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

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