History Part 2:
The PressCorps
A new game, frontline fun, news packages, 24/7 radio, audio stories, and a warm welcome.
By Geoffrey Jennings (CaptainInArms)
Embedded Files
A 2017 newsreel used to promote the Foxhole Community Boot Camp. It was created several months before the PressCorps was officially founded, but ideas were brewing in my head. Free editing programs like GIMP and Lightworks were used, and the poor video capture reflected my future dedication to the audio-only format. Several members from the FCBC would later go on to join the Corps.
Foxhole officially released on Steam in Fall of 2017. At first, it seemed like a Planetside rip-off set in a discount WW2.
But immediately, the game's unique design choices - the quasi-isometric view, logistics considerations, lack of skill points or upgrades - was recognized by many as a fertile field of opportunity for the incredibly niche war sandbox genre. It was like a Planetside rip-off set in a discount WW2, and on top of that it was slower and had a less skill-based combat system.
It was perfect, as a concept at least. As a wide open ecosystem, it was and remains unparalleled. Yet with Radio Free Auraxis inherently tied to Planetside by name, a new brand would have to be created.
In the early days of January of 2018, the PressCorps was established. Not wanting to jump back into the stress of "real" (emphasis on the air quotes) journalism work and all its research, interviewing, and parsing through information, the original intent was to mirror RFA's origins and do funny broadcasts. Instead of posting up at a single location, this time the broadcast was brought into the line of fire.
The framing device of a vintage radio broadcast was done out of necessity, since the abysmal GPU on my pre-assembled Dell PC caused the video recording to lag significantly. The vintage radio atmosphere also helped with audio since I was working off a $10 headset. I've since upgraded to a gaming computer and high-quality microphone, but the vintage audio-only style remains our signature aesthetic unique among Foxhole creators.
The cast of fictional characters and their voices has also been a process over the years. Geoffrey Jennings, named after ABC's Peter Jennings, was created as the straight man, with a voice artificially pitched down to match Walter Cronkite's.
Mari Sharp, ironically named after NPR's very pleasant Ari Shaprio, is the hot-headed man-on-the-street with a pitched up Transatlantic accent. Eventually, the New England accent crept in as well.
Dr. Oliver Brolan Ponsonby Esq, named in name-only after KIA British Iraq war reporter James Brolan, was the polar opposite - a cross between late-stage Orson Welles and Winston Churchill that stumbled out of politics and into journalism.
Other characters have come and go, and even the latter two have made diminishing appearances these days, but in their place came something I would never have imagined...
People wanted to join.
The earliest surviving recording from the PressCorps, saved from Twitch VOD auto-delete before the highlights were set to save indefinitely. From War 2. No character was established, and my name in the game was simply "PressCorps," but it would eventually turn into Mari Sharp. Note the overly-loud static, video stuttering, and news ticker going the wrong way. Despite these flaws, the PressCorps' signature practices of frontline interviewing presented in an audio-only format have gone through occasional variations, but mostly unchanged.
A war newsreel on the old YouTube channel, under the show "Foxhole Newsreels." The real news was dressed up in the lore, but still there, complete with explanation of how the war flowed, what new weapons were used, and statistics. It would serve as a proof of concept for big projects later.
The first pre-recorded news package, from War 28 in May of 2019. The visuals were barebones, as I was mainly concerned with getting all the pertinent information down for the record.
2018 to 2019 were some of the most exponential growth years for the Corps. Reporters deployed to the frontlines to interview players. User-submitted stories on the Discord's Newswire were transformed into "reports" for the public record. Fan art from willing volunteers turned into 1st-party artists who would interpret our audio news packages. All of that, as devblogs spoke of more regions and features, and updates kept bringing new people in. As the game grew, it seemed like the Corps grew with it.
In 2020, we debuted PressCorps radio - a 24/7 Twitch stream playing period-specific music, intercut with user-submitted regimental ads, in-universe commercials, and specialty shows. Radio dramas flexed the voice acting and story-telling of several in the Corps, in particular Commander Rod and Moth B Mann. Radio sweepers and PSAs, some by Foxhole's content creators, gave parody to the quirks of the game while adding some color and flavor to the world.
The stream originally played on my personally computer, which made things difficult when I wanted to use it for things like school or work, but we found a way to make it happen for a good while. Schedules mostly revolved around my personal free time for others to do reports. They couldn't physically be at my computer, after all. We'd need a dedicated streaming computer for that, and that would cost upward of $2,000 for the necessary components.
Regardless of our technical limitations, those years of observing Foxhole were magical. Seeing its community grow beyond any player's wildest suggestions still brings me a lot of raw satisfaction that can only be found in the nostalgia of a project that went well. And the PressCorps was there to document a lot of it. Of everything we've ever done, about 60-70% of it has been finalized and published. There are dozens, if not hundreds, of recordings left on the cutting room floor. Even more simple moments that never got recorded; sitting in bunkers, trenches, and foxholes, listening to people share their stories and jokes. I may forget what was said, I may forget many of their names, but I'll never forget the joy I felt interacting with them.
MMOs can be a cesspit of ugly social interaction, but for me, because of Foxhole, my experience has been the total opposite. Nearly every player on the front has wanted to participate in an interview or roleplay, often enthusiastically. The game's small cadre of dedicated YouTubers and streamers have equally been welcoming, inviting me to their projects.
Eventually, we caught the attention of the people who made the game.
Throughout 2018, the broadcasts on Twitch and YouTube received a warm response from various members of the Foxhole community. So much so, that others reached out to me with the intent of joining.
I had never even considered another person would want to take part, let alone the dozens that have joined over the years. The schtick of dodging fire, interviewing players, and describing the frontline as a non-combatant appealed to me much like it did in Planetside. However, I knew it was a niche way of playing the game.
Apparently many others shared in seeing that appeal. As time went on, the reasons varied: write stories, source music, help document the various wars. Some have even joined in purely technical, back-end roles just because they wanted to be helpful. A few of the members have worked in actual news organizations.
A Discord was created. A YouTube brand channel was established. Reddit and Twitter accounts were made. Pages and pages of Google Docs and Sheets were written for guidebooks and standard operating procedures. Things were getting serious.
A typical live spot news segment from the frontlines, from War 71 in March of 2021. Advancements in presentation such as live delivery, the anchor-field correspondent dynamic, radio music standing by, analog aesthetics, and other widgets were developed by users such as TheGodDamnSexRobot and Zack Dawson.
A news package with full video by Potato, featuring the developer-sanctioned PressCorps uniform. Despite the Corps' extensive creative abilities, full video reports have proven challenging given the extra production necessary, against Foxhole's 24/7 wars.
Collaborations
A sample of collaborations with other Foxhole content creators.
Long-time Foxhole tutorial creator Freerk Holtes created an animation for the fake "Coca-Collie" ad that plays regularly on PressCorps radio.
I Saw A Bear has been creating Foxhole update-explainer videos for over eight years. Bear has included PressCorps cameos in the beginning of many of his videos, often with an associated machinima.
(Left) In 2019, community member Kastow released the now-defunct FoxholeGlobal, a third-party map website with tools such as production timers and fire support calculations. Kastow approached me about voicing a map update feature where Geoffrey Jennings' voice would annouce the capture of a town. I voiced variants for every town and relic base that could be captured at the time, across a then-total of 24 regions. This is in addition to other other lines, leading to over one hundred separate audio files. While the project is no longer around, it did give me a taste of voice acting for official capacities. (Right) A sample of the Geoffrey Jennings voice feature a 2019 from I Saw A Bear video.
Radio Dramas
One of the lost arts from the decline of radio were plays and dramas performed live over the air. Doing that over Discord wasn't possible, but members of the PressCorps still thought it would be cool to have a regular segment dedicated to the art. The Cadmium Stage of the Skies is a parody of Orson Welles' The Mercury Theatre on the Air, best known for the 1938 War of the Worlds radio broadcast. Hosted by Dr. Ponsonby, himself a parody of Welles, the show plays from a pool of radio dramas created by members of the PressCorps at scheduled intervals. You can view a playlist list on YouTube.
(Left) On top of being a reporter, Moth B. Mann is an accomplished writer. With many of his horror stories, he would take game glitches and put a supernatural force behind them. In "The Manfish," Mann created a monster out of a water texture glitch where the sun/moon would follow you if you walked along a water bank. In ""The Death Belle," a glitch occured during the rollout of the new weather mechanic where players would freeze to death without the intended warning.
(Right) Commander Rod, formerly of [RN] The Roughnecks, took on the idea of radio plays like the most important personal mission of his life. Over his PressCorps career, he created a myriad of audio stories and series that still play on the radio station. The (even more) impressive part is he voiced a majority of the characters himself. His voice acting contributions to the PressCorps remain unparalleled.
Package Art
News packages are the pre-recorded, pre-produced stories presented by correspondents. They are the backbone of audio/visual news. Below are the artworks created by official PressCorps artists to compliment the audio news packages on YouTube.
By lercas. "Opening Moves at Ulster Falls"
By lercas. "Betrayal at the Breakers"
By Souperior. "Colonials Scramble To Defend The Iris"
By Souperior. "Cliffside Firefights at Sioc Approach"
By Souprerior. "Skirmishing at Lockheed Border"
By Souperior. "Wardens Attempt Bridge Push to Solas"
By OBrien. "Pressing Matters Episode 3"
By OBrien. "Pressing Matters Episode 5"
By OBrien. "Pressing Matters Episode 6"
By OBrien. "Pressing Matters Episode 8"
Public Newswire
The following are all of the Guest Entries from the public Newswire for War 59. Not shown are PressCorps entries, which would double the number of reports. The Newswire existed before PressCorpsGaming.com, and it was an open Discord channel players could submit their stories to as a public record. At some point, the PressCorps began collecting these stories and reformatting them to mimic a teletype machine. At one point, there was a Google Doc staff members could copy/paste these stories that would rotate on the radio stream, the Correspondent Teletype, or "CorrTel" system. Due to the absurd number of Discord channels taking up space, the Newswire's publications are now published in the "Community Submissions" section of the website's News Kiosk, and old entries are slowly being added to the "Newswire Archives."
To view the Newswire releases from War 59 and other wars, visit the Newswire Archives in the News Kiosk.
1st-Party Publications
The PressCorps has tried its hand at 1st-party publications multiple times. Two examples from before PressCorpsGaming.com's existence are shown below. We quickly learned formatting is half the battle when it comes to newspaper publishing, and that it's a real job for a very real reason. Everything you see is made from scratch: the texture of the "paper," the seperator lines, the maps, and of course, the stories. A backlog of old publications are (very slowly) being posted to the "The PressCorps Bulletin" section of the website's News Kiosk.
Fan Art
Spontaneous fan art started being sent in. I was and will always remain in awe. Below are all known examples. If we missed any, let us know on our Discord!
By FreerkHoltes. This is the very first piece of fan art ever made of the PressCorps, and the first-ever piece of fan art I've ever received for anything I've done. I can think of no greater flattery.
(Left) By Lisek. (Right) Photo of WW2 journalist Alan Wood in a wood outside Arnhem, which would be used by Lisek as a reference.
I had done extensive research on mid-century war reporting while figuring out the PressCorps' "feel." A few examples were Edward R Murrow's reports on the London Blitz, Walter Cronkite's series on Vietnam, and Martha Gellhorn's dispatches on the Spanish Civil War. Foxhole was obviously a game first and foremost, but grounding myself in that style helped the PressCorps stay true to that aesthetic. Best case scenario, it would inspire the occasional fan of ours to learn about the real thing.
By Psirojohn. Even when it's just repurposed posters, the fact that someone would create fan art of your work is the most flattering thing in the world. While Psirojohn remained a fan, many PressCorps members started humbly, but more often than not they would be the most prolific ones.
Fan, and later PressCorps artist, Souperior wrote a 26-chapter PressCorps fanfiction entirely of their own accord. There's a lot of PressCorps lore, and this isn't even the "official" lore. It's a fanfiction of a fan project. I didn't even contribute anything to it because I didn't want to impose on Soup's creative vision for it. Easily a labor of love.
By Souperior. PressCorps reporter Poe.
By Mr Kally Wally. From left to right: RobotSpark, Sukauto, and Geoffrey Jennings. The "Press Car," as envisioned by the artist.
By Jet=Boomer. Ok come on it's Polandball. That shit's classic. For the record, we had a very healthy relationship with The Jade Cove Herald.
(Left, Above, Below) By OBrien. He would later become an in-house artist for the Corps, illustrating several news packages and thumbnails for Pressing Matters.
By mindofdevon. He would later join the PressCorps as reporter Cecil A. Vectori.
By Sukauto. A number of community members are featured here, but Geoffrey Jennings is represented on the far left wearing the official Press uniform, advising Sukauto on story-writing.
By Rgbman/Frank Smith. Originally a member of his own Colonial-based press group, he would later join the Corps.
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