Abstract
The Introduction examines the current focus of research into the First World War away from previous ‘national’ histories into new spheres and directions. It highlights the complicated and problematic role that the war holds in modern British society and how the memory of it has been constructed, portrayed and enforced through popular media and literature to become almost sacred. It also addresses early questions regarding the nature of computer games in portraying historical events and how they operate under a different set of rules to other media regarding what is deemed ‘tasteful’ for reproduction in an interactive setting. Events such as the Holocaust are never deemed suitable for portrayal in computer games and this introduction examines how the First World War fits into this framework given its sacred status and its role in British society as the ‘bad war’.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
Paris M. The First World War and popular cinema: 1914 to the present. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press; 1999.
Sheffield GD. ‘Oh! What a Futile War’: Representations of the Western Front in modern British media and Popular Culture. In: Stewart IMT, Carruthers SL (eds.) War, culture and the media: representations of the military in 20th century Britain. Trowbridge: Flicks; 1996.
MacCallum-Stewart E. The First World War and Popular Literature. University of Sussex; 2005.
MacCallum-Stewart E. ‘If they ask us why we died’: Children’s Literature and the First World War, 1970–2005. The Lion and the Unicorn. 2007; 31(2): 176–188.
Falls C. War books, a critical guide. London: P. Davies; 1930.
Einhaus A-M. The British Short Story of the First World War: Form, Function and Canonisation. University of Durham; 2010.
O’Prey P. Poetry of the First World War: Dispelling the Myths. The RUSI Journal. 2014; 159(4): 102–105.
Roberts D. Minds at war: essential poetry of the First World War in context. Burgess Hill: Saxon Books; 1996.
Winter J. Sites of memory, sites of mourning: the Great War in European cultural history. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 1995.
Fussell P. The Great War and modern memory. 25th anniversary ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2000.
Todman D. The Great War: myth and memory. London: Hambledon and London; 2005.
Corrigan G. Mud, blood and poppycock: Britain and the First World War. London: Cassell Military; 2004.
Thomson A. Anzac memories: living with the legend. Melbourne ; Oxford: Oxford University Press; 1994.
MacCallum-Stewart E, Parsler J. Controversies: Historicising the Computer Game. Situated Play, Proceedings of DiGRA 2007 Conference Tokyo: The University of Tokyo. Tokyo: Tokyo University; 2007.
Chapman A, Linderoth J. Exploring the limits of play — A case study of representations of Nazism in games. The Dark Side of Game Play: Controversial Issues in Playful Environments. Routledge; 2015.
Brian. Nintendo bans Hitler from Mario Kart Wii online, lets Stalin and Osama slide. [Online] Nintendo Everything. Available from: http://nintendoeverything.com/nintendo-bans-hitler-from-mario-kart-wii-online-lets-stalin-and-osama-slide/ [Accessed: 13 December 2014].
Singer B. Apt Pupil. TriStar Pictures; 1998.
Molloy A. The two best reasons to buy a poppy. [Online] The Independent. Available from: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/poppy-appeal-2014-why-you-should-buy-a-poppy-to-wear-9813126.html [Accessed: 14 December 2014].
Gallagher P. Jeremy Paxman reopens war of words with Michael Gove over the WW1 centenary: ‘A charlatan’ who scores ‘cheap political points’. [Online] The Independent. Available from: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/news/a-charlatan-who-scores-cheap-political-points-jeremy-paxman-reopens-war-of-words-with-michael-gove-over-the-world-war-one-centenary-9190705.html [Accessed: 14 December 2014].
Hobsbawm EJ. Age of extremes: the short twentieth century, 1914–1991. London; New York: Michael Joseph ; Viking Penguin; 1994.
Horne J, Kramer A. German Atrocities, 1914: A History of Denial. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press; 2001. p. 608.
Bellamy C. Soviet Russia in the Second World War. London: Pan: [distributor] Macmillan Distribution (MDL); 2008.
Beevor A. Stalingrad. London: Penguin; 1999.
Beevor A. Berlin: the downfall, 1945. London: Penguin; 2003.
Spielberg S. War Horse. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures; 2011.
Roper M. The secret battle: emotional survival in the Great War. Manchester: Manchester University Press; 2009.
Chapman A. It’s Hard to Play in the Trenches: World War 1, Collective Memory and Videogames. Nordic DiGRA, 2014.
Wackerfuss A. ‘“This Game of Sudden Death”: Simulating Air Combat of the First World War’. In: Kapell M, Elliott ABR (eds.) Playing with the past: digital games and the simulation of history. New York: Bloomsbury Academic; 2013.
MacCallum-Stewart E. Diggy Holes and Jaffa Cakes: The rise of the elite fanproducer in video-gaming culture. Journal of Gaming & Virtual Worlds. [Online] 2013; 5(2): 165–182.
MacCallum-Stewart E. Online games, social narratives. New York: Routledge; 2014. p. 194
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2015 Chris Kempshall
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Kempshall, C. (2015). Introduction: Opening Up a Digital Front. In: The First World War in Computer Games. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137491763_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137491763_1
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-50454-1
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-49176-3
eBook Packages: Palgrave History CollectionHistory (R0)