Call of Duty: World at War

Developing Time: Representing Historical Progression Through Level Structures

Azrioual's analysis examines how historical video games represent the passage of time through their level structures, focusing on a comparison between Call of Duty: World at War (2008) and Assassin's Creed (2007).

• The study proposes a threefold framework for historical games: ludic time (mechanical rules and play structure), represented time (sociocultural labels and historical connectors that situate a game in an era), and narrative time (the emplotment of events into a coherent story).
• Call of Duty: World at War re-enacts historical events with linear, objective-gated levels that reset to specific dates and locations between 1942 and 1945, following the Stalingrad-to-Berlin chronology.
• The analysis argues that Call of Duty's chronological, already-resolved historical trajectory can foster moral disengagement in players, framing violence within a familiar narrative.