Call of Duty: World at War

Digital Historicism: Archival Footage, Digital Interface, and Historiographic Effects in Call of Duty: World at War

Jaimie Baron's analysis examines how Call of Duty: World at War deploys embedded archival World War II footage to generate what she calls an "archive effect," lending its cut-scenes a powerful sense of historical authenticity.

• Jaimie Baron argues that Call of Duty: World at War uses embedded archival WWII footage to create an 'archive effect' of historical authenticity, but tightly controls that footage through editing, animated graphics, and voiceover.
• The game presents history as linear and teleological, with player interactivity unable to alter the outcome, which Baron contends reinforces a conservative historiographic model under the banner of 'digital historicism.'
• Baron contrasts the game's rapid, militaristic cut-scene rhythm, which forecloses reflection and implicitly legitimizes player violence, with the Labyrinth Project's Tracing the Decay of Fiction, which uses untimed, reflective interactivity, chance, and layered archives to present history as multiple and unstable.