War Video Games Have Become Dangerous In A New, Stupid Way

Many have spent decades worrying about the impact that cartoony-ass violent games would have on the youth; very few have been considering the likely more dangerous consequences of realistic depictions of war in games. One of the few wisely noticing it was the US Army, but they've turned these games into straight-up recruitment tools, so maybe it would have been better if no one had picked up on it at all. As we've talked about more than once, video game footage can and has been used as if it were real-life footage. Most of the time, it's a news station or politician who matured long before the dawn of the age of video games making an honest and hilarious mistake, but it has already been used for propaganda. However, neither of those cases is as worrisome as the Russian invasion of Ukraine, where Arma 3 footage is being shown as supposed recordings of real battles.

The first instance was of a supposed aerial battle that took place on the very first day of the invasion, where you see a jet very skillfully dodging a barrage of enemy fire.

That dangerously realistic-looking video made the top trend on Facebook and was seen over 100,000 times before reaching Mark Zuckerberg's quota of misinformation for the day.

The other instance shows a supposedly Ukrainian fighter shooting down a Russian plane, which fuelled the idea that there's a Russian ace now dubbed “Ghost Of Kyiv” who's been shooting down Russian planes left and right.

The video, though once again very realistic, is fake. The ghost, however, might be real and hopefully too good to ever get caught on video.

We live in the pizzagate era, a time when one doesn't even need to bother coming up with credible details in order to tell a lie that will fool millions. It's terrifying to think what you can do with footage from video games that, when combined with the obligatory “Bigfoot grain,” becomes a cheap wartime propaganda tool indistinguishable from the real thing.

Top Image: Bohemia Interactive