Brothers in Arms

[econ21]

I wonder what is keeping them back. Can't be the politics or ethics of being the 'evil' Germans as you can already play them in other types of games.

Well, other games let you command counters of German units in hex-based wargame or tiny toy soliders in a Blitzkrieg type RTS. It's kind of impersonal. But to play as a WW2 German in a shooter, killing young American, Russian or British boys when you can see the whites of their eyes... That's a little different. I don't think it is anything about ethics per se - shooters already let you play serial killers, vampires etc. But it may be marketing - I am not sure it would go down well with American kids and their moralistic protectors. It would give me pause for thought, although I would be interested if it was a reasonably authentic, atmospheric shooter like Vietcong.

[Viking]

But playing as the germans would be a bit weird, since you`re losing the war.

How would that be put into gameplay? Defeat after defeat?

[Kraxis]

Well, other games let you command counters of German units in hex-based wargame or tiny toy soliders in a Blitzkrieg type RTS. It's kind of impersonal. But to play as a WW2 German in a shooter, killing young American, Russian or British boys when you can see the whites of their eyes... That's a little different. I don't think it is anything about ethics per se - shooters already let you play serial killers, vampires etc. But it may be marketing - I am not sure it would go down well with American kids and their moralistic protectors. It would give me pause for thought, although I would be interested if it was a reasonably authentic, atmospheric shooter like Vietcong.

That's the point... You can actually play as Germans in MP, 'killing' actual people. That has got to be worse, damn you can even play with bots to make a real killingground. And you can play the baddies or non-good guys (though all that good guy bad guy can be debated endlessly) in many an FPS. I just think that the developers haven't got the guts.

I think the losing battles are very much indeed good cases for FPS games, you have to perform delaying actions, assassinations (such as that landing in England to kill Churchill), take part in counter-offensives (Ardennes anyone?), defend against impossible odds (Monte Cassino for instance or Selöw Heights) or even play during Operation Zitadelle. Don't tell me that it wouldn't be great. All those types of battles have already been tried and with good effect in MoH and CoD.
There are plenty of German victories despite a losing war, so you wouldn't have to be playing losing battles.
Also a losing battle would just make a different experience of FPS. Just like a warmovie where the 'good' guys eventually all die or fail (which in general are incredibly good movies).

Being a non-American and non-German I'm getting tired of moving down the same enemy like I'm some sort of superhuman being, it is simply getting repitative. I like it balanced, perhaps I'm trying to make up for it by actually preferring to play Germans in BF 1942 or VC in BF Vietnam, since I can't play them otherwise.

I think the Close Combat games were excellent games, and there you got real personal with the enemy, hearing them scream and flee in terror at the sight of their comrades getting toasted with a flamethrower. They were rather successful if I'm not mistaken.

So as you can see I find no rational point in no German poin of view in FPS SP games. I honestly thought that there would be a German campaign in Call of Duty, as the last 'unknown' campaign (which turned out to merely be one extra mission for each of the normal campaigns).

For all I care the developers could make it so that the German missions were missions of mercy. Assassination of a British bombercommander who plans bomb missions against German populationcenters for the sole sake of killing civilians (and as we know that is not impossible to believe, as there actually were a good number of them), or defending a village against a penal brigade (whom wouldn't be too nice towards the civilians as their own lives would soon end too). And if it really is that bad, then let the missions actually fail. Let the commander escape to bomb again and let the village get torched before it can be saved.