At the core of this inquiry lies a pair of bizarrely contradictory factoids. So, Panzer General prompted me to ask a host of questions about the way that we process the events of history, as well as the boundaries - inevitably different for each of us - between acceptable and unacceptable content in games. Simply put, I could take no pleasure from playing a Nazi. I found I could take no pleasure in invading countries that had done nothing to my own - invasions that were preludes, as I knew all too well, to committing concerted genocide on a substantial portion of their populations. When I conquered Poland, I didn’t feel any sense of martial pride all I could see in my mind’s eye were the Warsaw ghettos and Auschwitz. But for all that, I just couldn’t enjoy it. When I attempted to play the SSI computer game Panzer General as part of this ongoing journey through gaming history, I could recognize objectively that it was a fine game, perfectly in my wheelhouse in many ways, with its interesting but not overly fiddly mechanics, its clean and attractive aesthetic presentation, and the sense of unfolding narrative and personal identification that comes with embodying the role of a German general leading an army through the campaigns of World War II.

Panzer general ii game