File:How the Meaning of Vanquish (and Spec Ops- The Line) Changed-2

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Vanquish was recently re-released on PC to the delight of the cult following it has developed since 2010. Whilst the experience has remained largely unchanged, however, as a whole it meant something very different to me now than it did back then; all because of the new context under which I was playing it.

This also got me thinking about games whose themes rely on context to convey meaning. Spec Ops: The Line turns five in June, and yet the industry it was furiously reacting against has changed dramatically since then. In this episode of Writing on Games then, I want to explore just how much a shift in context can have on the meaning of a game, and what this means for the future of our medium.

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Nier Automata & How We Define Meaning in Video Games (SPOILERS) - [game array] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNjJ8skeG1g

Why Sledgehammer's founders wanted to take Call of Duty back to World War 2 (VentureBeat) - https://venturebeat.com/2017/04/26/why-sledgehammers-founders-wanted-to-take-call-of-duty-back-to-world-war-ii/

EA turns horrors of WWI into tone-deaf Battlefield 1 memes, quickly deletes them (Polygon) - https://www.polygon.com/2016/10/31/13478344/battlefield-1-ea-deleted-tweets-marketing

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Call of Duty WW2/Infinite Warfare footage from Activision

Battlefield One/Army of Two footage from EA

Far Cry 5/Rainbow Six Siege footage from Ubisoft

Gears of War footage from Microsoft

Bayonetta footage from Sega

Devil May Cry 4 footage from Thunder Kat - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CcQEW8bjlk

50 Cent Blood on the Sand footage from gamesoverdose - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qADNFcVQ4c

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