World War II Online: Battleground Europe is a massively multiplayer online first-person shooter (MMOFPS) video game. It was released on June 6, 2001, for Microsoft Windows, with a Mac OS version being released in 3Q 2002. The game is set in 1940–1943 World War II Europe. It is a virtual battlefield, a combined arms war simulation. A player can command or crew a variety of accurately modeled aircraft, armored fighting vehicles, anti-tank guns, anti-aircraft artillery, and three naval vessels, or fight as a foot-soldier with a variety of infantry weapons. The game is played in real time alongside or against other players as German, US, British and French forces in a persistent world. Command structures and missions provide strategic and tactical layers while ranks provide a RPG layer by demo