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ArmA Developers Arrested While Scouting Military Base [UPDATED]

Company confirms two employees arrested, other details remain vague.

ArmA has always been a respected series, but zombie mod Day Z has given it a huge spotlight.
ArmA has always been a respected series, but zombie mod Day Z has given it a huge spotlight.

UPDATED: Bohemia Interactive has released a new statement about today's developments, which I've featured in full below.

"We can confirm that two Bohemia Interactive employees, our colleagues and friends, were arrested during their holiday trip to Lemnos. They visited the island with the sole purpose of experiencing the island's beautiful surroundings.

Since its establishment in 1999, Bohemia Interactive has created games based only upon publicly available information. We always respect the law and we've never instructed anybody to violate the laws of any country. The same is true for Arma 3.

Currently, all our effort goes towards supporting the guys over there, as well as their friends and families affected by this difficult situation. We sincerely hope that this is an unfortunate misunderstanding of their passion as artists and creators of virtual worlds."

--

Two employees from ArmA III developer Bohemia Interactive have been arrested while undergoing research for its upcoming game, reports Greek news organization News 247.

The two employees, ages 28 and 33, were not named, but were apparently scouting a military base and taking photos on the Greek island of Lemnos. The location was to be a setting for ArmA III.

Bohemia Interactive CEO Marek Spanel confirmed the reports on the game’s official message board.

“This is true,” said Spanel.

“We prefer this topic not to be discussed on our forums atm [at the moment],” he continued, “at least until we know more specific details about the case so I am going to close this topic and our moderators are going to close any related dicussion [sic] here, thank you for understanding.”

The ArmA series has received an enormous amount of attention in the last few months, thanks to the spectacular and surprising rise of the Day Z mod, built upon the last game, ARMA2.

Patrick Klepek on Google+

109 Comments

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mediaNen

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Edited By mediaNen

Woups, that is just retarded :)

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echronorian

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Edited By echronorian

Well, considering how terrible the news out of Greece has been (borderline civil war) I'd say it's not that surprising some guys taking tons of pictures at a military base set off some soldiers.

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yukoasho

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Edited By yukoasho

@outerabiz said:

@YukoAsho said:

@Inkerman said:

@steelknight2000 said:

Wait, Greece still has a military?

Not only that but conscription, remember they're right next to Turkey and have the Balkans right above them.

And of course the whole Cyprus issue. Really, it's surprising Greece and Turkey haven't gone to war yet.

because turey wants to be a part of the european union

Yeah, I'm guessing Greece wouldn't like that much, even if they stay in the EU, but Turkey's not getting into the EU any time soon. Most EU nations condemn Turkey's occupation of Northern Cyprus, and I doubt Turkey's leaving any time soon.

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Krrutch

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Edited By Krrutch

@Inkerman: @Inkerman said:

@steelknight2000 said:

Wait, Greece still has a military?

Not only that but conscription, remember they're right next to Turkey and have the Balkans right above them.

they also have four http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zubr_class_LCAC

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outerabiz

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Edited By outerabiz

@YukoAsho said:

@Inkerman said:

@steelknight2000 said:

Wait, Greece still has a military?

Not only that but conscription, remember they're right next to Turkey and have the Balkans right above them.

And of course the whole Cyprus issue. Really, it's surprising Greece and Turkey haven't gone to war yet.

because turey wants to be a part of the european union

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veektarius

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Edited By veektarius

@leadthallium said:

merica"

where police are paramilitary and military are police.

...

Why do i suddenly feel as i am being watched.

What does America have to do with this?

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Turambar

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Edited By Turambar

@Mikemcn said:

Maybe they should have approached the military base and asked somebody if they could take pictures, maybe bring a portfolio of the stuff your company is made so they can actually believe you.

Greece would just claim they were copying footage off CNN.

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ExtraSuperDanks

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Edited By ExtraSuperDanks

@TheVideoHustler said:

Guys. Guys. Greece. It's fucking Greece.

It's not like they have any real power anymore anyway

BWWAHAHAHAA! (true)

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TheVideoHustler

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Edited By TheVideoHustler

Guys. Guys. Greece. It's fucking Greece.

It's not like they have any real power anymore anyway

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will_m

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Edited By will_m

That really sucks for them. The last thing you want while in a foreign country is getting into trouble with the law. Not all countries consider people innocent until proven guilty.

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elessarLOTR

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Edited By elessarLOTR

I doubt the military in greece will take them seriously if they say it was because they were researching for a video game

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Nerolus

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Edited By Nerolus

@dennisthemennis: They were probably just taking pictures of the base, and when questioned - being as they were foreigners and all, probably got questioned harder and taken in for suspicions. I seriously doubt these dudes were doing james bond type shit. I used to take pictures for texture sources myself, and almost got arrested for taking pictures of the facade of a federal building downtown.

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TheDudeOfGaming

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Edited By TheDudeOfGaming

@Inkerman said:

@steelknight2000 said:

Wait, Greece still has a military?

Not only that but conscription, remember they're right next to Turkey and have the Balkans right above them.

They don't have to worry about us, so long as we have a steady supply of rakia. When that runs out...we're all fucked.

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N7

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Edited By N7

How funny would it be if they were actually spies and Bohemian was their in?

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manicmyna

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Edited By manicmyna

they'll be held for ransom until the merkins pay enough the get greece out of debt

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leadthallium

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Edited By leadthallium

merica"

where police are paramilitary and military are police.

...

Why do i suddenly feel as i am being watched.

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thedj93

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Edited By thedj93

these men are badass fuck ups thats all there is to it

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yukoasho

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Edited By yukoasho

@Inkerman said:

@steelknight2000 said:

Wait, Greece still has a military?

Not only that but conscription, remember they're right next to Turkey and have the Balkans right above them.

And of course the whole Cyprus issue. Really, it's surprising Greece and Turkey haven't gone to war yet.

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thebunnyhunter

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Edited By thebunnyhunter

\@Codeacious said:

@Chtasm said:

Two bucks says there'll be a custom scenario made for ArmA III that depicts the rescue of two journalists/photographers from a military base.

If that happens, I will buy ArmA III IMMEDIATELY.

id buy it if you play as Bill Clinton

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srwim

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Edited By srwim

@namesonkel said:

Dude. How would anyone know their Military base was authentic-looking when nobody is allowed to see it IRL?

It's not like they were taking pictures of some top secret area-51 type of base. The island of Lemnos has historically been heavily militarized due to its strategic location, and that tradition continues to this day. The bases, yes multiple, are quite visible to the public. If they use technology even remotely similar to our's, photographer detection is likely automated.

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Codeacious

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Edited By Codeacious

@Chtasm said:

Two bucks says there'll be a custom scenario made for ArmA III that depicts the rescue of two journalists/photographers from a military base.

If that happens, I will buy ArmA III IMMEDIATELY.

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inkerman

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Edited By inkerman

@steelknight2000 said:

Wait, Greece still has a military?

Not only that but conscription, remember they're right next to Turkey and have the Balkans right above them.

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steelknight2000

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Edited By steelknight2000

Wait, Greece still has a military?

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falling_fast

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Edited By falling_fast

military everywhere fucking hate it when people observe anything they do.

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yukoasho

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Edited By yukoasho

@chrispti said:

At least they weren't in Belarus or something...

Or Afghanistan.

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platzkart

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Edited By platzkart

This is amazing.

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mikemcn

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Edited By mikemcn

Maybe they should have approached the military base and asked somebody if they could take pictures, maybe bring a portfolio of the stuff your company is made so they can actually believe you.

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crithon

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Edited By crithon

This is the first time I'm learning that ARMA isn't America's Army game developer. Because as I'm reading this I was going to say "can't they get satellite imaging on that?"

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NTM

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Edited By NTM

"Hey, hey! What are you doing here!?"

"I, uh, we... we, were looking at the base because of, um... video games... :D You know, we've gotta create the most realistic game out there, ha ha... Ohhh fuck."

"Yeah, that's right, you have the right to remain silent."

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habibyjohnson

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Edited By habibyjohnson

Arrested Development.

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cookiemonster

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Edited By cookiemonster

Oh Video games, what are you like.

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TwoOneFive

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Edited By TwoOneFive

i live on a military base they just prosecuted a dude for wiring tapping shit on base. for second I thought this was related and my mind would have fucking exploded

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Terramagi

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Edited By Terramagi

Yeah, they're getting executed for espionage.

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deactivated-5c7ea8553cb72

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Lol

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chrispti

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Edited By chrispti

At least they weren't in Belarus or something...

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GabeNewell

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Edited By GabeNewell

The victim blaming in these comments are amazing.

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seismicshock

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Edited By seismicshock

I hate to be cynical, but smells a little like Bohemia trying to keep their noses clean. Disavowing all knowledge, etc CIA-style

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pandashake

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Edited By pandashake

Kind of cool to know how dedicated they were to do this, but at the same time a bit silly...

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abendlaender

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Edited By abendlaender

Well, it's Greek, so they'll be fine. They just need, let's say, around 20-30 Euros and some chocolate or beer.

Oh, and that's not a lame joke cause that happened to me. Well, to be fair I didn't get arrested but still, it was very amusing (and freightning at the moment) to actually bribe the police.

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SomeJerk

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Edited By SomeJerk

Observe as Greece asks for money in return for their freedom.

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CaptainInvictus

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Edited By CaptainInvictus

@Rincewind said:

@OriginalGman: The DRM in ARMA 1 and 2 meant that if it figured out you were playing on a pirated copy you'd turn into a bird during the mission and be unable to do anything else but fly around.

They used it in Operation Flashpoint games too.

that owns

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FMinus

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Edited By FMinus

They are quite lucky to be alive. When I had my conscript time back in times of Yugoslavia, I was instructed to shoot first and ask questions later while on guard duty, and quite frankly where I was stationed about 5 people were shot (2 killed) while trespassing. It was a munitions depot, nothing majorly secret and the guarding was serious business.

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Tychoid

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Edited By Tychoid

Greece has a track record for arrests out of the blue like this. They very well may have asked for, and been granted permission, beforehand. Wouldn't surprise me. Won't know until we get more details, though.

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aspaceinvader

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Edited By aspaceinvader

The Greeks are very strict on these things, I think they arrested some British plane spotters a few years ago for taking photos outside an airport of aircraft that were sitting parked.

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LOZZAT

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Edited By LOZZAT

@Rincewind said:

If they were pirates they could have turned into a bird and flown away from the cops.

Yes. YES.

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Rincewind

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Edited By Rincewind

@OriginalGman: The DRM in ARMA 1 and 2 meant that if it figured out you were playing on a pirated copy you'd turn into a bird during the mission and be unable to do anything else but fly around.

They used it in Operation Flashpoint games too.

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HerbieBug

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Edited By HerbieBug

roffel. :D

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L44

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Edited By L44

Commitment!

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cornbredx

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Edited By cornbredx
@forkboy: I am condoning neither side nor their actions only commenting on how scary this must be for them (the developers that got arrested) right now. If anything they should hopefully get off with a good scare and never be that stupid again. 
Regardless of who is right, you just don't take pictures of Military bases unwarranted. That's asking for trouble.
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namesonkel

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Edited By namesonkel

Dude. How would anyone know their Military base was authentic-looking when nobody is allowed to see it IRL?