Finally, as an aside, I'd note that film and TV already do this better - Band of Brothers spares no punches. If video games want to be taken seriously as an art form, they need to follow suit - they need to have the courage to deliver the facts, unvarnished.

Show Post

And not only will the authoritarians do these horrible crimes, they will make you, you personally suffer these crimes, or they will make you - again, you personally - be complicit in them (and in many cases, both). And that moral horror and outrage needs to sit and solidify into resolve: not here.

Show Post

This is also why I think it is so important to include the crimes of Italian fascists and Japanese militarists (and even of the Soviets) because the lesson is not 'the Nazis were uniquely bad' but rather 'if you let authoritarians take and hold power in *any* country, this is what they will do.'

Show Post

And if "that reflects more on their intelligence" - cool, yeah, except not having fascism right now fundamentally depends on persuading a population, 50% of which is, definitionally, of below-average intelligence. About important things, we must be blunt. And this is an important thing.

Show Post

And so it matters if the first-order popular culture understanding of the Wehrmacht is 'super-capable war-fighters who defied the odds' vs. 'guys shooting unarmed mothers and children in front of a ditch in a tiny village in Eastern Europe.' The first 'what do you think of when I say...' matters.

Show Post