And that clearly means not living in the past and perpetuating harmful stereotypes but living in the present and using games to tell stories with modern day audience in mind.
Alan Kertz, Battlefield V‘s design director, went to Reddit to address the issue, responding in this thread (content warning: a veritable cesspool of misogyny and ignorance incoming). Kertz writes: “I knew this was going to be a fight when I pushed for female soldiers in Battlefield. I have a daughter, and I don’t want to ever have to answer her question of ‘why can’t I make a character that looks like me?’ with ‘because you’re a girl’.”
Oh and also, Kertz really owned his words. When asked if he would be willing to “send his daughter to war” ha stated: “I hope she’d be old and responsible enough to make that decision for herself.” Which of course nobody even thought of, that maybe people can decide on their own and be supported in their decisions as adults. Mind-blowing.
Which, predictably, didn’t go so well because trying to sympathize with outraged mob is like waving a red flag in-front of a bull. Hey, remember Metal Gear? That amazing, almost universally loved and ingenious series of video games, set in fictional version of 60s Cold War, where the Americans and the Soviets engage in an espionage war over gigantic, bipedal, nuclear-capable mechs?
Those games are awful, I mean giant mechs? In the 60s? Come on, next you’re gonna tell me a woman is the top agent of the CiA. Yeah, right. My immersion is just completely broken, games exploring a fictional version of history shouldn’t exist, because I’m just too confused. I don’t know what real history is anymore.
But yeah, tangent aside, Kertz also said: “many people will play the game despite their reservations”, which I agree with. As if these loons would pass up on a new Battlefield game just because it’s got wahmenn in it. He also claimed that they may “learn something about either history or themselves”, which I definitely disagree with. These people don’t learn.