Cognition Dissemination: Anger Over Women in Battlefield V

Battlefield V was bound to generate some sort of controversy at any point, since it’s coming from a familiar developer and publisher in DICE and EA, respectively. Both companies still haven’t recovered from the Star Wars Battlefront II fiasco, a game that included the most predatory form of loot boxes yet, where players could essentially pay money to earn better bonuses online instead of playing normally. It was a poor way to launch a game in one of the most popular franchises around (despite Solo’s underwhelming first box office weekend), and it will take time for the gaming audience to trust them without serious reservations again.

The issue vocal types in the gaming audience have with Battlefield V at the moment has nothing to do with loot boxes or DLC schemes. In fact, EA confirmed right off the bat that it won’t have loot boxes or a season pass, though admitted it will still have premium and real money currencies. Whether they’ll be disastrous will depend on how they’re implemented, particularly the real money aspect, which we should find out shortly before the October 19th release. The biggest current scandal involves is a more unexpected one, though it’s nonetheless predictable given the audience: Women!

To be specific: There was a big focus on female combatants in the reveal trailer and shown through gameplay on the stream. There have been several criticisms regarding the lack of women in previous installments in tentpole war-based first-person shooter franchises. Companies have slowly started addressing this over the years. Call of Duty: Black Ops III, for instance, contained the option to play a male or female protagonist in its campaign — though its script was criticized for clearly being written with a male in mind.

But Battlefield V is placing a larger focus on them than any prior war FPS. In addition to the reveal trailer, women are also prominently featured in screenshots and even on the main box art. For some bizarre reason, this has upset a lot of people, who’ve taken to social media, message boards, and various comment sections to complain about how it’s a “Social Justice Warrior” game pandering to rabid feminists. They’ve also been using the #NotMyBattlefield hashtag. All it takes is for developers to have a small desire to expand the target audience for a game for them to get outraged — or triggered, as they like to say.

The main argument they’ve used is how DICE is establishing an alternate history World War II with this game, which is nonsense. While men were far more prominent than women in the war, several women did fight, particularly among European and Soviet Russian forces. These guys are clinging to any excuse to voice their displeasure with seeing a developer wanting to include an audience that’s not almost-exclusively male, out of inanity, pettiness, and utter silliness. It’s also humorous how historical accuracy is a concern considering the liberties previous games have taken, a surefire sign that they’re searching for a scapegoat in lieu of the real reason why they’re upset.

The complaints were enough that DICE general manager Oskar Gabrielson had to respond on Twitter.   “Player choice and female playable characters are here to stay,” he said. Speaking for his company, he continued by saying “Our commitment as a studio is to do everything we can to create games that are inclusive and diverse. We always set out to push boundaries and deliver unexpected experiences.” It’s amazing that he even had to respond to this, but this was necessary to hear for anyone who feared DICE could buckle under pressure. That’s despite how there will be plenty of male characters in the game, and how players can customize their avatar.

This isn’t to say there haven’t been complaints about other aspects of the game with the reveal. Several players have voiced concerns about a new gameplay option where soldiers can create their own bases, which looks inspired by Fortnite’s feature. Those rumors about a battle royale mode didn’t pan out, but the multiplayer might include some features common to them. The players who don’t like this simply want the game to retain the best features from the previous games’ multiplayer options, and don’t want anything that could potentially hamper it, even though that likely won’t be the case here.

The other criticisms are being overshadowed by the freak-out over too many women, because of course that’s happening. Given the kind of audience we’re talking about here, they’re unlikely to get over it for ages. This Memorial Day should be a time for some of them to learn history on this, but again, that’s not the real issue for most of them. There’s a chance this is simply a small audience, and that DICE could succeed in reaching a different audience the games didn’t appeal to before, and that will be good for everyone despite the complaints.

To be specific: The game could expand Battlefield’s audience assuming it doesn’t launch with other EA-centric issues, like the kind that hampered Battlefront II. The fact that one of its currencies will depend on real money is an ominous sign, but that depends on how it’s implemented. Hope for the best, at least for the potential new audience’s sake.

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