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The Military Games

Military Sim Developer Tired of Its Game Being Used To Fake War Footage (vice.com) 59

Posted by BeauHD from the real-vs-fake dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: Bohemia Interactive, the Czech Republic based developer of the military simulator game Arma 3, has published a blog and a video it hopes will help it with a unique problem. Footage from the video game known for its realism has gone viral several times since the game's release in 2013 as people have tried to pass off clips of the military simulation as footage of real war. This happens a lot, so often that there are multiple debunking stories on Reuters and the Associated Press specifically about debunking viral clips of war footage. Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February, the problem has gotten much worse. The invasion is the largest ground war in Europe in a generation and people around the world gobble up every scrap of information they can. Pranksters and fraudsters have taken to uploading clips from Arma 3 to capitalize on that need for information.

Arma 3 is a hyper realistic military simulation and sandbox. It's meant to be a realistic modeling of real world conflict. It's even teamed up with the International Committee of the Red Cross to release DLC that details the after effects of armed conflict. A sister studio, Bohemia Interactive Simulations, broke from the company in 2013 and makes simulations for the Pentagon using similar technology. The game is also a sandbox with a vibrant modding scene (PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds began its life as an Arma 3 mod) that allows players to customize the game however they want. That devotion to realism and open platform has made Arma 3 the perfect platform to use to create fake war footage. "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," Pavel Krizka, PR Manager of Bohemia Interactive, said in a November 28 press release. "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."

The life cycle is almost always the same. An Arma 3 nerd uploads something to YouTube and other people pull the video, edit it to make it look more realistic, then pass it off as actual footage of the conflict. The footage goes viral then the fact-checkers come in and tell everyone it's a video game. Bohemia Interactive issues a statement and then everyone waits for the next fake to come along. "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," Krizka said in the press release. "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." Some of the tells of fake footage include a low resolution, a shaky camera, and/or a night setting. "They're often without sound, don't feature people in motion, and sometimes still include the HUD elements from the video game," adds Motherboard. "There's typically unnatural particle effects, unrealistic vehicles, uniforms, and equipment."

"We have seen many Arma players pointing out mistakenly identified footage, which helps viewers understand what they're seeing," said Bohemia Interactive. "Thank you for helping!"
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Military Sim Developer Tired of Its Game Being Used To Fake War Footage More

Military Sim Developer Tired of Its Game Being Used To Fake War Footage

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  • Make a realism based mil-sim and expect it to not be misused by political actors?

    If these guys are really this astonished their game would be used for political bullshittery:
    1. I have a 1000% solid investment idea for them, just need them to send me their bank acct info
    2. They maybe should have made a candycrush clone instead

    • Re:Uh... (Score:4, Interesting)

      by cuda13579 ( 1060440 ) on Wednesday November 30, 2022 @12:36AM (#63090020)

      They're nerds making a game...the thought probably never did cross their minds...and there's nothing wrong with that.
      Quit trying to imply they are "responsible" for some perceived offense.

      • They're nerds making a game...the thought probably never did cross their minds...and there's nothing wrong with that.

        Yes. Yes there is. We all are responsible for the results of our actions. No amount of pretending otherwise can change that. And therefore...

        Quit trying to imply they are "responsible" for some perceived offense.

        ...they are responsible for saying stupid shit. "Hey we made this look as realistic as possible, stop taking advantage of that." That's just epic stupidity, whatever else is true.

        • Ok...by that logic, anyone that makes video editing software should degrade the output so it's automatically recognizable as edited...because, "tHeY ShOuLD HaVe KnOwN!!"

          • Ok...by that logic, anyone that makes video editing software should degrade the output so it's automatically recognizable as edited...because, "tHeY ShOuLD HaVe KnOwN!!"

            Actually, by that logic anyone who makes video editing software should shut the fuck up if someone uses it to do evil, because they should have known that it could be used that way, and crying about it is stupid. Not quite as stupid as your take on the situation, but pretty fucking stupid.

  • If they really want to prevent it (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Wycliffe ( 116160 ) on Tuesday November 29, 2022 @11:17PM (#63089940) Homepage

    If they really want to prevent it, use an obvious watermark or unrealistic non-vital elements. If you are going for ultra realism, you might not want 3 eyed opponents or blue blood, but there are background things you can do that don't affect the realism of the battle like a watermark or having a purple squirrel or magenta colored grass.

    • FFS, the footage isn't that good...why should they make their product shittier, just because people are gullible? It's not as if they are the sole source of nonsense footage used for propaganda purposes. Actual REAL footage can be re-cut and altered for the same effect.

      Why aren't the news agencies looking at footage with a more critical eye? Of course! They just want to pump stuff out as fast as possible for ad dollars!

      They could absolutely clean up footage..."shaky cam" is trivial to stabilize, and once

      • Yep, that was my reaction too, it's obviously a sim. However if it's being used for viral clips, so presumably conspiracy theorists and the like, you could do the image on an etch-a-sketch and they'd still believe it as long as you could see the satanic baby-eating Jewish bogeymen that are being blamed for whatever's being done. It's not the image quality or obvious CGI-ness, it's the message and target audience that determine its acceptance. Repurposing for example old training footage as "proof" that i

    • Yeah, that's gonna add to the immersion a lot and won't piss off a single player.

      You do understand that this is game footage you're looking at, yes?

    • Re:If they really want to prevent it (Score:5, Interesting)

      by thegarbz ( 1787294 ) on Wednesday November 30, 2022 @03:50AM (#63090158)

      If they really want to prevent it, use an obvious watermark or unrealistic non-vital elements.

      They effectively are. Read TFA. The point here is that editors are then modifying the footage to make the obviously fake game look realistic by demolishing resolution, adding shake effects, darkening everything, editing out HUD elements etc.

      What do you suggest the game do? Add a full screen watermark over the game? Drop the graphics back to pixel art?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by mysidia ( 191772 )

        The dev should just disregard it... It's not their problem to solve that players are doctoring footage from their software for some nefarious purpose. I mean: the people doctoring the footage are PROBABLY using Windows too, and possibly one of the video editing software products created by a major vendor, and Youtube... You don't see Microsoft and Adobe hyperconcerned that their software is being used to doctor footage, so why is the game developer so worried about this?

        • The dev should just disregard it...

          Yeah, whining bitch he is. How dare he criticise someone using something he created to promote real life war propaganda. He should just bow down and accept it in silence. /s

          I mean: the people doctoring the footage are PROBABLY using Windows too

          Strawman. Using windows to run applications is its primary purpose. Using video editors to edit videos is their primary purpose. Using game footage ment for entertainment as war propaganda is not. Microsoft and Adobe don't care for your senseless arguments.

          • Neither should game developers, but here we are.

          • Re: (Score:3)

            by mysidia ( 191772 )

            How dare he criticise someone using something he created to promote real life war propaganda

            It's not a "how dare he"; It's a : this is an unreasonable thing for the software dev to be worrying about. They published a product, and people are rampantly abusing it, but so what? It's not the Dev's fault, and there's nothing they can do to fix that situation. Even what they already do in trying to inform people to be cautious of Low-Res Shaky-camera footage... is going way outside anything the

    • A watermark is pretty easy to remove from video unless it's animated, though I guess that's an option. But fundamentally if you make a game that looks realistic, people are going to pass it off as video. They have two reasonable choices, change the game so it looks less real, or shut the hell up. Anything else is just shaking fist at cloud.

  • It's high time to give yourself a pat on the back. That footage looks pretty good

    • Re:I'd say (Score:4, Insightful)

      by znrt ( 2424692 ) on Tuesday November 29, 2022 @11:43PM (#63089974)

      no it doesn't?

      i mean, it's barely acceptable for a war game in 2022. anyone mistaking that for real is either clueless or a troll feeding on clueless chaps. indeed, media absolutely loves both, all of them.

      imo this is just a publicity stunt, arma actually looks a bit outdated.

      • Is not a publicity stunt, is a real thing news channels show footage from this game as actual war footage, even bring military analysts to comment on them. It happened multiple times in my country.

      • i mean, it's barely acceptable for a war game in 2022. anyone mistaking that for real is either clueless or a troll feeding on clueless chaps.

        Likely the second. And it's not even the first time this happens, as it was used to fake fighters being shot down during one of the latest India-Pakistan slap fights.

        imo this is just a publicity stunt, arma actually looks a bit outdated.

        It came out in 2013, so... yeah. Mainly being kept alive by mods while Bohemia keeps working on the next one.

    • It looks good but it definitely looks like a game. There's a lot of stuff that doesn't really look that realistic...like too sharp polygon object edges (look at the buidlings, for example - trees are even worse!), unnaturally strong and vibrant colors, etc.

      I'm honestly surprised if anyone would mistake that for real footage. Or that anyone would insult our intelligence by trying to offer it as such.

      They need at least to add some filters to make the clips look more realistic. A blur/blend filter for objects,

  • Oh, right, YouTube wants you reading the comments.

  • Er, Arma Cold War Assault. No one will confuse that with reality.

  • ...of war. Long before any shots are fired, our governments run intensive, extensive propaganda campaigns to gain popular support for what is essentially the worst crime, the crime to end all crimes, war. With war come all the other crimes, war crimes, crimes against humanity, organised crime, rape, murder, human trafficking, etc..

    Governments on both sides are twisting facts & making shit up to try to justify their participation in this. Our leaders are confident that they won't be held accountable b

    • Governments on both sides are twisting facts & making shit up to try to justify their participation in this.

      Why would anyone need to lie to justify stopping a war of aggression by someone who's launched many of them in the past, and who has a long history of atrocities?

      • I myself asked the same question of journalism and Donald Trump - I thought the press would just print his statements verbatim, and yet here we are. I don't understand why the 4th estate feels they need to lie about the ex President, or even to keep talking about him, but they do.

        It's almost as if the first rule of journalism is that you never print the real truth, but leave it to the reader to deduce what actually happened from the exaggerations you've made.

        • I myself asked the same question of journalism and Donald Trump - I thought the press would just print his statements verbatim, and yet here we are.

          Here we are, where they generally have done that, and sometimes haven't, but only to all our detriment because they refuse to call things what they are.

          It's almost as if the first rule of journalism is that you never print the real truth, but leave it to the reader to deduce what actually happened from the exaggerations you've made.

          It's almost as if you're waving your hands while spewing bullshit, expecting nobody to ask you for concrete examples of whatever the fuck you're almost talking about.

          • Doesn't matter which of the 2 US political parties are in office, they still beat the drums of war. It's one of the few things they all agree on.

            • That's very true. They also both generally do what the corporations are paying them to do, which means that both parties basically lead to the same end. There are real differences between them in the short term, but not so much in the long one.

      • Wars of aggression? Are you talking about Russia or the USA?

    • Governments on both sides are twisting facts & making shit up to try to justify their participation in this. Our leaders are confident that they won't be held accountable but they are worried about losing support, political opposition, popular protests, etc.. Anyone trying to report the truth will meet significant & substantial resistance.

      Stopped reading at both sides.
       

  • Dad fell for this (Score:3)

    by quonset ( 4839537 ) on Wednesday November 30, 2022 @06:42AM (#63090328)

    One of his ham folks sent him a video claiming to show Ukrainian soldiers using a Javelin to take out a Russian tank. It took me a few seconds to determine it was from a game and having now seen this article, it's the very scene from the screenshot in the article.

    I told him it was from a game and pointed out why, then showed him real footage of Ukrainian soldiers using Javelins to take out Russian tanks. The difference was night and day

  • ...that "journalists" are cheerfully shearing this crap around because
    A) they can't be arsed to actually verify anything anymore, and
    B) there is such a vast lacuna of knowledge about anything military from the same journalists some how equating that ignorance with validation of their politics

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