Arma has always been quite moddable. Every piece of Bohemia Interactive's military sim has been renovated or replaced hundreds of times over by the game's prolific community--its missions , islands , audio , weapons , and vehicles . Today Bohemia makes a major effort to support that culture of community content creation as it begins a more than year-long competition called “ Make Arma Not War .”

A total of a half-million Euros (about $680,000 USD) will be be awarded to modders in 2015, with the winners in four categories selected by a panel of about a dozen game industry professionals, community members like Dslyecxi , and Bohemia developers. “Having a competition like this is giving the people something back, essentially. Giving them more serious reasons to show off, to make something out of their hobby,” says Ivan Buchta, Creative Director at Bohemia.

CEO Marek Spanel underlines that the competition is Bohemia's way of supporting a fundamental part of its franchise. “Ever since Arma: Cold War Assault, we've made it a priority to support our community with tools, documentation, and sample models, and Arma 3 is no different. With the integration of Steam Workshop, a refreshed tool suite, updated user licenses, and of course the Make Arma Not War contest, we're hoping to push things further. It's clear that, with our open architecture and creative community, much more extra content can be produced. Correspondingly, we've seen this affect the longevity of our games: each Arma installment is played actively for years and years after their release.”

Employment and publishing rights, along the lines of what was earned by DayZ creator Dean Hall, also aren't out of the question for potential winners and entrants to the contest. “It's a great way for us to find new employees,” says Korneel van 't Land, Brand and PR Manager at Bohemia. “They're training themselves with our tools and technology. We might be able to find talent. The recruitment aspect is also quite important.”

The disproportionate, €200,000 sum allocated for the “Total Modification” category indicates that Bohemia is serious about stimulating more Arma spin-offs through this contest. After the success of DayZ, a mod that shifted Arma somewhat out of its simulation roots, Bohemia says it's looking for more original ideas alongside content that enhances Arma 3. “It would be great if more people were able to think out of the box, step outside of the technical military simulation game we have, or even go deeper inside it, and create something revolutionary, something inspiring, something that will set a direction for the future, even for our competitors,” says Buchta.

Read up on the contest rules at www.makearma.com . Bohemia will accept entries until October 28, 2014. In the meantime, here's a list of some of our favorite Arma 3 content created to date.

Prizes

Total Modification

€200,000 1st place

Single-Player Game Mode

€50,000 1st place

€30,000 2nd place

€20,000 3rd place

Multiplayer Game Mode

€50,000 1st place

€30,000 2nd place

€20,000 3rd place

Addon

€50,000 1st place

€30,000 2nd place

€20,000 3rd place