Bohemia warns against spread of fake Israeli–Palestinian conflict videos actually created in Arma 3

13.10.2023 - 10:01 / rockpapershotgun.com

Social media users are attempting to pass off videos of Bohemia Interactive's military shooter Arma 3 as real-life footage of the on-going Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which erupted into open war this week. Several of these mocked-up videos have circulated on Tik-Tok and Xitter, one of them purporting to show a member of the Hamas group shooting down Israeli helicopters. Bohemia Interactive have now released a statement calling on their community to publish and share Arma 3 footage responsibly, while offering advice on how to spot a fake.

"With the tragic events currently unfolding in the Middle East, we feel it is vital to share once again our statement concerning the use of Arma 3 as a source of fake news footage," the developer posted on Xitter this week (thanks, PCGamer). "It's disheartening for us to see the game we all love being used in this way. While we have found ways to tackle this issue somewhat effectively by closely cooperating with leading fact-checking agencies, sadly we can't mitigate it entirely."

Bohemia have republished a guide explaining how to distinguish Arma 3 gameplay from real-life bloodshed - it was originally created during the opening weeks of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, which gave rise to similar fake videos. It's a useful document, though it does veer into self-promotion, with Bohemia taking the opportunity to hail Arma 3 as "a unique open sandbox platform".

The guide notes that one of Arma's "pillars" is "how open the games are to user customization and user-generated content", with modders able to "create whole new terrains, ground vehicles, aircraft, weapons, uniforms, equipment, and scenarios".

"This means that players of Arma 3 can recreate and simulate any historic, present, or future conflict in great detail (thanks to its advanced game engine)," the statement continues. "This unique freedom of the Arma 3 platform comes with a downside: videos taken from Arma 3, especially when the game is modified, are quite capable of spreading fake news."

The developers have put together a list of signs that a supposed real-life video of a military conflict is mocked-up Arma 3 footage. Here it is in full:

- Very low resolution

Even dated smartphones have the ability to provide videos in HD quality. Fake videos are usually of much lower quality, and are intentionally pixelated and blurry to hide the fact that they're taken from a video game.

- Shaky camera

To add dramatic effect, these videos are often not captured in-game. Authors film a computer screen with the game running in low quality and with an exaggerated camera shake.

- Often takes place in the dark / at night

The footage is often dark in order to hide the video game scene's