artanis_neravar said:
In World War 2 464 people received the Medal of Honor for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his or her life above and beyond the call of duty while engaged in an action against an enemy of the United States. So there are heroes in war. And what's wrong with playing as the pilot of the Enola Gay?
Alot of people got the Iron Cross for exactly the same stuff. Alot of people got SHOT for their bravery, stepping up against injustice and stuff.
Out of these 464 people, tell me, how many were awarded POST MORTEM...how many SURVIVED the war...
I know of one guy (who was featured in Brothers in Arms) who recieved the medal of honor, but died months later from a lethal overdose of german lead.
Also, how many of these people KILLED to become heros...how many did they kill?
Being a hero is subjective, one mans hero can be another mans devil...I guess the families of the killed soldiers congratulated them for their medal of honor, because one countries politics decided it didn´t like the other ones, so let´s kill a bunch of young men to settle the dispute. War doesn´t make you a hero...you kill for reasons that are not your own, you fight people you CAN NOT have anything against, because you don´t know them. You kill fathers, sons, daughters and mothers, you kill people that might be exactly like you, exept they live in the wrong country under the wrong leader...is that a crime?
Enemy of the United States...but not yours, and not them.
That´s what I dislike most about war...a handfull of people decide the fate of millions.
The medal of honor, iron cross, victorian cross or "hero of the soviet union" doesn´t make you a hero, you are still a soldier, and there are no heroes in war, because what you did up to that point was probably very unheroic. Oscar Schindler, now that was a hero...where is his medal?
Oh wait, he got a movie...and he wasn´t all that heroic anyway, he just did what he thought was right, after he realized that his way and actions were wrong.
And I want to see a game about that...I want to see a game that doesn´t begin with the mission briefing.
I want a game that keeps on going. You go to the barracks, you chat with comrades, you sleep, you wake up, you rally, you get a "rousing speech" from your commander. You may get a medal for actions you did, which then flash back in a gruesome way. You can then chat with your comrades again, or do fuck all. You then board a truck and get send to the next battle...all in real time, controllable. You get to play as an insignificant person, who reflects his actions realistically and critically. You might start with glorious thoughts of heroism, but then you cover behind a czech hedghog on D-Day and see all your buddies from basic training (which you also played), die horribly. You might make it on the other side of the beach. You might breach the walls. You go into the bunkers. You kill people who intend to kill you. You hear them faintly call for their loved ones before they die. They might even be alive for a few seconds, grab your hand, look you into the eye, give you a photograph or a live handgrenade, smile and then die. I want to see a game where you aren´t the unstoppable badass super GI who "bandages themselfes up with the stars and stripes and insists on going on for the sheer bloody minded brovado!". I want to play a human for once, I want to play against humans. I want a war-shooter which boldly tells be in the face "all that you do is wrong and shameful!", yet your comrades and superiors still congratulate you, and the latter might thank you with a promotion and a subsequent stop at the next battle, without R&R inbetween, because that battle is just too important, and they need everyone they can get...
You then start to fight against sleep deprevation, hunger, thirst. You nip on your bottle in a trench somewhere. You hear bullets whiz by, you kill a few more guys with different colored uniforms, but now they are far away and you can´t see their fear, you cannot hear their whispers.
You might then roam the land and are ordered to kill survivors. You see crippled men who beg for you in broken english to get a medic, because they don´t want to die.
Maybe you even have the option to help them, but have to find a damn good reason so that one of your comrades doesn´t just shoot him for you.
Maybe there could be a scene where you are trapped with a single german soldier. You both get disarmed, have a fistfight. Then you stop from exhaustion, he offers you a smoke and then tells you, in pretty good english, that he studied in harvard...
These are just examples, they would make for both a very gripping movie, of which there are plenty, or a pretty good game.