What evil has Call of Duty done? Call of Duty: Vanguard will revolve around 4 soldiers in the single player campaign. Each of the characters is “in principle” a fictional character, but all 4 are modeled after historical soldiers:

• Russian sniper Polina Petrova is modeled after “Lyudmila Pavlichenka”, who was known as Lady Death
• British paratrooper Arthur Kingsley is modeled on Sidney Cornell: the first black man to land on D-Day
• American pilot Wade Jackson is modeled after war hero Vernon Micheel
• Australian infantry soldier Lucas Riggs is apparently said to resemble Charles Upham, the only man in history to receive two Victoria Crosses, the highest award for armed forces of the United Kingdom and for some Commonwealth states.

The problem is: Upham is a New Zealander, but his version in “Call of Duty: Vanguard” is Australian.

While the 3 other fictional characters have the same nationality as their historical models, Lucas Riggs does not.

Ignorance at best – Gigantic middle finger at worst

This is how a New Zealand site reacts: The New Zealand site Newshub writes:

“The importance of Charles Upham cannot be overstated. No other soldier has ever received two Victoria Crosses. This incredible achievement belongs to only one country, Aoeteron New Zealand.

That’s like making Sir Edmund Hillary an Australian or Lorde or Jonah Lomo. That’s insulting. Ignorance at best, and at worst: a giant middle finger to all of us.”

Oriented to history, not bound by it

This is how Call of Duty responds: They’ve emphasized in a statement that they’re telling their own story, based on history but not tied to it. They actually drew “a lot of inspiration” from Charles Upham for Lucas Riggs.

But Sledgehammer Games doesn’t reveal why exactly they’re making him Australian now.

Here’s how it’s discussed: In the Call of Duty reddit, the New Zealanders’ complaint is viewed sympathetically, but apparently some people have a bone to pick with Call of Duty anyway: One user adds that Call of Duty simply pinned a US war crime on the Russians. They wouldn’t take history too seriously. This can be seen in the fact that US-Americans are always portrayed as the “good guys”.

But this is apparently not a problem that only Call of Duty has. One Brit complains, for example, that in movies all the exploits of the British in World War II are often attributed to the Americans.

Others add: This is still better, he says, than having a physically disabled woman appear with a laser eye as in “another World War II game.”

You can find out which game he might be referring to in this article:

Trailer for Battlefield 2042 now has twice as many likes as the hated trailer for BF5