I watched the video. And I'm glad I did: my local media sort of tries to scare me into thinking that ISIS is a bunch of guys who think Al Qaeda are a bunch of pussies, and that they've got more resources, more extremist views and more power.
...and then they send out this half-assed video game mod? No. That doesn't make sense no matter how I look at it. Let's look at it from both sides, shall we?
1. suppose ISIS is really that extreme danger the media is trying to scare us into believing*, and that they want to recruit people through video games. Then why do they release a trailer that seems to be made by a random teenager with some free time and a GTA4 editor? I'm no modder, but I've known guys who could produce a trailer like this in less than an afternoon. No doubt that "huge, powerful web of extremists" can do that too. I know it's sort of a different skill set than what your average terrorist needs, but it's not rocket science.
Am I really to believe that a threat to our entire civilization has the market awareness of a shrimp when it comes to the audience they claim to want to reach? Christ...how did they even manage to misspell "battelfield"? English may not be their first language, but if they're attempting to recruit some, IT MAY FUCKING HELP TO USE GOOGLE TRANSLATE. So no...this video does NOT help to recruit terrorists. In fact, I'd even wager it drives people away when they see the sheer lack of quality they can produce (no, I'm NOT kidding).
2. okay, so let's go at it the other way: suppose that our media want to sell more newspapers and blow the entire ISIS threat out of proportion. That would explain the poor quality of the video...but not at all why they were making one in the first place. Let's say I'm a member of a society or ideology to promote. It's controversial (erm...let's say we're pro abortus...or against it, depending on the issue), so I know that criticism is imminent. That would ensure that I do MY ABSO-FUCKING-LUTE BEST EFFORT to make sure that whatever means I use for promotion is top notch quality. A video game mod would be one of the very last items on the list, as it's not that hard to come up with SOMETHING, but takes way more money than we have to create top notch quality.
*sigh*
I normally don't go for conspiracy theories, but I'm willing to make an exception here. I honestly don't believe the maker(s) of that trailer are extremists, ISIS or even moslims to begin with. Anyone can spend an afternoon in a GTA editor, slap some Arabic subtitles on it, an oriental-sounding soundtrack and some "Allah akhbar" for good measure**. And believe it or not, but ISIS has LESS reasons to produce this kind of garbage than whatever US government agencies. I bet the US army is already using this video to plead for more money to fight this threat to society (despite the fact that these so called superterrorists are AT THE SAME TIME so stupid they can't even properly spell 'battlefield'
).
*y'know...unlike those other fearmongeringies like Y2K, the killer bees or predicted crime waves that JUST DIDN'T HAPPEN
**in fact...I almost want to dive into Garry's mod and parody the whole stuff. Look for exploding tanks, the "America, fuck yeah" track and a screamed "praise the lord" every time someone fires a gun.