ITV fakes terrorist footage using ARMA II

[ukjourno 10]

I have only one question:

Will the spanking be televised as well? :D

This is ingame footage. Gameplay, not a cutscene.

The confusion apperently happened because someone recreated the actual event in the game, and uploaded it to Youtube

.

Great thanks! Is it possible to get to this point by playing it? Just trying to find this exact point! Thanks for your help guys.

[ukjourno 10]

Thanks Jdb, so has someone created this event in the game then? Or is it an actual part of the storyline in the game?

Many thanks! D

---------- Post added at 05:04 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:02 PM ----------

Also, would it be possible for us to recreate it in the game? (Just to prove the ITV footage was in fact from the game) or would that be a nightmare! Thanks

[JdB 151]

Thanks Jdb, so has someone created this event in the game then? Or is it an actual part of the storyline in the game?

Many thanks! D

It is a fan-made video, specifically created to resemble the IRA's original video. The actions depicted are not part of the original game's content, though the units (soldiers and vehicles) that are used are. They were not designed to resemble the IRA, and there are no recreations of any IRA actions in the game. The game is set on a fictional island that has nothing to do with Western Europe or Ireland.

ARMA 2 is set primarily in the fictional Eastern European nation of Chernarus, (meaning "Black Russia"). The Chernarus landscape is based heavily on the Czech Republic, the home country of the developer.

Any and all references and resemblance to the IRA are unintentional, the actions being portrayed in the video the work of a fan using the game's built-in mission editor.

For me, the funniest part is that it is usually the media claiming that games players can't tell the difference between video games and reality.

Spot on! :D

Edited September 27, 2011 by JdB

[Tonci87 163]

I think something is going on here, Someone registering just to ask if this footage is somehow in the game by default.... :j:

[Smurf 12]

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/09/27/tv-confuses-arma-with-real-life/#more-75478

[hellfire257 3]

Thanks Jdb, so has someone created this event in the game then? Or is it an actual part of the storyline in the game?

Many thanks! D

---------- Post added at 05:04 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:02 PM ----------

Also, would it be possible for us to recreate it in the game? (Just to prove the ITV footage was in fact from the game) or would that be a nightmare! Thanks

Recreating it would be difficult. You would be able to create something similar, but not the same.

Edited September 27, 2011 by Hellfire257

[ukjourno 10]

Thanks for your help everyone.

[mr burns 131]

Hello. Where in the game is this footage based

Eastern Chernogorsk entry or northern Solnichniy exit.

I love these spot the place games :D

PS: Thumbs up ITV, some good QA there!

[walker 0]

Hi all

There is a real PIRA video with the same/similar name to the ArmA II source video ITV used on YouTube:

bJDeipvpjGQ

The ArmA II source is named

PIRA Shoot Down British Helicopter 1988

The PIRA source is named:

PIRA shoot down Brit Heli

PIRA footage comes up as a link after the ArmA II footage.

I think ITV may have had an editing screw up!

Kind Regards walker

Edited September 27, 2011 by walker

[nouty 10]

I think something is going on here, Someone registering just to ask if this footage is somehow in the game by default.... :j:

Oh yeah? You should get a job at ITV as an investigative journalist, I hear there may be a spot open soon. :)

[jerryhopper 285]

LOL! brings back memories.... BF2 & Sonic Jihad : The terrorist training video.

i actually interviewed 'Sonic' who is a dutch citizin.

Fan-made Battlefield 2 video mistaken for terrorist propaganda

Published May 7, 2006 6:44 PM

We've all seen this sort of video before: in-game "movies" created by gamers to show off skill, tell a little story, or both. This one, for example, uses Battlefield 2, snippets of Team America: World Police, and a speech by George W. Bush. It's standard fare, really, and nothing particularly newsworthy. Or so it should have been.

Instead, the video was apaprently spotted by US officials, who understood it to be propaganda used by Islamic militants. Perhaps the content wasn't the only reason it was identified as such, however. As it turns out, the video was made by a Battlefield 2 fan named SonicJihad, which leads us to wonder if the combination of the video's contents and the author's nickname didn't lead someone to rush to judgement. After all, a quick online search would have shown where the flim came from, and what it was intended for. To say that gamers are having a field day would be a little bit of an understatement. Without a doubt, watching the video and then reading the "reports" about it is bound to give you a chuckle.

Then again, SonicJihad does have a political story to tell. The name is a reference to an artist who released a song called "Bush Killa." Still, this wouldn't be the first time a game was used for political means, and we all know that the US Government itself uses video games to train youngsters in the art of war and make the military more appealing. In the case of this purported propaganda, however, the only training that anyone should be talking about is how to use a search engine.

(source:http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2006/05/3874.ars)

Bringing fake news is the new trend for 2011.

Edited September 27, 2011 by jerryhopper

[Prydain 1]

If this ever happens on the public service I'll eat my licence fee.

[Blackhawk 0]

This is....quite ridiculous. Very embarrassing for ITV.

It's so laughably obvious, that I don't know how ITV thought they would get away with it

BBC have posted an article about it

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-15082177

Edited September 27, 2011 by Blackhawk

[froggyluv 2130]

Wow, first Limnos freaks out and now this?!? Looks like Arma has turned into quite the scandalous lady -or is this just another really elaborate ARG :rolleyes:

[ProfTournesol 956]

What ? Sion Lenton is a journalist now ? :icon_ohmygod:

:D

Edited September 27, 2011 by ProfTournesol

[mattxr 9]

ITV took down the main video on there site now.

[.Taffy 10]

This from the BBC. BBC

In a statement ITV said: "The events featured in Exposure: Gaddafi and the IRA were genuine but it would appear that during the editing process the correct clip of the 1988 incident was not selected and other footage was mistakenly included in the film by producers.

"This was an unfortunate case of human error for which we apologise."

It is incredible that anyone could think this was real. No offence BI to the brilliance of your artists, although I have sometimes been startled at how seemingly life like images of ARMA 2 are, those are typically screenshots!

I wonder what the fallout from this will be? Has anyone seen the claimed real life footage?

Edited September 27, 2011 by .Taffy

[walker 0]

Hi all

So I got the assement right in my previous post.

...

I think ITV may have had an editing screw up! ...

Kind Regards walker

Edited September 27, 2011 by walker

[PELHAM 10]

Hi all

So I got the assement right in my previous post.

Kind Regards walker

No you simply repeated what I said in post #23 on page 3. Too late Walker :D

To clarify: Your assumption and videos were all posted in previous replies

There is the original fan video posted by JdB in post #50

And the real video of genuine footage from the IRA posted by me in #23

"I wonder if some researcher was told to get the video and edit it and picked the wrong one?"

You simply repeated us in your post #59, looks like poor research is not limited to ITV?

Edited September 27, 2011 by PELHAM

[_raine 10]

The confusion apparently happened because someone recreated the actual event in the game based off of an actual IRA video of the event, and uploaded it to Youtube

. A costly and embarrassing mix-up.

This is ingame footage. Gameplay, not a cutscene. The "player" (camera viewpoint) is only watching rather than participating to stay as close to the original video, but it is all live-action real-time processing (that also means that it will never quite play out the same way every time, so it might have taken a few attempts to get the game footage to match the IRA video).

The quality of the clip used in the documentary was much paler and washed out looking than the original youtube version. Part of me suspects the quality may have been deliberately altered in a lame attempt to make it look plausible. Don't rush out and buy me a tinfoil hat just yet - it may well have been due to something as simple as a researcher accidentally deleting the original footage and desperately trying to cover his mistake.

Apparently it has been pulled from the ITV site until they re-edit it with the original footage...lets hope for their sake it exists.:butbut:

[Colossus 2]

Greek national security yesterday, IRA links today. I must say, BI, you are keeping yourselves busy this week. :p

Here is the plan:

1. Sue ITV

2. Win or make a settlement with ITV

3. Receive a large amount of money from ITV

4. Buy Limnos from the Greeks (If it's a rotten barrel: pay off the mayor)

Edited September 27, 2011 by colossus

[walker 0]

Hi PELHAM

Yes I saw the posts, but while you made a guess; I actually analysed possible causes of the error, and identified them, when I pointed out that the names of the two files were similar enough to cause the wrong version on you tube to be chosen.

I think there would have been a research journalist who created a direction list and that some one else was editing the documentary, and as I pointed out in that post the names oif the two files were almost identical. I also wish to point out the music is similar as is the text overlay which would support the error.

The director would have seen the YouTube from the PIRA multiple times and skipped it in the edit review after seeing the first few frames which are almost identical and hearing the same audio.

Kind Regards walker

[PELHAM 10]

Yes I had already compared the titles? Which is how I reached my conclusion on page 3. So my guess is as good as yours because we will never actually know what happened. And you are making the same educated guess I made, are you not? :clap:

Bet you can't make a screen shot of the AI and vehicles from the Arma2 editor before I do? :D

[-Snafu- 77]

Where's Malcolm Tucker when you need him?

[slatts 1978]

Greek national security yesterday, IRA links today. I must say, BI, you are keeping yourselves busy this week. :p

Here is the plan:

1. Sue ITV

2. Win or make a settlement with ITV

3. Receive a large amount of money from ITV

4. Buy Limnos from the Greeks (If it's a rotten barrel: pay off the mayor)

sounds good :)