War Stories

In War Stories, 12-year-old Trevor Firestone is obsessed with playing World War II (WWII) video games. His understanding of the war stems entirely from his experience with these digital portrayals of events. His father is deeply concerned with Trevor’s fascination with warcraft and repeatedly tries to show him that the realities of combat are anything but glamorous. However, the world constructed within WWII video games aims to provide a specific experience for the gamer that does not fully capture the brutal reality of this war or of war in general.

WWII is among the most popular and commercially successful themes appealing to the core gamer demographic: teenage males. Generally speaking, WWII exists in the popular coconsciousness as the last justifiable war, a conflict between right and wrong, with the United States playing the role of world savior. WWII games hold a unique appeal for gamers in that true failure is impossible; the outcome of the war is already known, giving a level of comforting predictability, and the division between good and evil is often exaggerated. In addition, aside from the nationalistic pride that such games inspire, they work to enhance the self-esteem of the gamer. This player is not simply a spectator. In first-person shooter games, the player is an actor in the drama, depicted as a hand and a weapon. Mastery and control are inherent, experienced through the act of consistently shooting accurately.

Although WWII video games fail to capture the actual combat conditions of war, they do closely parallel the norms of today’s digitized warfare. Notably, adeptness as a first-person shooter is increasingly valuable to the military. The military is developing video games as recruiting tools for the real army. Moreover, drone aircraft guidance systems are now being designed by video game programmers because gamers are accustomed to a certain way of interacting with technology. A gamer’s adeptness at shooting an imaginary enemy may make him a valuable soldier in the age of remote-controlled warfare.

The earliest WWII video game was the 2D Castle Wolfenstein (1981), in which the player is on an espionage mission to infiltrate a fortress full of Nazis. This game made way for the more popular first-person shooter game Wolfenstein 3D (1992). The visual atmosphere of later video games would borrow heavily from the iconography of WWII combat films. Medal of Honor is currently one of the most popular WWII video game series. Its initial release in 1998 coincided with the release of Saving Private Ryan. The original video game was developed by Stephen Spielberg and DreamWorks, with many visual references to the film embedded in its gameplay.

Some characteristics of subsequent WWII games have become genre standards from one series to another. One of the most common features is the lone hero who saves the day (á la John Wayne). In addition, certain familiar WWII battles are repeatedly staged. These include the D-Day landing, hedgerow battles, bombed French villages, and tank warfare. All these events appear in War Stories, though this time not as video simulations but via the real memories of Jacob’s Bravo Company. Video games consist of action without consequences. A gamer points and shoots—trauma and death are not real threats. War Games takes great pains to distinguish between the thrill of detached digital combat and the visceral horrors of real war.