AFS Cinema
Nostalgia for World War II
RECEIVED Tue., May 18, 2004
Dear Editor,
My dad is a computer nerd, the kind that hoards old computers and rebuilds them. Although I don't have a closet devoted to pasty-yellow plastic boxes, I do have a sensitive spot for computers and a loyalty to their hardcore fans – especially strategy gamers.
Strategy computer games have been in my life ever since I was able to play SimCity by holding the shift key down (to increase available RAM) while booting my Macintosh LC II with its über-fantastic System 7 software (I'm a nerd too).
Recently, I have noticed that many software companies who design strategic computer games are looking back nostalgically to World War II for material. Their products are titled Battlefield 1942, Call of Duty, and Medal of Honor. To add to this phenomenon, strategy patrons buying these games are predominantly from a generation that succeeds this war by two and sometimes three generations.
Nostalgia for World War II is not a unique phenomenon. Ever since the battles held in the South Pacific, the United States and much of Western Europe have sought out meaning in war that has not been duplicated since the days of the Axis and the Allies. Where there was once certainty in the cause and the desired outcome was universal, confusion and blurred meaning have forced many to reconsider what war means and what it is good for, pardon the pun.
Each generation has its nostalgic longing for World War II. Brokaw's Greatest Generation had experienced it firsthand and translated their living history through the spoken word. For boomers, these stories became blockbuster films such as Kelly's Heroes and Where Eagles Dare. For Generation X/Y, this longing for substance in war has not been fulfilled in the Middle East; rather, it has been decoded through the World War II video game.
My dad is a computer nerd, the kind that hoards old computers and rebuilds them. Although I don't have a closet devoted to pasty-yellow plastic boxes, I do have a sensitive spot for computers and a loyalty to their hardcore fans – especially strategy gamers.
Strategy computer games have been in my life ever since I was able to play SimCity by holding the shift key down (to increase available RAM) while booting my Macintosh LC II with its über-fantastic System 7 software (I'm a nerd too).
Recently, I have noticed that many software companies who design strategic computer games are looking back nostalgically to World War II for material. Their products are titled Battlefield 1942, Call of Duty, and Medal of Honor. To add to this phenomenon, strategy patrons buying these games are predominantly from a generation that succeeds this war by two and sometimes three generations.
Nostalgia for World War II is not a unique phenomenon. Ever since the battles held in the South Pacific, the United States and much of Western Europe have sought out meaning in war that has not been duplicated since the days of the Axis and the Allies. Where there was once certainty in the cause and the desired outcome was universal, confusion and blurred meaning have forced many to reconsider what war means and what it is good for, pardon the pun.
Each generation has its nostalgic longing for World War II. Brokaw's Greatest Generation had experienced it firsthand and translated their living history through the spoken word. For boomers, these stories became blockbuster films such as Kelly's Heroes and Where Eagles Dare. For Generation X/Y, this longing for substance in war has not been fulfilled in the Middle East; rather, it has been decoded through the World War II video game.
Rad Tollett