In an interview with Engadget, DICE has talked about how it hopes to teach players more about World War I and break preconceptions about the war. According to Lars Gustavsson, design director for Battlefield 1, there was much more to the Great War than “trench warfare and single-bolt action rifles”.
Gustavsson also pointed out that it’s much more uncommon to see or read about the first World War than it wars that followed it in the 20th century. He believes that by playing the game, players will go on their own information-seeking journeys about the war, and learn something out of it.
Gustavsson stated that World War I brought about monumental shifts for the many empires that participated in it, and transformed nations into highly mechanised and modernised states. Women’s lives were changed by the war as well, and that the war also involved a strong competition for oil, a resource that would define the rest of the century.
So yes, there probably won’t be a lot of staring at trenches and dealing with dysentery in this edition of Battlefield 1. While it’s not going to be a substitute to an actual history textbook, it will hopefully spark some life into World War I media.