![]() ![]() ![]() New clips of one of “Battlefield’s” single-player vignettes revealed an emphasis on a young, female Norwegian soldier.Įlsewhere, Ubisoft’s sequel to “The Division” shifted its images of near-future terrorist-induced mass hysteria from New York to Washington, D.C. The company’s creative director Lars Gustavsson over the weekend stressed the need for games to reflect the diversity of their creators and the audience that plays them, and the studio also doubled-down on its mission. In turn, “Youngblood” may appear less like a dark twist on a history that never happened and more like a game that exposes beliefs that have inspired acts of horrific violence.Ĭentering the game on two female protagonists adds to its political power, not only by having women battle a group with expressively regressive views on femininity, but also by ushering in more gender diversity to a medium that has long lacked it - and a community that doesn’t always handle it with grace.ĭice’s “Battlefield 5,” for instance, recently came under attack by some fans online for daring to put a woman combatant on the cover of its WWII game. Yet today, when a war can feel one misguided presidential tweet away from occurring, the post-apocalyptic fantasy of many a major E3 game doesn’t feel so absurd.īethesda’s “Wolfenstein: Youngblood,” the upcoming game in a franchise set in an alternate timeline in which the Axis powers prevailed in WWII, fast-forwards to 1980, bringing its Nazi imagery uncomfortably close to present-day hate speech. Independent developers such as Geppert have for years brought more thoughtful experiences to the game world. It’s one of the many games garnering attention at this year’s E3, including such hotly anticipated blockbuster games as Sony’s sequel to “The Last of Us,” Nintendo’s latest entry in its “Super Smash Bros.” franchise and From Software’s just-announced “Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice,” a darkly mysterious adventure set in 1500s Japan.Īdding a bit of seriousness to E3 isn’t a shift that happened in a vacuum. This was a natural way to imagine how all the dark feelings and dark things you had in your head turned to the outside.” “Of course, if you have this darkness inside - anger and all this stuff - and you imagine it all burst out, how would you imagine it? A monster. “I talked with one good friend who had major depression and she told me when she was really down she felt like a bad person,” Geppert said. She credits creating the metaphorical game as helping her conquer her own insecurities and exhaustion that resulted from going out in public. Friends were struggling with really major depression, and I had certain incidents in my family and then more famous people started to commit suicide.” ![]() “Four or five years ago, a lot of things came together. “It’s everywhere, this topic,” said Geppert. The game from Cornelia Geppert is being developed by Berlin studio Jo-Mei Games and will be published next year by Electronic Arts, a company best known of late for its “Battlefield” and “Star Wars” games. “Sea of Solitude,” for instance, tackles paralyzing loneliness and depression by putting players in control of a young woman named Kay, who sees herself turning into an unrecognizable monster in her darkest moments. (MIike Nelson / EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock ) ![]()
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