Four days from now, much of the world will pause a moment, remembering the sacrifice of soldiers past and present. Here is how some game developers will pay their respects to Veterans Day.
Every year about this time, I recall a pair of songs by Eric Bogle that I heard performed by the Irish Tenors several years ago. "No Man's Land" (often referred to as "The Green Fields of France) as well as "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda" are two beautiful songs contemplating the horrors of war, specifically of WWI, and are quite appropriate for Veterans Day (also known as Remembrance Day). On the 11th hour, of the 11th day, of the 11th month of 1918, known as Armistice Day, the Great War, the First World War, finally came to a close, and for a brief moment, there was peace.
War is horrible. Most of us who play first-person shooters or military strategy games and the like never want to experience real war. I have great respect for those that can face the both the terrors of life and death on a battlefield as well as the deprivations while away from home. And many smaller game development companies feel the same way. Not every game company will try and turn a profit off a day meant to honor sacrifice, such as World of Tanks has done in the past.
"The Powder Monkeys, makers of Great War armour sim Mailed Fist, are planning an unusually elaborate and imaginative Remembrance Day Week digression. Between Nov 8 and Nov 15, users of this nerve-chafing tank game will find their mud-plastered Mark IVs replaced by gleaming 30-inch ATCO motor mowers, and their wire-strung hellscapes switched for pristine WW1 war cemeteries. The devs have gone to the trouble of building a perfect 1-to-1 representation of Tyne Cot, the Western Front's largest burial ground. Every gravestone is correctly placed and engraved."
Other game developers, such as Blitzcat (Target For Tonight) and Bulwark (Kohima: Stalingrad of the East), will be temporarily shutting down their games on November 11th. Another interesting way a developer is honoring Veterans Day is through an "Ironman" 24 hours period in their WWI flight sim, where you have exactly one life for a real-world day. Once it's gone, you're done.
Other reminders game developers are putting out include "AgriSim's commemorative offering is called Polygon Farm. . . . Plough a Polygon Farm field and you run a small risk of detonating a century-old surprise. As 350 unlucky Ypres farmers have discovered since 1918, unexploded shells and bombs don't understand the concept of armistice."
Back in 2012, Electronic Arts had a special, military only unlock code for Veterans Day. The "Military Edition unlock code uniquely recognizes military players by displaying the Project HONOR Eagle icon above them as well as allowing them to access special Project HONOR camouflage pattern weapon skins. This identifies verified U.S. Military players from their non military peers - a privileged distinction that appropriately is made broadly available at no charge to all military Medal of Honor Warfighter game owners during this extended Veteran's Day weekend, from Friday, Nov. 9 through Tuesday, Nov. 13...."
Many gamers, even ones who enjoy violent, war-like video games have great respect for the real soldiers out there, and so do the developers of games. It would be great if some of the other big name developers were willing to make a similar sacrifice one day a year to honor the memory of those lost to war.
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