The announcement of new World War II video game Battlefield V has upset some fans over its inclusion of female characters.
Adding more diversity to characters in games has been a trend in recent years, but it has been met with a backlash from some gamers who label it "political correctness" or "virtue signalling".
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Battlefield V honouring the women who fought in World War II is being praised by many, but triggered fury on Reddit and Twitter, among other places.
"Because f**k historical accuracy, gotta have a female on the front of a WWII multiplayer [first-person shooter], because reasons," raged one commenter.
EA DICE and Electronic Arts, the respective developer and publisher of Battlefield games, face a similar backlash when they included a black man in previous promotional material.
The hashtag #NotMyBattlefield has been launched on Twitter in protest over the inclusion of women in the new game, but others are using it to attack the backlash.
Other social media users are pointing out the irony of Battlefield fans complaining that the game's "realism" is under threat by female characters, with graphic examples of previous games being completely unrealistic.
"It's laughable to think that any modern video game based on a war is 'historically accurate', but even in this case, Battlefield isn't off the mark," writes Megan Farokhmanesh for The Verge.
"Women did fight in World War II, from the air force units known as the 'Night Witches', to secret agents like Nancy Wake. Lyudmila Pavlichenko is hailed as the most successful female sniper in history, as well as one of the top military snipers of all time with a credited 309 kills.
"Young women enlisted in combat roles across the world. That a single British woman in the game's reveal trailer has Battlefield players so riled up is willful ignorance that such a role could have ever existed in history."
Battlefield V will be released in October on the Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC.
Newshub.
