Arma 3 has a rather interesting turn for today’s news. Given the world’s current state of affairs in regions like Ukraine, people have supposedly taken footage from Arma 3 and passed it off as real-world conflict. Bohemia Interactive, the game’s developers, issued a statement yesterday that we’ll break down.
The development team explained that not only does the game have nothing to do with Ukraine, but modding is also super important to the general Arma 3 community. As of the time of writing, over 20,000 mods exist for the game and allow players to “recreate and simulate any historic, present, or future conflict in great detail (thanks to its advanced game engine).”
Bohemia also notes that these videos can be the source of fake news or spreading misinformation about real-world issues going on right now. Pavel Křižka, PR Manager of Bohemia Interactive, directly comments on this.
"While it's flattering that Arma 3 simulates modern war conflicts in such a realistic way, we are certainly not pleased that it can be mistaken for real-life combat footage and used as war propaganda. It has happened in the past (Arma 3 videos allegedly depicted conflicts in Afghanistan, Syria, Palestine, and even between India and Pakistan), but nowadays this content has gained traction in regard to the current conflict in Ukraine.”
“We've been trying to fight against such content by flagging these videos to platform providers (FB, YT, TW, IG, etc.), but it's very ineffective. With every video taken down, ten more are uploaded each day. We found the best way to tackle this is to actively cooperate with leading media outlets and fact-checkers (such as AFP, Reuters, and others), who have better reach and the capacity to fight the spreading of fake news footage effectively."
After Pavel’s comments, the team mentions ways to distinguish real-world videos from Arma 3 gameplay and advises players to use their footage responsibly, without the need for “clickbait.” The developers noted features such as low-quality footage, lack of sound, unnatural particle effects, and other features that could be telling signs of gameplay footage being used instead of real footage. The developers also appreciated players who pointed out footage that had been mistakenly identified as real.
Just recently, FIFA 23 had a similar issue with the game used to scam YouTube viewers into believing they were watching actual World Cup matches.
