Iran Joins The Using Video Game Footage To Pump Up Your Own Military's Reputation Arms Race

from the fake-it-til-you-make-it dept

I suppose this was inevitable. As video games become more refined as an artform and as those games evince more realistic graphics, animations, and all the rest, I suppose it had to be that some folks out there would try to pass game footage off as real footage depicting their own power. I just never really thought it would be established nations that otherwise purport to be players on the world stage doing this. Yet, as we have seen done by Egypt, North Korea, and even Russia in the past, so too do we now find that Iran is trying to brag about its own military capability using game footage.

This all started with Iran's state-run media releasing a video it claimed to be of an Iranian sniper taking out members of ISIS.

That guy's a really good shot, right? Well, if the above footage looks somewhat familiar to you, even through the grainy capture and the fact that it's clearly video shot of a television showing the actual video, that's probably because you're played the video game Medal Of Honor.

But something about this video doesn’t seem right. That’s because the footage is actually from the video game Medal of Honor. Several details show this. First of all, when this imaginary commando kills a supposed IS group terrorist, a little symbol pops up in the bottom of the screen. It’s exactly the same symbol that appears in Medal of Honor when a gamer shoots his enemy in the head (“a headshot”). Secondly, while the soldier is shooting, you can see the words "Mfou” and "Wfou” written at the bottom of the screen. These stand for the different visors that players can use in Medal of Honor.

Oops. This isn't to say that Iran doesn't indeed have military assets taking on ISIS/Daesh. They certainly do. But when an easily debunked effort to pass off video game footage as victory marks for the war effort is put out, it will only serve to make the world wonder just how well the real effort is going. Probably horribly, because, you know, war. War never changes (See? I can do it too!).

But we'll set that aside for the moment and instead welcome Iran into the group of fake-it-til-you-make-it folks. There are snacks in the back, but they're just pictures of Mario Bros. mushrooms, so, you know....

Filed Under: iran, medal of honor, propaganda, video games

UK Defense Secretary Calls For Retailers To Ban Upcoming Medal Of Honor Game

from the free-advertising-in-the-uk dept

You would think that UK Defense Secretary, Liam Fox, would have more important things to concern himself with than an upcoming video game release, but apparently he's calling for retailers not to sell the upcoming release in EA's Medal of Honor video game series. His complaint is that, in multiplayer mode, some players can play the role of Taliban soldiers. The game seeks to recreate the ongoing war in Afghanistan in a realistic manner. It's difficult to see how you could create a realistic game that doesn't include Taliban soldiers. It's not as if kids are going to play this game and suddenly think that it makes sense to join the Taliban...

Filed Under: liam fox, medal of honor, uk
Companies: ea