DICE, Just Put Women in Battlefield 1 Multiplayer
We got a really good question a few weeks back on our podcast about why DICE was getting so much heat for the exclusion of female avatars in the upcoming Battlefield 1 multiplayer which is set during World War 1. According to Amandine Coget, former coder at DICE, she was told that “female soldiers are not [believable] to the core audience of boys.” DICE is aiming for authenticity. Sorry, “girls”.
Except for just one thing: the multiplayer portion is not a documentary. I hope that the single player will shed light on certain historic battles and stories that aren’t widely known. There will also be DLC that features soldiers from the first World War that many people don’t know about like the Harlem Hellfighters for example, a group of Black American and Puerto Rican American infantry soldiers from New York who spent more time in combat than any other American unit.
The single player, from what we know so far, does still feature at least one woman who fought in World War 1. But I wanted to clarify one thing. For those out there claiming only Russia had female soldiers, here are a list of other women who also fought in World War 1.
Flora Sandes
Sandes was the first and only woman to officially serve as a British soldier in World War 1. Initially a St. John’s Ambulance volunteer, she went on to formally join the Serbian Army and serve on the front lines. In 1916, Sandes was seriously wounded by a grenade in hand to hand combat. She received the highest decoration of the Serbian Military, the Order of the Karađorđe’s Star and also was promoted to Sergeant Major. After the war she’d be promoted to Captain and collect seven medals for her service.
Dorothy Lawrence
Lawrence was an English reporter who concealed her true identity by changing her appearance to look like a man and spent time digging trenches until the truth of her gender was discovered. She was taken into custody and everything was covered up in the fear that more women would be inspired to do the same. Upon her return to England she was sworn into a life of secrecy. Military historians would go on to discover letters and her notes and write her biography.
Marie Marvingt
Marvingt was a French athlete, mountaineer, journalist and aviator. During World War 1 she disguised herself as a man and with the help of a French Lieutenant, served as a Soldier in the 42nd Battalion of Foot Soldiers until she was discovered and sent home. She later went on to serve alongside the Italian 3rd Regiment of Alpine Troops in the Italian Dolomites at the request of French General Marshal Foch. In 1915, Marvingt became the first woman in the world to fly combat missions flying multiple bombing missions over German-held territory. She even received the Croix de guerre (Military Cross) for her aerial bombing of a German military base in Metz.
Ecaterina Teodoroiu
Originally working for a Scout unit as a nurse, Teodoroiu picked up arms and joined civilians and reserve soldiers to repulse the attack of a Bavarian company of the 9th German Army. She joined the front line as a soldier after the death of her brother, Nicolae, who was a Sergeant in the Romanian Army. She would later distract soldiers and be taken prisoner in order to save her company. She then escaped by killing her German capture by using a revolver, was involved in a few more battles and got wounded once again. After being discharged signed up one more time to go to the front lines to serve as a nurse and a scout. She was given the “Scout Virtue Medal” and two “Military Virtue Medals”. King Ferdinand made her an honorary Second Lieutenant and gave her a 25-man Platoon in the 7th Company commanded by Second Lieutenant Gheorghe Mănoiu.
Poland’s Blue Army
The Blue Army was created shortly after America’s entry into the war in April 1917. A proposal was submitted to allow Polish-American citizens to fight on the front lines. 24,000 people were accepted and trained, including many women volunteers.
If you’re willing to suspend your disbelief to allow weapons that didn’t exist yet or behave accurately for the sake of gameplay, the way that parachutes and tanks performed, or even things like rifles with side-mounted scopes, then you can at least give people the option to have a female avatar in multiplayer. I get it, the fact that including women wouldn’t be historically accurate for you in a multiplayer online shooter despite the facts. But dig deeper. Why does that upset you? Why does giving someone the option to have a female avatar in multiplayer bother you so much?
I think this is a crucial issue for gamers to discuss. The game is a great way to showcase certain elements of the war but ultimately, the multiplayer is something you throw on to have fun. In many ways, on a deeper level, isn’t that sort of the opposite of historical accuracy? Were there any “Rush” mode battles that had soldiers constantly arming and disarming one objective or “Conquest” battles with soldiers fighting for points and spawning directly into them? I’ve heard some Youtubers go so far as to say that this is the equivalent of adding Darth Vader into the game. Is it though? Women who fought in World War 1 actually existed. Vader doesn’t exist at all.
So DICE, do us all a favor and just include female avatars in the game’s multiplayer. It’s not like they’re going to be running around burning bras and playing Anita Sarkeesian soundbites into their mics. Gamers out there completely against it appear to be using this as a way to stick it to the “feminazis”. But if it has no impact on the actual gameplay, then just give people the option. I bet you you won’t even notice and better yet, in time, you’ll completely forget about it. Even if you want to accept that certain factions did not have documented female soldiers (that we know about) like Germany, then fine, don’t include them on that side. But don’t disrespect the ones that actually did. Otherwise, I’ll just pretend that some of you out there are just women dressed as men fighting alongside me in Conquest. At least that much is historically accurate.
Paul Tamayo is a photographer/videographer from Brooklyn, New York who runs The Optional, a gaming blog and podcast. Follow him on twitter @polimayo
