The gaming company Bohemia Interactive objects to the practice now widespread on social networks, where images and videos from its computer game Arma 3 are passed off as real by users. The game footage is of such quality that the manipulators share it as authentic evidence of ongoing battles in Ukraine or Israel, and the footage is often adopted by reputable media. Game developers now explain how to spot “fakes” coming from their game.
Although Arma 3 was released more than ten years ago, it is still one of the most popular military simulations available to the public, thanks in part to its considerable variability. This is because players can relatively easily add their own content to the game – for example, new maps, vehicles, weapons, equipment and uniforms. However, this means that simulations of real, currently ongoing military conflicts can also be created in the game. Footage from the game can easily be passed off as real on the Internet – either for war propaganda or simply for the sake of attention.
The practice has become so widespread on social media that the game’s developers decided to respond to it. “We’re flattered that Arma 3 is able to simulate modern war conflicts in such a realistic way, but at the same time we’re definitely not happy that footage from our game can be taken as footage of actual combat,” stated in a post on the company blog PR manager of Bohemia Interactive Pavel Křižka.
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The company initially tried to report fake videos posted on social media individually. However, this procedure proved to be quite inefficient. “For every video that we managed to download from the Internet, ten new ones appeared,” Křižka described the situation. Instead, developers began working with major media outlets and news agencies in an effort to limit the negative impact of fake videos.
Bohemia Interactive also released a brief overview of the characteristics of fake footage originating from its game. In an attempt to camouflage their origin, video authors, for example, reduce the resolution of the footage, artificially shake the camera in editing programs, omit human figures from the footage, or publish videos without sound.
Arma 3 is one of the most successful achievements of the Bohemia Interactive studio and the Czech game industry in general. The Arma series has been running for many years, the first part ARMA: Armed Assault was released in 2006. It is a realistic rendering of military actions, a so-called simulator. Many refer to the series as a successor to the older Operation Flashpoint brand. Arma 4 is already in the early stages of development.
Note: The co-founder of Bohemia Interactive is Marek Španěl, who is also a shareholder of Echo Media, the publisher of Týdeník Echo and the daily Echo24.cz
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