You may remember aclip or two going viralof a plane landing or a car crash inGTA V, being peddled on social media sites like Facebook asan actual, real-life event. While game-sensitive viewers can easily identify these clips as fake,for some individuals, such as your average grandparent, it may not be so obvious.
Although making your grandparents believe digital mayhem is actually going on in the streets of LA sounds funny and harmless,things can get a bit more sinister when video game footage is passed for real-life wars.
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In almost every recent modern conflict, such as the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian War, footage from games likeArma 3has been used to deceive people into believingfake gameplay clipsare real combat footage.
Thus, a harmless joke can turn into a form of propaganda. The best comparison to bring up is thefaking of body countsduring the American-Vietnam War –purposefully spreading misinformation of battle wins and losses to paint an invented version of the real event.
Several fake gameplay clips from games such as Arma 3 andWar Thunderare being used to producefake footage of the Iranian-Israeli conflict(thanks, PC Gamer), which is currently escalating in the Middle East. This is especially concerning, given the numerous global concerns surrounding this conflict.
First of all, as the clip above shows,hashtags on X/Twitter under the Israel-Iran war banner are being flooded with gameplay clips of the game Arma 3. Sites like X/Twitter have implemented a content-checking device, labeling the post as misinformation.
Although the footage, at a closer glance, is clearly gameplay footage, you can’t expect everyone to know what a modern video game looks like. This has led to newspapers such as The Jerusalem Postfact-checkingthe clip’s authenticity.
Additionally, here’s yetanother clipfrom the gameWar Thunderbeing pushed online as video of the conflict. PC Gamer was even able to track down this clip, finding theoriginal sourceof the content on YouTube.
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The endemicfake gameplay war footagecrisis seems to constantly rear its head every time a military conflict starts trending in the news and social media platforms. Although the overwhelming majority of cases is quickly called out, this has terrifying implicationswith high-resolution gameplay footage, even without the use of advanced technologies like ray tracing.
Married to this conversation is the usage of generative AI, with advances in image quality potentially leading to users being less and less able to discern what’s real and what’s fabricated.
For gamers, it’s a pretty nifty thing to think that the technology on my computer is advanced enough to trick people into thinking these little computer games, when cropped to the proper perspective and given a bit of crunch and blur, can be imagined as the real thing.
However, from the perspective of global security, it’s alarming to consider that a relatively minor video game, with only a fewthousand concurrent players, has the potential to influence our perception of global affairs.
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