Battlefield 1 Twitter account publishes controversial tweets under #justWWIthings [Update]

We all know Battlefield 1 is fun, but these tweets were just wrong.

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It appears Battlefield 1’s servers aren’t the only things to catch fire over the weekend. That’s because the official Battlefield Twitter account shared some images from Battlefield 1 that probably shouldn’t have been published.

In the screenshots below, the Battlefield Twitter account attempted to entertain its audience by sharing some GIFs tied to the #justWWIthings hashtag. The images, which have since been removed, show a flamethrower being used with the caption “When you’re too hot for the club.” An additional tweet vein was published of a Zeppelin crashing in the background while a soldier points a gun with the caption “When your squad is looking on point.”

While we can certainly understand why the Battlefield Twitter account published these tweets, many found them to be offensive given how it glorifies the terrors that stemmed from World War I. While we found Battlefield 1 to be a fun and worthwhile experience, we also praised it for its tight-knit and well told campaign stories, which certainly didn’t glorify the experience of fighting in World War I.

Update: An EA representative provided Shacknews with the following statement regarding this story: "We would like to apologize for any offense caused by content in the last 24 hours posted on the @Battlefield Twitter account. It did not treat the World War 1 era with the respect and sensitivity that we have strived to maintain with the game and our communications.”

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From The Chatty
  • reply
    October 31, 2016 10:25 AM

    Daniel Perez posted a new article, Battlefield 1 Twitter account publishes controversial tweets under #justWWIthings

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      October 31, 2016 1:47 PM

      TRIGGERED

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      October 31, 2016 1:49 PM

      i thought it was funny

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      October 31, 2016 1:55 PM

      Too soon, apparently

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      October 31, 2016 2:26 PM

      Fuck twitter. I bet not a single person who actually plays the game found this offensive, just a bunch of dumb cunts showing up to get recreationally upset.

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        October 31, 2016 3:28 PM

        I get what you are saying - but it's kinda cringey.

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          October 31, 2016 3:41 PM

          He's still completely and utterly correct. It's a fucking game about MURDERING PEOPLE. Ugh who gives a fuck what the memes say.

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            October 31, 2016 3:47 PM

            Memes are fine and all.. But this was a tone deaf poor attempt by some obvious marketing assholes. They need to go back to school and learn a real profession.

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          October 31, 2016 4:19 PM

          Not going to argue with you there, it absolutely is cringey. And there is nothing wrong with pointing that out. But I take issue with people pretending that they find it offensive.

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      October 31, 2016 2:35 PM

      [deleted]

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      October 31, 2016 2:41 PM

      I'm not especially offended, but the cavalier attitude they show is a big part of why the Duty of Battle Warfare subgenre of video games are so culturally vapid.

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        October 31, 2016 4:44 PM

        They tried making more serious tone in Medal of Honor 2010 and were hit hard in sales. No one would make the original Call of Duty today, it wouldn't sell well enough.

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      October 31, 2016 2:55 PM

      When has any company been able to successfully channel meme culture? It always ends in disaster. Why do they never learn?

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        October 31, 2016 2:58 PM

        they can't. they need private people to shill this stuff out - guerilla marketing. from the company proper this is always going to fucking fail.

        UNLESS...

        it's from arby's. anything they do is appropriate. anything.

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        October 31, 2016 4:45 PM

        Look again...your post is now diamonds.

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        October 31, 2016 5:30 PM

        Shacknews. It gets you dank Pepes.

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        November 1, 2016 1:55 AM

        nihilist arby's

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      October 31, 2016 4:42 PM

      we also praised it for its tight-knit and well told campaign stories, which certainly didn’t glorify the experience of fighting in World War I.

      Wut? There is a mission where you Rambo your way through a fortress. There is another where you ride a flaming Zeppelin over London...of course after your training missions where you down 30 or 40 Dr. Is (which would be a large percentage of those ever made.)

      The Cambrai mission had you solo taking on many German tanks (which didn't exist at Cambrai). Germany deployed a total of 20 tanks in the entire war.

      Defending this "game" as being respectful of WW1 is not a good tactic. The voice overs and the white text on the black background is respectful, very little about playing the game is respectful.

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        October 31, 2016 9:17 PM

        or even better, fuck acting like you have to be respectful at all. Shit happened 100 years ago. there is no one left to be offended. Thats one of the perks about history.

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          November 1, 2016 2:57 AM

          There is a collective memory, which is why the Chinese really don't like the Japanese. Compared to Singaporeans where within one generation there is almost no hatred for the Japanese even when it was under its occupation during ww2 and they did really nasty stuff.

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      October 31, 2016 5:31 PM

      #justsjwthings

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      October 31, 2016 5:41 PM

      [deleted]

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      October 31, 2016 8:33 PM

      I enjoy the games a lot but it's weird to be offended by that and not be offended that they basically made a casual and fun game about war. A war that killed millions of people....

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      October 31, 2016 8:53 PM

      i'm sure many of the WWI vets on twitter were very offended.

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      November 1, 2016 1:40 AM

      I feel EA needs to hire the Newegg patent troll lawyer to respond to these complaints.

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