This might be an unusual response and I honestly do not pose it with the intention of deriding DICE (much):
The gifs that have been (rightly) brought forth in this thread to counter the notion that BF was historically accurate (aside from its core game-y aspects) ought to be put in context that historically EA and DICE have marketed the game as "authentic" time and again. Over time, with improving audio and visual technology, these (mostly unchanging) fictitious elements/aspects have essentially cemented themselves as the "Normal" and dev talk of "Realism" conflated with "Accuracy" by some if not many folks (including the degenerates).
Lest we forget, story driven military shooters have existed for decades. With improvement of technology and proliferation of affordable platforms that allowed (and allows) one to play them, they have become common place today. In all that time, they have shaped our perspective of what is "right", "normal", "realistic" and our expectations by a mostly straight white male dominated industry and for the same (and younger) demographics. And while they slowly became part of the zeitgeist, they quite successfully obfuscated the notion that any of it was "political".
So when DICE wanted to explicitly break the chains of "authenticity" the entire industry had tailored suit their primary demographics over the decades, by featuring women in prominence with BFV, it suddenly became jarring to see juxtaposed against the rest of fictitious pile of game mechanics and animations that did not register as anything other than "normal" and "realistic". Suddenly, it became a "political" notion because as aforementioned, that concept is only reserved for aspects pertaining to representation, thanks in no small part to an industry that has cultivated the toxic straight (preferably white) boy's club demographics (which has gotten louder but also smaller in comparison to the number of people who now actually play games).
Now that gaming is more global than ever before and our socio-political awareness, on a grander scale has expanded, changes have been seen occurring within the industry. As diversity becomes part of development side so shall the previous aspects in fictional settings be redefined. The new normal will take time but it has begun and will continue to evolve (mostly) for the better.
The gifs that have been (rightly) brought forth in this thread to counter the notion that BF was historically accurate (aside from its core game-y aspects) ought to be put in context that historically EA and DICE have marketed the game as "authentic" time and again. Over time, with improving audio and visual technology, these (mostly unchanging) fictitious elements/aspects have essentially cemented themselves as the "Normal" and dev talk of "Realism" conflated with "Accuracy" by some if not many folks (including the degenerates).
Lest we forget, story driven military shooters have existed for decades. With improvement of technology and proliferation of affordable platforms that allowed (and allows) one to play them, they have become common place today. In all that time, they have shaped our perspective of what is "right", "normal", "realistic" and our expectations by a mostly straight white male dominated industry and for the same (and younger) demographics. And while they slowly became part of the zeitgeist, they quite successfully obfuscated the notion that any of it was "political".
So when DICE wanted to explicitly break the chains of "authenticity" the entire industry had tailored suit their primary demographics over the decades, by featuring women in prominence with BFV, it suddenly became jarring to see juxtaposed against the rest of fictitious pile of game mechanics and animations that did not register as anything other than "normal" and "realistic". Suddenly, it became a "political" notion because as aforementioned, that concept is only reserved for aspects pertaining to representation, thanks in no small part to an industry that has cultivated the toxic straight (preferably white) boy's club demographics (which has gotten louder but also smaller in comparison to the number of people who now actually play games).
Now that gaming is more global than ever before and our socio-political awareness, on a grander scale has expanded, changes have been seen occurring within the industry. As diversity becomes part of development side so shall the previous aspects in fictional settings be redefined. The new normal will take time but it has begun and will continue to evolve (mostly) for the better.
