DIGITAL FRONT: WORLD WAR I IN COMPUTER GAMES

Abstract

The article presents a brief overview of contemporary discussions on the transformation of historical memory in digital culture, and above all in video games. The representation of the heroic and tragic narratives in games, most often related to World War II and World War I, respectively, differs significantly. The former uses a realistic strategy of representation and emphasizes visual detailing, linear plot construction, and the synchronization of in-game, fictional, and historical time. Authenticity is perceived here through the realism of details. The tragic narrative uses a deconstructivist strategy of representation, characterized by animated or impressionistic graphics and by positioning war itself as the main enemy, not national armies or individual soldiers. Thus, authenticity is understood through a reference to the existential nature of the war experience. The realistic strategy prevails in contemporary popular culture, but the heroic narrative is increasingly intertwined with the tragic. As a result, the balance between the desire to normalize the war and its problematization shifts significantly in the space of culture. The article analyzes Western historiography by examining the games “Verdun 1914–1918”, “The Trenches", "Brave Hearts” and others. The authors conclude that the influence of digital culture and video games on the perceptions of the past cannot be reduced exclusively to consumerism or the popularization of academic knowledge. It implies an active transformation of the very ways of interacting with the past, a change in established genre norms, an increase in interactivity, democratization, and aestheticization. These trends are inextricably linked with broader transformations of the modes of historicity in public consciousness at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries.