I’ve been playing video games for most of my life. The latest Battlefield came out so here are some thoughts on my life throughout many of the franchise’s releases.
When my brother was born, I was six. Just about old enough to understand what was going on when my parents went to the hospital, yet still young enough to be easily bored while waiting around for hours. So my dad took me to a second hand store close by and got me a GameBoy.
That’s the first game console I ever owned. A second hand GameBoy with 2 games. Tetris and a TinTin game. I don’t remember much about that time, but I have some great memories of playing Tetris in the back seat whenever we took the car and the frustrating of not being able to beat that damn TinTin game.
This kick started what’s since become a lifelong interest of mine, video games. I’m not the only person for whom video games have had a profound impact on, I think there are many of us for whom life milestones & memories are sprinkled with specific games, consoles and achievements.
There are many franchises that I’ve played over the years, one I made a whole documentary about a year ago. But today I thought I’d reflect on periods of my life through the lens of Battlefield releases, probably the franchise I’ve played the most hours of.
If you’re not familiar with video games at all, this is a type of games called First Person Shooters, FPS for short. This refers to the fact that you interact with the game through someone’s eyes. You see the gun in front of you and the world at eyesight. Moving forward is done through your character running ahead and your camera shaking as your head would while you run:
Battlefield 3 - 2011 Link to heading
All I remember is I didn’t have Battlefield 3 when it came out but one of closest friends did have it on PlayStation 3. So my first interaction with the franchise was as the tag along whenever we went over to my friends house, getting the second controller whenever it was free.
I was 15 and in high school when the game came out; and to be quite franck I don’t recall too much about my time then. I wasn’t at all into computers science, graphics or understanding how games worked at that point. I was much more interested in history & starting to fall in love with aviation.
I don’t recall particularly thinking about this game all the much, although it being something I couldn’t play at home made it all the more appealing.
Years later I’d end up buying a copy on PC waiting for a later installment to come out:
Battlefield 1 - 2016 Link to heading
Any die hard fan would know that I’m skipping a couple of beats here because in between 3 and 1 was 4 and Hardline.
I however, did not have a computer good enough to run either of these two so during those years I was learning to land headshots with an Australian accent in the excellent Team Fortress 2. It also happened to be free by the time I played it, and ran great on a low end laptop.
But in May 2016 the reveal trailer for Battlefield 1 came out.
Now look, you have to understand that the last few releases in the franchise up to this point were mostly modern time warfare. So when they dropped a trailer for a World War 1 themed game with Seven Nation Army blasting, most of the internet lots its mind. I’d still consider this to be one of the best release trailers for a game, ever.
By 2016, I’d been 2 years in engineering school and video games were a core part of what I spent my down time doing by then. Battlefield 1 would be the first game I’d play at release, at the peak of the excitement, and I got to share it with friends. It’s a pretty unique experience to be around the launch of a new game with friends, to discover new maps, new gameplay mechanics and new ways of playing with some buddies.
A big part of my job and the industry I work in is in capturing & recreating the world we live in digitally, to better understand it and predict what’s gonna happen next. I’ve started to think of video games are the entertainment version of this. They can make people all come together in excitement around a timely event in a digital world.
In this case it helped that the game was incredibly fun to play. Battlefield is mainly a multiplayer game where you’re a part of team with various objectives. The most famous game mode is “Conquest”, in which a map is split into separate points that you need to hold for as long as possible. It’s what I’ve most enjoyed in this franchise: it’s not just about lining headshots and having a high number of kills. You win by playing the objectives, and to do that effectively you need a good team.
Battlefield V - 2018 Link to heading
What do you put out after you’ve made a big successful World War 1 game? Conveniently enough History gave you a natural successor.
So Battlefield 2? Nope, that’s already taken. How about V then? Yes, because after Battlefield 4 came Battlefield Not-A-Number, then 1, then V. Hang on tight the numbering is only beginning to fall apart.
When Battlefield V comes out, I’m in Taiwan doing a double engineering diploma to graduate from both my school in France and a University in Taiwan. I mostly did this to be able to spend a year somewhere different, as I saw that as a once in a lifetime experience to live in a part of the world I’d probably not get to live in again.
This was not an easy time in my life. I had disagreements with my professors about how to approach research and realised that a lot of it came down to cultural differences more than anything. I also was going through a particularly hard breakup at the time.
I vividly recall this now because I ended up pre-ordering Battlefield V to be able to play it a few days ahead of release to just get my mind off of those 2 parts of my life for a bit. Games have had various roles throughout my life, and I’ll remember Battlefield V as one that helped me have fun and stay in touch with friends half way around the world during that time, so of which I made in the game and still never actually met.
The game itself didn’t start off all too well with many balancing issues getting in the way of the fun at times. After a year or two the game ended up being a lot of fun though! Taiwan was such a wonderful place to live in though, I have met some of the nicest people I’ve yet to meet there and am thankful I get to go there every few years.
Battlefield 2042 - 2021 Link to heading
Video game franchises can be quite strange. Some are follow up stories, some have to be quite inventive to justify new releases. Battlefield follows pretty much the same gameplay as day 1 when Battlefield 1942 came out in 2002. 2 teams of players take objectives and kill the other team in the process. Change out the settings and add a few guns here and there and you have one of the most successful franchises of the last 20 years.
So why come back? The real answer is because you friends are also playing it at the time, and the promise of some shiny new graphics and a new gimmick sounds quite appealing. It’s to play the same game but in a new settings with more players, in new maps and with hopefully a twist worth the detour.
But the franchise rested on a pretty core concept called squads: players are divided into 2 teams, and subdivided again into squads of 4. That’s the core unit in games, you can constantly see where each of your squad members are and help them out -for example any team member can revive a downed squad member. On top of that each player can specialise and take a ‘class’. These are almost always a variation of:
- Assault: The big guns guy running which does the most damage
- Engineer: Can repair tanks & airplanes. Has explosives to make the other team’s tanks & airplanes go boom
- Medic: Can give ammunition & health to other members, can quickly revive team members
- Snipper. You.. well you get a snipper. That’s badass enough to warrant a class of its own
The most fun -to me- part of Battlefield is that you don’t need to be the best shooter to win. In a shooter game, you don’t need to be the best shooter. If you help your team well enough, by supporting other team members you can have a big impact on the whole game and tip it over to your side.
I’ve never been a great shot at shooter games. I’m decent enough but not great. So quickly I settled for mostly playing medic type characters. I’d be the guy running around helping downed team members and throwing ammo patches to everyone. And it was great! I felt like a big part of the team while not being the star player. I don’t know much about football but I’d imagine someone could make an analogy here about making a pass to the front attacker for them to score a goal.
And they throw most of that out the windows in Battlefield 2042. The game got a bunch of backlash, it wasn’t the best time in the gaming industry either.
At this point I was a serious adult, earning an income and finding a bit more of my way in the world. I’d also started getting into many other projects, 2021 was the year I start my podcast Minds behind Maps, cycled from Finland to the Netherlands to start a new job at the time at Overstory. I still played games a bunch, just not this one too much.
Battlefield 6 - 2025 Link to heading
Which brings us to today, late 2025 at the time of writing.
I don’t dedicate as much time playing video games these days, but I still got Battlefield 6 when it came out. Partly because reviews were great, but the main reason is to have a central elements to hang out with friends that live far from me.
I’ve lived in 6 countries at this point, and don’t have as many deep friendships as I’d like to have. I also happen to work for a fully remote startup and I’m not always the best at picking up the phone to reach out to people. But video games has been a great excuse to hop on a call with some friends and just have some fun. It’s also lead to some heart felt conversations in game lobbies while waiting for the next party to start.
I’ve been having a blast playing the latest game, but this time it’s also mostly about having an excuse to hang out with friends and have something to do together while physically apart.
Video games have been many things in my life, from a source of awe and emotion through some of the richest stories I’ve ever witnessed, giving me huge worlds to explore and get lost in, even topics to learn about. But I’m thankful that they’ve also been a big part of how I’ve bonded with friends over the years and over the places.