‘Battlefield 1’ players hold online ceasefire on Armistice Day: VIDEO

Electronic
Arts

• Online players in “Battlefield 1,” a video game set during
  World War 1, spontaneously planned a ceasefire to commemorate the
  100th anniversary of Armistice Day when the war was declared
  over.
• The ceasefire took place on November 11 at 11 a.m. Canberra
  time during an online match. 
• A video of the ceasefire was posted on Reddit.

Gamers playing “Battlefield 1,” a game set in World War 1,
stopped shooting to participate in a ceasefire during an online
match at 11 a.m. Canberra time to commemorate the 100th
anniversary of Armistice Day, which marks the end of the first
World War.

The player who helped arrange the ceasefire posted a short video
of the event on
Reddit, but it’s hard to tell from the video everyone
actually stopped shooting. It looks like some players either
didn’t hear about the planned ceasefire at the specified time or
they ignored the effort altogether. The game’s background audio
and effects, like loud explosions and artillery from battleships
were also still ongoing, which diminished the silence. There’s
also a player in a plane who performs a strafing run on a bunch
on players who are partaking in the ceasefire, which somewhat
ruins the moment.

EA/Dice developer Jan David Hassel posted the video on Twitter:

Still, you can tell that some players abided to the ceasefire by
the fact that the player recording the video was surrounded by
enemy players (with red icons above their heads) and didn’t get
shot. Any other day and time and the player recording the event
would have been killed in seconds when surrounded by so many
enemy players.

Ultimately, however, the player recording the event was stabbed
and killed. The player doing the stabbing apparently apologized
for doing so. 

“Battlefield 1” players like myself will know how surprising it
is that anyone partook in the event, considering how difficult it
is to communicate with others in the game. 

The player, known as u/JeremyJenki on Reddit, who helped set up
the event and recorded the video posted on
Reddit how they did it:

“At the start of the game, me and a couple others started talking
about having a ceasefire. We made it known in the chat and many
people were on board with it, deciding that this armistice should
be held on the beach (This didn’t seem like a great idea to me at
the time). Players started heading down to the beach early and
for a few minutes it was amazing. When editing the video I cut
out most of the in between, only showing the beginning and end.
But hey, against all odds, we did it, and while short it was the
coolest experience in Battlefield I had ever had.”