The ICRC released a statement clarifying that “serious violations of the laws of war can only be committed in real-life situations, not in video games.”īohemia Interactive, the developer of a popular interactive military game Arma 3, agreed to work with the ICRC specialists to create the ‘ Laws of War‘ downloadable content (DLC) module.īohemia Interactive CEO Marek Spanel explains: “We knew this DLC’s theme might seem a bit unusual, but we also felt that it has a rightful place in a game like Arma 3. There was even outrage, with some commentators thinking that the ICRC, having “virtually lost the plot”, wanted gamers prosecuted for war crimes committed on virtual battlegrounds.
Most game developers were uninterested in the ICRC’s proposal that real laws be made part of their simulated wars. The gaming community numbers in the billions, with a significant proportion being young men, so, the world of games offers an opportunity to open up a new audience to an easily overlooked aspect of warfare: international humanitarian law (IHL).
Simulated war, real lawsįor the ICRC, the challenge was to also make the legal context more realistic. Creators pay careful attention to the landscapes the authenticity of historical contexts the weapons, vehicles and uniforms and the sound effects. Many of the characters are more lifelike, movement often seems more natural. Gamers want a realistic gaming experience, giving developers a constant incentive to inject a greater sense of reality into every aspect of the game. The ICRC posed a challenge to the makers of war games: why not introduce the rules of warfare into games, and in so doing actually make them more realistic? 6 min Virtual humanitarians enter the gamers’ battlefield.
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