Anyone else wonder just why DICE’s E3 2011 Battlefield 3 live demo started off with a soldier clutching a toy dinosaur? There’s been a lot of talk about what the dinosaur means, with DICE themselves fuelling some of the speculation and rumour. So we decided to ask Battlefield 3 Producer Patrick Bach just what is the official word on that toy T-Rex.

Speaking to TGL earlier last week, we asked Bach if the original 4Chan source of this story was legitimate. It had been pointed out that the dinosaur has more to do with Modern Warfare than it does Battlefield. As Destructoid has pointed out back in June, a thread appeared on popular picture board 4Chan from an employee of Activision who was looking for feedback relating to the Modern Warfare franchise. The thread quickly became saturated with replies that suggested one of Modern Warfare’s biggest flaws was it’s distinct lack of dinosaurs. It is believed that the dinosaur in Battlefield 3 was a reference to this thread.

We asked Patrick for the official word and here’s what he had to say;

“Well, <laughs> I can’t confirm or deny that part of it. But the official story is that we wanted to connect the player to the world back home. We had this idea of having a photograph of your family, that wasn’t the end goal, but that was the mental picture behind it; we wanted you to think about the ones you love at home. We wanted to find a metaphor for that and find a visual language for that and we had this toy dinosaur on a desk at the office and we thought about what it would be like if you actually brought something that your child gave you to war. That would give you the feeling that you not only have a son or daughter but you have a wife and the illusion that you have a family back home. Bringing a toy to war would also be a good symbol for toys in war and how it’s contradictory and gives you vulnerability. So that’s it. That’s the official story. It’s not the unofficial story but yes, we’ve seen that thread to refer to.”

Battlefield 3, dinosaur and all, launches in Europe October 28th.

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