War Games

War Thunder is a free online video game that goes all out in its simulation of “realistic vehicle and weapon physics”, writes Rich Stanton here and here. Since the weapons and tanks they have in the game exist in the real world, there are many online arguments “about the accuracy or otherwise of particular hardware”.

 

In one such incident, the argument was over the French Leclerc Main Battle Tank. Specifically, the question was about exact speed of rotation of the tank’s turret. One participant thought the best way to prove he was right was by (hold your breath) posting portions of the manual of the real tank! So much for such documents being classified material…

 

It turns out this wasn’t the first or last time classified military material was posted to settle online debates. The site owners are now used to being on the lookout for any material on their forums that may be classified and try to take it down.

 

This being the Internet, the argument then changes as to whether the material was classified or not. Sometimes, people photoshop the pictures they take of the actual tank’s manual to remove the “Classified” labels! The UK Ministry of Defense has often contacted the site owners to confirm the status of the contentious material (classified or not?).

 

The site itself has a clear policy – if the material is classified, they take it down and do not update their simulations to reflect this new info. But if it isn’t classified, then they update their simulations accordingly.

 

It’s hard to make out whether the people who share such material are just getting carried away by the argument, whether they truly don’t realize they might be committing treason. The scary thing in all this is that we aren’t talking of teenagers addicted to a game. Some of these guys are military folks with access to the weapons that are simulated in the game…

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