Avoid Social Media Blunders
Battlefield 1 has been a huge success both critically and commercially, in part from how respectfully it handles World War I. For as good of a job as the actual game does with its themes, unfortunately the same cannot be said for some of its social media activities as the game released. Battlefield 1’s Twitter started using #justWWIthings in association with pictures from the game.
One of these featured a soldier using a flamethrower in battle with the caption, “When you’re too hot for the club, #justWWIthings.” This instantly drew the ire of quite a few fans, and for good reason. DICE knew how important it was to treat the games’s setting with respect and care, which is something the game does very well. The distasteful tweets were in stark opposition to this, and definitely not a good image for both EA and DICE regardless of whoever was actually responsible.
Luckily, EA did issue a formal apology for the tweets and immediately removed them, but not before the damage had been done. You can bet EA will definitely be more aware of what’s happening with their social media channels from now on.
Unfortunately this wasn’t the only social media faux pas that happened last year, as the Titanfall 2 Twitter decided to take some jabs at Call of Duty when Infinite Warfare released. This even led to the developer of Titanfall 2, Respawn Entertainment, distancing themselves from those actions and noting that they have nothing but respect for their fellow devs. Both of these events definitely drew attention to EA, and for all the wrong reasons. Now it’s critically important they avoid anything like this going forward.
