Fake News!

[Spalls Hurgenson]

So I'm not sure if this is intended as a legitimate warning, or just a
clever marketing tactics, but ARMA3 Bohemia Interactive developer has
uploaded a video on how to distinguish "fake news" (remember when we
just called it 'lies'?) using doctored footage of ARMA as 'evidence'.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqW93ePJ82s

As gamers, we're probably all aware of video game footage being
misrepresented as real-life video. I remember recently watching some
clips of the war in Ukraine on YouTube and staring at the screen
trying to determine if what I was seeing was actual soldiers or
digital avatars (I'm pretty sure it was the former. Still, it says
something about our games that there can be actual confusion between
the two).

(Then again, I vaguely remember that years back some Doom-era games
getting the same treatment, so maybe it is more a matter of
expectations than accurate visuals).

And ARMA has certainly been featured in these 'mis-representations'
(a.k.a. "lies", again) a number of times, so it's good ad-copy for
Bohemia Interactive. "Our games are so real you can't tell them apart
from actual war footage!". But maybe it is legitimate concern on their
part that has prompted this 'warning'.

Although I'm not sure the sales pitch is quite as good if you are
forced to admit the 'footage' only looks real if you smear it all up
by dropping the resolution and never show any actual people walking
about because the animations are so poor ;-)