The Battlefield 5 trailer and announcement has been released a few days ago, and has already seen quite a large amount of uproar on the internet. Apparently being able to play as a female character, and having female characters in the game is something that upsets a large number of people out there. Hashtags like #notmybattlefield became trending on Twitter, and still are right now, claiming that having female characters in the game is not historically accurate. They also say that the game’s developers, EA and Dice, are pondering to minority audiences and that female characters have no right to be part of the game.
Oskar Gabrielson, the director of Battlefield 5, decided to clear some of these comments up on Twitter. First of all he stated that female characters and player choice “are here to stay”. This means that at least for Battlefield 5 nothing about character choice will be changed for the full version, and that it will most likely remain for future Battlefield releases as well. He further stated that they wanted the game to be representative of all who participated in the World War 2, which also includes women, and that they want to give player choices and character customization in game.
First, let me be clear about one thing. Player choice and female playable characters are here to stay. pic.twitter.com/fvi9riUZDM
— Oskar Gabrielson (@ogabrielson) May 25, 2018
He also states that Battlefield has never been about achieving the greatest historical accuracy in any of their games. He says that the Battlefield sandbox has always been about having fun. Whether this means playing seriously by yourself and trying to enact your gritty World War fantasies or playing with friends and messing around. The Battlefield games have always prioritized fun over historical accuracy and I would argue that they whole idea of video games is to let people have fun, whether this is through competitive games, adventure games or any other genre.
The Battlefield sandbox has always been about playing the way you want. Like attempting to fit three players on a galloping horse, with flamethrowers. With BFV you also get the chance to play as who you want. This is #everyonesbattlefield. pic.twitter.com/jZkzSRjIwL
— Oskar Gabrielson (@ogabrielson) May 25, 2018
Although it is true that World War 2 was mostly fought by men, the war definitely did not see it’s shortage of women fighting as well. The Soviet Union directly drafted women into their army units and send them to the front lines. One of the world’s most accomplished snipers was Lyudmila Pavlichenko, a Soviet sniper with over 300 confirmed kills. Women were also widely effective as spies for resistance groups and also saw a lot of work as anti-infantry.
Of course the people shouting for historical accuracy and the removal of the female character are just a vocal minority. The majority of gamers most likely doesn’t care about female playable characters, or are even looking forward to playing as one. For the vocal minority, I would say it’s about time to grow up and accept that women are a part of the gaming community too and that player choice shouldn’t be such a big issue in this day and age.
