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The Great War: Legacy, Remembrance, & Associated Fiction
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CameramanJ Offline
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The Great War: Legacy, Remembrance, & Associated Fiction
Lately I find myself thinking about World War I, mostly because 100 years ago today it was progressing in its grim, dark, and brutal way. Catch-all threads are rarely effective but it seemed fitting given that no one is bursting at the seams to talk about Gallipoli, the Battle of Jutland, the story of the Harlem Hellfighters, the Lost Battalion, etc. I'll open the thread in the vein of Associated Fiction with a bit of Remembrance via the latest modern take on The Great War: the video game title Battlefield 1.





Is it a glorification of a terrible war and an attempt to monetize the vague societal recollection of said war? Perhaps and definitely. This is the history book of the next generation though, and better to have something interesting representing that highly-consequential period of history than expecting them to go read an old dry memoir on their own time. Maybe they'll understand, deep down, the lessons learned from that war and apply them to preventing another one of such scale from happening. Or maybe not. One thing is for sure: it beats the hell out of the Call of Duty franchise and their "just another step into the vague future" business model. EA is going to make boatloads of money on this one.
06-16-2016 10:57 PM
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Post: #2
RE: The Great War: Legacy, Remembrance, & Associated Fiction
(06-16-2016 10:57 PM)CameramanJ Wrote:  Lately I find myself thinking about World War I, mostly because 100 years ago today it was progressing in its grim, dark, and brutal way. Catch-all threads are rarely effective but it seemed fitting given that no one is bursting at the seams to talk about Gallipoli, the Battle of Jutland, the story of the Harlem Hellfighters, the Lost Battalion, etc. I'll open the thread in the vein of Associated Fiction with a bit of Remembrance via the latest modern take on The Great War: the video game title Battlefield 1.





Is it a glorification of a terrible war and an attempt to monetize the vague societal recollection of said war? Perhaps and definitely. This is the history book of the next generation though, and better to have something interesting representing that highly-consequential period of history than expecting them to go read an old dry memoir on their own time. Maybe they'll understand, deep down, the lessons learned from that war and apply them to preventing another one of such scale from happening. Or maybe not. One thing is for sure: it beats the hell out of the Call of Duty franchise and their "just another step into the vague future" business model. EA is going to make boatloads of money on this one.

My son says he and everyone he knows complains about Call of Duty keeping moving into the vague future. They want more realistic.
06-20-2016 11:57 PM
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CameramanJ Offline
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RE: The Great War: Legacy, Remembrance, & Associated Fiction
I think Battlefield 1 was a good move, a risk that should be rewarded. To my knowledge there aren't many video games that feature the events of WW1 prominently. Call of Duty has been trash ever since they stepped into quasi-future a few games ago IMO. Their multiplayer has devolved into fast-twitch splatterfests. Battlefield's style is like a movie by contrast. Huge map, multiple objectives, usable vehicles, some semblance of teamwork. It will do WW1 justice.
(This post was last modified: 06-21-2016 06:16 PM by CameramanJ.)
06-21-2016 06:16 PM
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HeartOfDixie Offline
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RE: The Great War: Legacy, Remembrance, & Associated Fiction
There is Verdun, which is a fantastic WW1 FPS.

As for the historical issue, I don't see a problem with it as source material--enough time has passed.
06-21-2016 07:31 PM
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Policiious Offline
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RE: The Great War: Legacy, Remembrance, & Associated Fiction
What I find fascinating about WWI are the aviation battles that took place and how adept the pilots of that time were in manuevering and employing their craft to great success and cause significant damage to the opposing side

Airflight itself wasn't accomplished until only 10 years before the start of the war.
Eddie Rickenbacher (America's leading Ace) shot down 26 Axis planes despite America only being in the war for about 1 year.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Wo..._victories

Canada's leading flying ace Billy Bishop reportedly downed 72 enemy aircraft.

GIven that these planes had open air cockpits and no parachutes available till near the end of the war, it must have taken nerves of steel to fly these machines with virtually no safety equipment
06-22-2016 12:57 PM
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CameramanJ Offline
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RE: The Great War: Legacy, Remembrance, & Associated Fiction
(06-22-2016 12:57 PM)Policiious Wrote:  What I find fascinating about WWI are the aviation battles that took place and how adept the pilots of that time were in manuevering and employing their craft to great success and cause significant damage to the opposing side

Airflight itself wasn't accomplished until only 10 years before the start of the war.
Eddie Rickenbacher (America's leading Ace) shot down 26 Axis planes despite America only being in the war for about 1 year.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Wo..._victories

Canada's leading flying ace Billy Bishop reportedly downed 72 enemy aircraft.

GIven that these planes had open air cockpits and no parachutes available till near the end of the war, it must have taken nerves of steel to fly these machines with virtually no safety equipment

Nerves of steel, a great deal of intestinal fortitude, and probably a bit of that insane courage present in everyone who makes history. That is an interesting point. Can't even imagine what it would have been like, hurtling around the skies of Europe running and gunning like no one had ever done before.

As for the video games, I have heard good things about Verdun. I'm just a bit cynical about the VG industry in general; World War I is a fine setting and I'm sure that Battlefield 1 will do it justice. (Especially with the biplanes!) I keep hearing that the French will be largely excluded from the initial release of the game, which is very puzzling. Apparently the developers have stated that they are so fascinated with the French role in WW1 that they want to dedicate an entire DLC to them, but that sounds a bit fishy. The DLC better be free.
06-22-2016 05:52 PM
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CameramanJ Offline
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RE: The Great War: Legacy, Remembrance, & Associated Fiction




Not sure if anyone here has heard of Sabaton, but they're a Swedish metal band that often bases songs on people, places, and events throughout history. They make some pretty cool stuff. (As long as you can ignore the fact that the record label clearly forgot which war they were singing about when they made the lyric video...) Sabaton's WW1 and WW2 cds songs are their best IMO.
06-23-2016 08:23 PM
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gsu95 Offline
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Post: #8
RE: The Great War: Legacy, Remembrance, & Associated Fiction
Big fan of WWI poetry, some of the best anti-war stuff ever written I think - Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon, Rupert Brooke -- Robert Graves, just to name some of the more well known War Poets. All saw combat, Owen was killed in battle at 25.



Dulce et Decorum
BY WILFRED OWEN

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs,
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots,
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of gas-shells dropping softly behind.

Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime.—
Dim through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

In all my dreams before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,—
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.
06-27-2016 11:43 AM
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CameramanJ Offline
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Post: #9
RE: The Great War: Legacy, Remembrance, & Associated Fiction
Politics are getting into Battlefield 1. Gotta side with Rags on realism on this one



07-08-2016 08:53 PM
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CameramanJ Offline
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Post: #10
RE: The Great War: Legacy, Remembrance, & Associated Fiction
Johnny Cash to the rescue!



08-26-2016 09:35 PM
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CameramanJ Offline
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RE: The Great War: Legacy, Remembrance, & Associated Fiction
I'll admit, having played through the BF1 campaign mode "War Stories", this game does the war some measure of justice in single-player. The best "war story" in the game currently IMO is the "Friends in High Places". The ending is very true to life. Was hoping to see more from the Harlem Hellfighters sequences beyond just an intro, overarching narration, and ending, but I guess that is how it goes
(This post was last modified: 11-27-2016 07:33 PM by CameramanJ.)
11-27-2016 07:33 PM
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49RFootballNow Offline
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RE: The Great War: Legacy, Remembrance, & Associated Fiction
One of the great, and amazingly under-explored what-if's of history is what would the world be like had the Germans won the First World War.

Of course, that wholly depends on when the "point-of-divergence" occurs with our own timeline.
Still, even if the point is as late as the German's Spring Offensive in 1918, it's pretty hard to imagine the following still occuring.

- Russian Civil War
* A victorious Germany wouldn't tolerate a Bolshevik regime after victory on their new, longer, and more volatile border with them. Germans would arm and support the White Forces directly and with more vigor than the "international intervention" the Allies tried in 1919.
* No USSR of course means no Stalin, no Great Purge.
* No Stalin also means Mao and the Kims don't have the support to turn China and N. Korea red later.

- No WWII
* At least not how it happened in our timeline.
* Britain, uninvaded, would refocus on keeping her colonies in line.
* France, already weaker than Germany before the war started, is too weak to pose any threat after defeat. A French "Hitler" doesn't have the resources for revenge the real Hitler had.
* No Hitler equals no Holocaust. Anti-Semitism in Germany remains low-level prejudices.
* No Jewish flight from the Continent means Germany would probably get the atom bomb before the US. Also means that the Zionist movement has no strong push to restore Isreal.
* Still a possibility of a Pacific War with Expansionist Japan, but the aspects of a continuing Anglo-Japanese Alliance has to be considered as well.

- Long term:
* The wedding of Prince Georg Friedrich of Prussia to Princess Sophie of Isenburg might have outdrawn William and Kate's wedding for TV viewership. LOL.
(This post was last modified: 01-13-2017 11:53 PM by 49RFootballNow.)
01-09-2017 03:00 PM
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CameramanJ Offline
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RE: The Great War: Legacy, Remembrance, & Associated Fiction
An interesting scenario. Have to wonder what an undefeated Ottoman Empire would have meant for the Middle East as well
01-11-2017 07:48 PM
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49RFootballNow Offline
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RE: The Great War: Legacy, Remembrance, & Associated Fiction
(01-11-2017 07:48 PM)CameramanJ Wrote:  An interesting scenario. Have to wonder what an undefeated Ottoman Empire would have meant for the Middle East as well

Honestly I think the Ottoman Empire collapses whether the Central Powers win or lose. They weren't called The Sick Man of Europe for nothing. Now when and how that happens is intriguing. I think victory might buy them a few more years.
01-11-2017 10:09 PM
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CameramanJ Offline
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RE: The Great War: Legacy, Remembrance, & Associated Fiction
(01-11-2017 10:09 PM)49RFootballNow Wrote:  
(01-11-2017 07:48 PM)CameramanJ Wrote:  An interesting scenario. Have to wonder what an undefeated Ottoman Empire would have meant for the Middle East as well

Honestly I think the Ottoman Empire collapses whether the Central Powers win or lose. They weren't called The Sick Man of Europe for nothing. Now when and how that happens is intriguing. I think victory might buy them a few more years.

If/when the Ottomans collapsed anyway, maybe borders would have been drawn differently. Might have been slightly better off, but then again could have turned out much worse if they devolved into a handful of squabbling countries fighting for the power vacuum
01-13-2017 10:25 AM
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