It recently occured to me that while we have a plethora of WW2 shooters, none of them feature a German story or fleshed out singleplayer campagne. If we play as the Germans it's in multiplayer only.  

Is there still such a large taboo on playing as what has been long been considered "THE enemy"? Would you play a game where you played on German side, perhaps shooting on the allied side? Perhaps a game where you're only a soldier and not a Nazi-supporter?

I'm asking this in light of recent developments. A few weeks ago a statue was unveiled here in the Netherlands honouring a fallen German soldier who dashed in an ongoing firefight between Germans and Allies to save two childeren stuck in the middle. He was killed but the childeren where save.

And more and more movies show the German side in often empathic situations. Stalingrad I can recall, The Longest Day is a classic and already showed the German side in a rather "good" light. U-571 (I think where the numbers) focussed on the hardships of a German U-boat crew during WW2 etc.

So, do you think the time is right for a shooter (or other genre?) from a German WW2 perspective? What would be the possibilities?

Discuss!

i am sure fox news will call it nazi simulators, but personally i don't mind playing the Germans for a change

As long as they keep out any image or mention of the Holocaust and dont make a level where your a German soldier in a raised bunker with a Heavy Machine gun mowing down americans as they approach the beach on D-day. I think those are two events that us americans are still sensitive to. But honestly I believe a game based on a Nazi soldier could make for a badass campaign and story.

Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe was my favourite WWII game ...

The problem I see with producing a FPS in Wold War II from the perspective of a German Soldier is that people expect a far more compelling story where they play as the hero (or an anti-hero); I think it would be amazingly difficult to create your story in such a way where you're a Nazi soldier that people would apprieciate the story, and not feel that it was disrespectful ...

But snatching the other team's guns would be pointless

What pisses me off is that although you never get to play as a German in as single player shooter, you do get to play as a Russian, and the Russians and everything about them in WW2 was far worse then anything the Germans could pull.
Stalinist communism was a million times worse than Nazism.

Wow Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe, 2 points to you for taste HappySqurriel.

Anyhow this is all the more reason someone should make a decent (non flight sim) WWI title. Modern systems have enough horse-power to get the massive number of troops, plus "over the trench" feel that I think would make an fps I might actually want to play for a change. And as an added bonus it would probably be more acceptable to play as a German soldier.

 I have to add that you can be a German or Wehrmacht soldier without being a Nazi-soldier...

Personally, I'm not sure it would work. Although I'm sure you could do plenty of stories that could genuinely put a member of the Wehrmacht, the Hitlerjugend, or even the SS in a sympathetic light, the fact that the Germans lost the war in the end makes it all feel a little futile, because no matter how well the player does, he knows his faction is doomed to defeat from the very beginning. I guess the player could win some victory in the context of the character's world (like defending civilians from rape during the Battle of Berlin, or helping his unit escape the Stalingrad pocket), but ultimately, losing less is not the same as winning, and I figure most gamers hate to lose.

Yeah yeah yeah! I was wondering the exact same thing the other day! Why do we (erm, they, I don't play any of those games) always have to be playing the good guys? :p Would be an original idea, at least, to be able to play as a soldier on the German side. :p