom in your loadouts and looks, the lines between the faction are even more blurred, at some point making it almost irrelevant on which side you're on and just making it about fighting in a WW2 setting. Singleplayer is an entirely different thing and obviously even more difficult. That's why it took ages for some AAA Game to touch this delicate matter.
Especially Battlefield 5 was in the news about the whole issue lately. The DLC "elite soldiers" which are basically just skins to stand out on the battlefield go against aforementioned blurry lines and introduce figures to identify with. Now you can buy a "cool looking" cosplay worthy Nazi General or a Nazi assassin skin and proudly wear it. I'm overexaggerating a bit of course but it is a topic worth discussing and it has been discussed here and even several news outlets picked it up.
The point is (and that's my worry too) games shouldn't portray the German army as just one among many who fought in the war, which also had cool figures to look up to. As I said, games in this historical setting have the difficult task to walk that fine line between including the faction but not glorifying it. I guess what games in the past have done, i.e. making it more about TeamvsTeam in a historical setting is the only way to really do this.
That being said it's also clear that games alone should not be the only source of historical education for younger generations. They should especially learn about that stuff in school to build some foundation and general context so that games can be played with a certain mindset. Of course I'm not saying that games can't be educational as well. And trust me, these boys yesterday (assuming they were German) learnt about that stuff in school.
I don't want to say people should feel bad when the game automatically puts them into the German team of course.. but there is a very real and distinct difference between playing the German side in a game and enjoying it and actually putting on WW2 uniforms in real life and going to a gaming convention to proudly show it off.
In the end I'm just worried what kind of perception these boys have about history and what this means for future generations.
Maybe I'm thinking about it way too much. Maybe (probably) a ton of people were equally as confused when they saw the boys as I was. And maybe I just came across four stupid teenagers who just didn't think this one through.
And one last thing to consider before replying... if your argument is based on the myth that the Wehrmacht was just an army of regular soldiers who just fought regular clean fights and all the evil and monstrosities were committed by other branches of the German armed forces in WW2, I'll stop you right there and urge you to educate yourself more on the matter.
It's simply not true.
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