POPPY GAME INSULT TO OUR WAR DEAD 

What a fantastic account of the rather frustrating shenanigans we endured during the last days of development! We were pulling all nighters for a good few weeks to get the game finished, so you can imagine having something like this happen near the end of development was far from welcomed. I remember the moment I was told I had to re-draw all 3 poppies in the game, a few choice words were said! Looking back I think the game has stood the test of time rather well! Great video, thanks for taking the time and trouble to document this. Cheers! 😎

"POPPY GAME INSULT TO OUR WAR DEAD" I swear Tabloid writers are in a constant state of having a stroke.

When I saw the title of this video I thought ‘wow, that’s a funny parody of an outraged UK tabloid headline’ …then you showed the tabloid

I'm from Newfoundland Canada. At the time of WWI our province was an independent country. We sent an absurd amount of our able bodied men into war, and my great grandfather was shot in Gallipoli, surviving after days lying on the ground. While medics came to rescue him, he indicated that his superior lying beside him was in fact not dead and should be brought to hospital, leaving my great grandfather to lie another day before being taken to a medical facility himself. My family has submitted many of his personal letters and effects to local museums, and while not heralded as any kind of war hero, his story is preserved and remembered fondly in our family history. I have a poppy on my desk at work, which stays there 24/7/365 not unlike many people here. Remembrance day is a well respected holiday in this part of the world, and at 11:11 on 11/11 people will observe a minute of silence, even in major shops and companies. I think this game looks great, and did exactly what art is supposed to do. It's a shame it was censored in order to reduce the affect it was clearly supposed to have.

British going the extra mile over "insensitivities" is a tale as old as time. The game earned those poppies.

"POPPY GAME INSULT TO OUR WAR DEAD" It seems that tabloids are indeed written by a bunch of monkeys with typewriters

3:05 One thing that is also striking on that screen is the Sports style HOME : AWAY in the titlebar of the screen. Naturally HOME is the amount of enemies you've killed and the AWAY team the amount of your men dead. Reducing lives into just numbers in a very flippant way as more lives lineup to get thrown into the grinder... And well the Heroes list those who added the most to your team's score. Another way of further hammer the point home. It's honestly a very clever screen that even without context easily can tell you a LOT.

That image of the tombstones growing reminds me of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly where Tuco finally arrives to the graveyard where the gold is buried and the camera follows him frantically sprinting past tombstone after tombstone while Ennio Morricone's "The Ecstacy of Gold" plays. It is a stirring scene and it holds a similar poignant message that this game helps tell. I get that sometimes we have to defend our homes against those who try to destroy them, but so often war is brother against brother or by people just seeking power. The media tries to whip up fervor and discontent until people believe that perhaps the war was righteous.

literally a 'Whiny politicians should be forced to play video games' moment.

UK truly has never changed > Local Man annoyed at {object} for [trivial reason], outrage ensues

The greatest tragedy of World War 1 is that there really wasn't an easily defined "bad guy". No side could really be said to be the villain. It started with the death of one man, that triggered a dense network of military pacts, and ended with the death of 40 million. In many ways it even seeded the environment that allowed the monster of the next war to come to power. To venerate the dead as if they chose a noble sacrifice, as a vehicle for pride and propaganda, instead of being ground up by the cogs of a machine they could neither control nor escape from, is a final vicious misappropriation of their tragedy.

It's like a game of telephone how the context diminished with each new publication. The game uses poppies to make you think about all the people dieing, and it's used on the box art. Amiga Power uses that on their front cover, along with TOTAL WAR as a tagline. The Amiga Power cover is shown as a tiny ad where the only thing visible is the poppy and the tagline. Without context, yeah it does look pretty bad to have that text with that image. And then the Tabloids get hold of it and do what they always do. Maximum rage, minimum context.

Really cool to see the Royal British Legion literally extort a game studio for making a game about how war is bad because they cared more for their "copyright" over flowers

"Don't desecrate the Poppy, it's a symbol of remembrance! It's a sacred reminder of the men and women who gave their lives in two world wars!" Cannon Fodder: "...Yes. That's the point. That's why we chose it, and that's exactly how we're using it." "RAAAAAAAAARGGHHH TAKE IT DOWN"

Kudos for the not-insignificant effort of not only making the main body of the video exactly 11:11 in length, but also timing the background music to fit.

Controversy absolutely sold more copies of video games back in the day. In a time before the internet, there was so little attention to the genre by people outside of gaming, that any mainstream attention, especially by a national newspaper, was sure to get far more eyeballs than just gaming magazine readers. Also that snark in gaming magazines is something I miss so much, it's what made them unique, full of personality and actually worth buying.

I didn't realize they owned the idea of a flower.

"Many people died, and this was universally regarded as a bad thing." I was not expecting a Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy reference.

the nuclear war game First Strike, which focuses on nuclear proliferation, can only be won by every player deconstructing their entire arsenal. it could be called a senseless war game, but it holds far more nuance than most think.

This video highlights the reason I don't buy poppies in Canada. Even though we don't have the Royal British Legion here, we do have the Royal Canadian Legion who hold as much of a copyright claim to the poppy as the British Legion does. The Royal Canadian Legion has been known to pull similar antics regarding the poppy and have several scandals and cases against them regarding disrespecting active duty Canadian Military members. Considering the Canadian Legion is no longer comprised of actual veterans, yet dare to commit these acts, I see the organization as tainted.

So essentially the Royal British Legion saw the article and thought to themselves "Oh, boy. Extortion!" and went with it.

In this age of constant outrage, a phenomenon usually attributed to the rise of the internet, it's nice to be reminded that British tabloid newspapers have been manufacturing it for many a decade.

Holy shit that Stuart Campball quote lmao, what a legend for publishing that quote. If you're pissing off the Daily Star then you're doing the right thing.

I'm surprised you didn't mention the tagline, "War has never been so much fun!" because it really contradicts the serious tone they were trying to convey. Unless it was actually just intentional irony

_"I wonder what the title means?"_ Daily Star brought up _"Oh I see where this is going..."_

WHAT DOES THAT TITLE EVEN MEAN 🔥🔥

In Flanders Fields was written by John McCrae, a Canadian veteran of the Second Boer War who volunteered to return to active duty at 41 when War was initially declared by the British Empire. He died before the end of the war, not before the death of a friend and treating uncounted wounded from the Second Battle of Ypres. He truly deserves to be known as widely as In Flanders Fields.

Retrowave version of Richard Joseph’s Cannon Fodder as backing music is 10/10

The Daily Star was absolutely throbbing at the chance to do this much shit-stirring. That encompassed the entirety of their "concern" over the use of the poppy symbol.

Politicians overreacting without doing any research to make sure they're mad at the right thing? Say it ain't so!

I loved this game as a kid. You really do get attached to the soldiers, as they survive each mission and get promoted to higher ranks. I would even move my veterans back from the head of the line so they were less likely to die after surviving so much. And showing all the individual gravestones of soldiers who's names you knew really was poignant, even as a young kid. I replayed it recently and its still really good fun to play. It was very polished for the time. Sensible Software were top quality back then.

At first I thought the all caps title was in regards to the old "Evil Ahoy" idea from years ago. But with the context of the video it works even better. Spectacular work as always! Loved the video!

That title legitimately frightened me, "Oh no, what happened to Stu?!" Then I watched the video, slowly realizing. That headline is legitimately strange to read, but so... striking, it punches.

I love how much distain was in you voice when you said "Daily Star".

Those outside the UK need to understand the importance of the poppy. When november comes, every person in a position of public visibility has to wear one. Every TV presenter. Every politician. To not wear a poppy would result in backlash - there would be angry headlines about how this person is insulting our armed forces by not showing respect for their sacrifice. The accusations of un-patriotic behaviour and questionable moral standing would soon follow. Wearing the poppy is a social obligation. The closest US comparison would be someone who remains seated and doesn't make some respectful gesture during a public performance of the anthem. They aren't doing anything, but their act of not participating in a collective action is in itself, interpreted as a statement: "Everyone else is doing it, why aren't you?" Just think of the absolute outrage that followed when just a few athletes in the US refused to stand during the pre-game performance of the anthem. That's what would happen if a British sports star was caught on rememberance day without a poppy.

Yoooooooooooo Cannon Fodder was an interesting game when I was a kid. That game has flown under the radar for so long. I really enjoyed the level of empathy and connection with the soldier characters you controlled. I tried so hard to keep them all alive as best as I could. Very much in the same way I like to play STALKER.

You can hear the barely-restrained derision in Stuart's voice as he mentions the Daily Star (beginning at 4:44). I don't know why, but that little vocal detail impressed me.

Glad to see random dorks sending threats have always used the bogus "I'm 6'2 and jacked" line.

And the intro and exit music is the inimitable "WAR", from the game. Written by Jon Hare, lead game designer and co-founder of Sensible, and musician and game-music composer Richard Joseph. They're also two of the first recruits you get in the game, Jops and Rj.

The gravest insult to the "war dead" is to shore up support for creating more of them, as the The Daily Sun did, by stirring up outrage for short-term profit.

The whole situation with the news media really feels like the epitome of "judging a book by its cover".

Cannon fodder is a great little game. It's engaging, fast paced, and fun. Then you make a single mistake and will be reminded of it by gravestones between the missions. Individual graves for individual soldiers under a HOME-AWAY counter. If anything, it's bleak. I can understand how it could be interpreted as disrespectful to fallen soldiers but actually it's a warning to future ones.

Ahoy not only educates me on Videogame Culture, Videogame Impact and Videogame Development, but also Videogame history. This channel is too good, man.

In NZ, we have a day of rememberence for soft-conscripting some boys to Turkey to die on a beach. Though it's undoubtably a tragic loss of life, Turkey remembers the same day as the day they essentially fought with their backs against the wall and won. Outnumbered and everything, it's as romantic as it sounds. I find it very telling that such a symbol would drill up such a storm in a teacup, because it really is just a symbol of insecurity.

Holy moly 2 Ahoy videos in one month? Am i dreaming?

“We hope you never have to find out the hard way.” Kinda punched me in the gut, but in a good way, you know? Very powerful line

In germany there was a game from a student where you are a soldier on the Berlin wall and you have to shoot dissidents. The game was atacked by tabloid media for its content and usual politicians demanding censorship. What they all omited was that your character went to a court and then to jail

I realize this is NOT the take-away of this vid, but man that soccer game looks SO GOOD I gotta have it on my steamdeck somehow.

The custom channel logo in the intro is killer!

cant believe i only just now realized the "triangle, square, circle, inverted triangle" spells out AHOY, i immediately read it when they were one after another rather than in a square, very clever!

Royal British Legion: _"They're misusing our poppy!!1"_ - Nature: _"Uhm…_ *Your* _poppy, was it?"_ ;)

This somewhat reminds me how they had to change the red cross on health packs to a green cross for Tomb Raider III. Even in the remasters that have been released just a few months ago, decades after the originals. It honestly makes me wonder, does the red cross not want that its symbol is universally conceived as a symbol for healing?

Okay, hats off to you Stu reusing that inflammatory headline for the video title is actually genius Shows, "Clickbait" was never an internet-only thing

"Games are art!" will always be impeded by groups that will always lambast games, a medium they believe to be merely a toy, for pushing the envelope of conveying a message. Not all games are supposed to be art, sure. But some pieces of art are games.

Your videos never dissapoint. Amazingly done! Super clean design and voiceover. I never miss them.

It just shows you how the game is written with such care - so much so, that the whole philosophy is "show, don't tell". I am very much enjoying these types of historical deep dive videos. Keep up the good work! :)

Poppy growers in *shambles* when they found out they weren't allowed to associate with their crop anymore because of the poppy's new, singular meaning that destroys all previous.

Imagine how much money the RBL could have raised if they offered a licencing deal instead of requesting £500 hush money.

"All Your Base Are Belong To Us" is still my fave quote than the title of this video

I’m so happy you’re back. I’ve been watching your videos since the beginning on my older accounts. Thank you.

It's fun when you can instantly tell that a video is going to be about Cannon Fodder just from the thumbnail, even if you haven't played it.

"jingoistic bludgeon" is a great descriptor of how the poppy & Remembrance Day are used in the commonwealth. Stuart Campbell was right.

The hill of graves and the music that goes with it - ingrained into my memory forever. I was always gutted when I lost a soldier who'd run a few missions.

Incredibly, fleetingly, impossibly rare Stuart Campbell W

I'm just about old enough to see the themes of Rememberance Day morph from "Millions died in the World Wars and it was terrible" into "Millions died in the World Wars and it was glorious"

Every time ahoy uploads, I should treat it like a formal event

I didn't expect to tear up over your summarisation of the game's mechanics and themes of remembrance, but it really struck me how amazing the narrative is. Saying so much about war with just a scrolling text of names of the people that died. You view the game's main gameplay screen as just a strategician or politician, and the rest of the game is viewed as a person.

The amount of work that goes into these videos, from the little details to the actual flow of it is insane. It's so good. Thanks for doing such a fantastic work man.

Ha, just from the title you could tell this would be about some tabloid blowing something out of proportion for a cheap headline. Some things never change.

POPPY GAME INSULT TO OUR WAR DEAD indeed 🤔

nice. thanks for the video. very interesting, and as usual your high production and research are a real treat.

OMG Cannon Fodder. One of the games of my childhood, that left a impact. Nice job Ahoy shedding more light onto that! A pleasure to watch as always!

All this probably would've been avoided if the British Royal Legion was invited to actually see Cannon Fodder and the context to the poppies. In complete contrast the first Medal of Honor game had similar controversy with the Medal of Honor Society in the United States, but Steven Spielberg and EA invited them out to actually see the context of the game, and once they realized they meant no offense and actually showed respect to the soldiers of WWII, even endorsed the game.

It’s good to see ahoy to tackle more smaller topics rather than his huge videos that he usually does. Any bit of ahoy is a good day for me. Whether he decides to continue with these smaller films or longer biopics im all for it

I like the new shorter but more frequent video uploads, makes the channel feel fresher than ever. Very awesome video as always.

Nice one of the Games I loved as a child. Was not remembering the poppy at first but the remixed title song in the background made me realize 'OMG Ahoy made a video about Cannon Fodder.'

Wow they seriously tried to extort them over ‘copy-right’ under the guise of being offended??

We've made some progress but video games are still not widely accepted as a medium for deep and thought provoking stories. - Which becomes all the more ironic when considering that movies seem to have entirely lost that place in the last decade... Combining audio, visuals and writing into an interactive experience will always be able to express more than non-interactive media but it will still take a long time for most people to acknowledge that.

Considering the Royal British Legion's behaviour, the surname of the Daily Star writer in the story at 7:10 is alarmingly fitting

Great video and overview of the whole debacle. Thanks! I hadn't realized the extent to which Amiga Power had added to the situation

It's quite a funny second reminder, that the box art is placed right above where you would commend on desktop RU-vid. The politicians just wanted to run their mouth. They didn't even check to see if they would look stupid (They already are but you know)

As a currently serving Aunty Soldier, I absolutely agree that war is senseless and one that I wish for everyone not to have to experience. In my youth, I did play Cannon Fodder, and it absolutely made an impression of me. The death of my soldiers, the killed in action scroll and the rows and rows of crosses were quite memorable. Add to that the title song, one of the few on the Amiga that used sampled vocals, blatantly pointing out how brutal and horrible war is. I didn't know until now about the symbolism of the Poppy, but it absolutely stood out to me, in stark contrast to the overly macho gung-ho coverart of the era. It does make a lot more sense now though.

Love this, great video that’s a little different. I’d never heard of the game or this story but I think it’s a fantastic message for a game. It would be nice if more games presented this sort of message. Also, love the music on this video. What is it?

“Back in the day we weren't so easily offended.” Dude, back in the day people lost their shit over a picture of a flower on a game box.

The moment I read the "Poppy war game" in the title, I knew straightaway that it's gotta do with the classic Cannon Fodder game. However, I'm extremely glad that the video covers the historical context of the use of the poppy flower imagery and the game's history. It's always the backstories that tend to give more insight and make the content thought-provoking.

Cannon Fodder was probably the first experience that showed me war is ‘really really awful’. I wasn’t aware of any of the controversy as a kid and I was probably too young to be playing it. It had a much more lasting and thought provoking effect on me than an annual minute’s silence, attending a church service or wearing a paper poppy.

It only set in half-way through that the video title is a tabloid headline, and it really worked too! Great video as always!

Goddamn the bop you chose for the background music is just so good

immediately thought of cannon fodder at the sight of the thumbnail haha. excited to watch it all!!!!

The poppy and remembrance day might just be one of the most bastardized symbols we have in the modern day. Everyone demands it is worn, everyone regurgitates the words "lest we forget" And yet, if the poppy is used for the purposes of being anti war, it's suddenly wrong it's as if the real remembrance day message is meant to be "remember the sacrifice, wasn't it cool? we should do it again"

You are litteraly the inspiration for me to start my YT. I always love your work and have watched them all! Keep up the wonderful work!

Quality of the higest rank as always! Thanks for always coming back to the channel with uploads!

Must admit, I am a bit disappointed we didn't get segment of him reading "In Flanders Fields."

I was confused trying to figure out how poppy playtime got into another controversy from my notifications until i say ahoy and got even more confused

The poppy represented sacrifice, how people fought in wars to end wars. Now it is a symbol of sacrifice, the human cost of wars fought to fund the militaries of our countries. How fitting that $500 was the final stroke to make the Royal British Legion back off

Between ArmA series, and DEFCON game, I can say that games can give a glimpse into horrors of war. So when you started describing the game itself, I was wondering what was so bad about it, but no, the game is fine, it's just that some tabloid made it a drama despite fitting themes.

From the notification I got and the fact that he already uploaded another video this year, I was almost hoping that Ahoy had lost it and this video was going to be some unhinged political rant.

"Oh boy, I can't wait to learn about the history of a retro video game! I wonder what the historical context will be?" Ahoy: "On June 28th, 1914 Arch Duke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated..."

I said "OH NO" out loud as soon as I heard 'Sunday Mirror'.

I had this game from a collection back in 2001 and played it twice; since the CD was borrowed, I didn't get to enjoy most of the games but this one stood out to me and I never remembered the name...I've been looking for it ever since. I'm so glad for this video.. Now to see if I can find a version that I can run. Thank you.