[Day of Defeat] is completely user-generated - that means enough people thought this would be a good idea that they gathered together online and spent years toiling to produce what in many respects is the virtual counterpart to the re-enactments chronicled by Jenny Thompson. Meticulous attention is paid to detail, from the exact specifications of various weapons, uniforms, and equipment to the motivations behind each specific battle. Why, if you're curious, you can even head over to the forums where you can find over 10,000 active members discussing military history and culture, how to accurately recreate a german sniper, or how real is too real to be fun.
Even better, we have the organizations that develop around the game. Gamers congregate into groups, give themselves authentic names, and play each other as squadrons of American, British, German, or Russian soldiers.
Click dat link above for a post on Dr. Elliott's graduate seminar blog that originated from my reading of a book on World War II reenactors. It got me thinking about a new approach to my thesis. I took a lot of notes in class last night (sorry Dr. Elliott! :[ ) and I'll post them here later. I'm also thinking about getting in touch with Susan Tamasi of the linguistics department because this new approach will probably touch on language use and creation as well as local and non-local communities, but we'll see.
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