Gaming #NotMyBattlefield

Battlefield V is a video game, a second series of the Battlefield1 features WWII and produced by EA DICE. Upon its release, it got a massive rejection of some fans and as a result #NotMyBattlefield hashtag was spread on social media. The leading cause of this refusal included a female soldier in the game. Some of its fans rejected the idea of this inclusion, and they claimed that "Battlefield has abandoned historical accuracy for political correctness" (Farokhmanesh, 2018). This critique was not welcome and banned by saying that this was just a game, not a real history. It is not even a well-composed argument because it was proven that women played a role in WWII in both the USA and Britain and even there were in the frontline. Thus, the claim is false, and if the protestors want the video game to be historically accurate, it is mandatory to represent women in the Battlefield V. Also, the EA's chief creative officer, Patrick Soderlund, said "Listen, this is a game. And today gaming is gender-diverse. You have two choices: either accept it or don't buy the game. I'm fine with either or,"(Buckly, 2018). Thus, this problem shows how people have a specific stereotype of women's role in wars. In this case, women's roles were not only marginalised but also their existence was diminished. History does tell a lot of stories and as Omar addresses an interesting example if women's participation in wars. Thus, this has nothing to do with history but with a false stereotype that some people tend to believe in and build their lives on it.

It seems this problem has its roots which date back not only in gender inclusion but also race inclusion. In my point of view, of course, video games can be an essential factor in studying history; it tells a lot about people's interests and why and how they are interested in one than another. There is a well-known white supremacist group called Ku Klux Klan which spreads malice and racism in American society through creating humorous content on websites such as whitesonly.net (Biling, 2001). One of the contents was a video game designed to satisfy White-American people by making the target person is African-American (Biling, 2001). For instance, phrases like "Remember don't kill niggers they are protected species under affirmative actions of laws" were shown on these websites comparing African-Americans to animals to criticise affirmative actions (Biling, 2001).

Also, another example, in the late 1990s, BMW had to withdraw its fifth-class cars to reprogram the GPS because the company received too many complaints from the German men who bought the car. The GPS used a woman's voice to give the driver Instructions on how to walk and where to go right or left. There was no time to change the sound of a digital device from woman to man in these models, so they had to be called and reprogrammed by male voices. A similar story happened, and I was surprised by it. Two years ago, I read a news story that a German captain refused to get ships' orders form a female announcer claiming for orders' authenticity. Moreover, when Apple launched the Siri service on the iPhone, the voice of the application was female, but soon after Apple provided a rough voice for a man to avoid failing in the same problem.

http://www.shabayek.com/blog/2014/09/22/لماذا-استدعت-بي-ام-دبليو-سياراتها/