CoD WWII's 'Headquarters' is Hugely Disrespectful

[DrownedAmmet]

Call of Duty WWII may be taking the series back to its roots with the setting, but it still has a few of the trappings of modern games, like loot boxes and a social hub. It's social hub is called the "Headquarters" and features a firing range, a kill streak practice area, and public loot box openings so your friends can see what you get.
Putting aside my feelings on loot boxes in general (they suck) some of these features seem cool, and I'm behind the concept of a social space in a Call of Duty game. But I can't get over the fact that it's set in the beaches of Normandy 3 days after D-day.

It's really tasteless to take an event and location where hundreds of thousands of people were killed or wounded and decide to put the fun social hang out spot there. It must be hard to feel the historic importance of that site when you can watch your friends open a loot box and complain about getting another crappy gun skin for a weapon they don't use

So what do you all think, am I overreacting or is this really as tasteless and as disrespectful as it seems?

 

[sanquin]

Just another case of both an AAA publisher trying to coerce people into buying more lootboxes, and an AAA publisher being completely tone-deaf when it comes to portraying things in games.

I loathe the first one. I doubt more detail is needed. As for the second one, I wouldn't mind at all if it was in a game that isn't going for a realistic portrayal. But as non-serious as CoD has become, they still went for realism. So the fun social hub / lootbox gallery on the beaches of Normandy is jarring to me. Luckily it's in a franchise I haven't touched since MW1 though.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

You're right, they should have put the fun social hang out in Hitler's bunker.

 

[Zhukov]

Meh.

It's not inherently any more disrespectful than anything else involved in turning history into a game.

 

[Xprimentyl]

You?re right in that it?s tasteless, but I?ll third Zhukov?s sentiment that it?s a fool?s errand to expect much more from a medium that attempts to portray real, tragic events in the form of interactive entertainment.

 

[CaitSeith]

You?re right in that it?s tasteless, but I?ll third Zhukov?s sentiment that it?s a fool?s errand to expect much more from a medium that attempts to portray real, tragic events in the form of interactive entertainment.

On one side, being entertainment is not an excuse for being disrespectful (Saving Soldier Ryan and Schindler's List are also entertainment). On the other side, to ask the AAA industry to be less tacky (on one way or another) is like pulling teeth.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

Press X to pay for disrespects.

Activision in particular has long since stopped giving a damn about what's considered respectful anymore. They don't need to listen when their target audience are (is? My grammar done gone dumbed up) too young or oblivious to care. You got more hope with Ubisoft heeding feedback.

 

[Gethsemani_v1legacy]

Zhukov has it right. But I also feel that D-day +3 beaches are a pretty cool choice for social hub since, historically, it was the place where all reinforcing troops passed through, with some, particularly replacements, spending days on those beaches while waiting for orders. As such, I actually find it a rather appropriate location for the feature.

 

[Wintermute_v1legacy]

Zhukov has it right. But I also feel that D-day +3 beaches are a pretty cool choice for social hub since, historically, it was the place where all reinforcing troops passed through, with some, particularly replacements, spending days on those beaches while waiting for orders. As such, I actually find it a rather appropriate location for the feature.

Yeah I was gonna say this. I'm no history buff but if I had to guess, I'd say some troops stayed there for at least a little while, and it wouldn't surprise me to learn that despite death surrounding everyone there, people still managed to talk and laugh about stuff, but I don't know for sure. The magic boxes falling out of the sky is probably bullshit, but I wasn't there.

 

[Satinavian]

I don't find anything with this disrespectful. There was never much respect in WW2 shooters, especcially in the way axis soldiers tend to get treated. And this now gets attention ?

 

[Gethsemani_v1legacy]

Yeah I was gonna say this. I'm no history buff but if I had to guess, I'd say some troops stayed there for at least a little while, and it wouldn't surprise me to learn that despite death surrounding everyone there, people still managed to talk and laugh about stuff, but I don't know for sure. The magic boxes falling out of the sky is probably bullshit, but I wasn't there.

Anthony Beevor relays some anecdotes form the Overlord beaches in his book D-day. Among other things, a bunch of French prostitutes apparently took up residence in an LST (Landing Ship Tank) that was overturned by a storm and traded sex for cigarettes and canned goods, all in full view of disembarking troops and several staff HQs without anyone intervening. Other stories are about children who went there to beg and gawk at all the equipment and replacements who spent days loitering and sleeping in the dunes while waiting for relocation orders.

I find it hugely fascinating because the Overlord beaches post D-Day are in many ways emblematic of the untold stories about war, in that they served a function that was absolutely vital and pretty much every allied soldier who landed in France after D-Day+1 passed through. Yet they are almost never talked about and keep being obscured by the more direct combat encounters taking place elsewhere.

 

[Saelune]

Having a US President who supports Nazis is far more disrespectful than ANY game that lets you kill Nazis.

 

[American Tanker]

@Saelune: For fuck's sake, do you EVER think about anything other than Donald fucking Trump? Stop dwelling on the failures of the past, already, and start suggesting ideas on how to move forward. Ideas on tactics to get that fat orange fuck out of office. Not just constantly droning on about "Drumpf supports Nazis, kill him with fire."

God fucking damn. Not everything needs to be about him.

 

[American Tanker]

@undeadsuitor: First off, drop the focus on all this diversity bullshit. Instead, go back to what we know works: Focusing on the economy and the Workers. You notice how the Rust Belt went for Trump in 2016? But then they had that town hall meeting with Bernie Sanders in what was supposedly "Trump Country" and Bernie got massive standing ovations? The Democrats need to go back to being the Party of the Workers, and I'll be damned happy to see AFL-CIO running Primary challengers against Democratic candidates in 2018 if they commit to it.

Basically, all this "diversity" pandering that only resonates in the big coastal cities, back-burner that shit. There are other forms of injustice in our country, with much more dire consequences for ignoring them. Stop brushing aside anyone that tries to push an economic message as "Nazis", because all you'll do is drive them straight into the arms of those who really are Nazis.

EDIT: For those who question my claims of AFL-CIO running challengers in Democratic Primaries, they're actually suggesting to go further and start their own political party: https://www.peoplesworld.org/article/afl-cio-calls-for-a-break-with-lesser-of-two-evils-politics/

 

[tippy2k2]

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Unless Donald Trump showed up in Call of Duty or the Beaches of Normandy on June 6, 1944, stop derailing the thread on talking about Trump please.

 

[Redryhno]

It's Normandy...Like...it's the most iconic location that is basically WW2 and a handful of landings a thousand years before...how is that disrespectful as opposed to maybe slightly tone-deaf?

 

[TheFinish]

I find it way more disrespectful that you can have BARs with holo-sights, 10-round capacity Winchester 1897s, and reloading a scoped M1903 springfield with stripper clips (to say nothing of 7 round detachable box magazine Kar 98s) than having the player hub be the Normandy beaches, which were in fact the main mustering point post D-Day for basically everyone.

 

[Addendum_Forthcoming]

Loot boxes are pretty insulting on their own, so yeah.