Gamers To Solve The Israeli Palestinian Crisis
Blair and Bush couldn't... Condi' Rice can't... maybe you can
We've got an admission to make, we've never heard of the 'Reinventing Public Diplomacy Through Games competition'. But Asi Burak and Eric Brown of ImpactGames won it in May 2006 with their Peacemaker Project. This has now turned into the game of the same name for Mac and PC costing $20 (£10).
According to the company, "PeaceMaker was initially designed to determine whether it was possible to create a game about serious issues and current events that would be as engaging as any other commercially available video games. It was received very well at its first public displaying at GDC (Games Developers Conference) in the spring of 2005.
"PeaceMaker is a single-player game in which one can choose to take the role of either the Israeli Prime Minister or the Palestinian President. The player reacts to in-game events, from diplomatic negotiations to military attacks, and interacts with eight other political leaders and social groups in order to establish a stable resolution to the conflict before his or her term in office ends. The two roles (the Israeli PM and the Palestinian President) are different in terms of gameplay, core balance and available actions.
"The target audience for PeaceMaker is socially aware adults and children worldwide, gamers and non-gamers alike. PeaceMaker engages global citizens by immersing them in a rich multimedia environment with a sequence of "what if" scenarios and experiences as seen from the Palestinian or Israeli perspective."
PeaceMaker joins games such as Dafur Is Dying and World Without Oil in trying to bring real world issues to the imaginations of gamers. For the most part games such as these have been dismissed by both sides of the argument regarding the value of video gaming: gamers tend to see only the poor quality, while the the anti-games lobbies refuse to register that the medium is being used for anything other than to turn the 'youth' into mindless, gun-toting, gang-raping, police-mudering droids.
Make your own mind up - download PeaceMaker right here.
According to the company, "PeaceMaker was initially designed to determine whether it was possible to create a game about serious issues and current events that would be as engaging as any other commercially available video games. It was received very well at its first public displaying at GDC (Games Developers Conference) in the spring of 2005.
"PeaceMaker is a single-player game in which one can choose to take the role of either the Israeli Prime Minister or the Palestinian President. The player reacts to in-game events, from diplomatic negotiations to military attacks, and interacts with eight other political leaders and social groups in order to establish a stable resolution to the conflict before his or her term in office ends. The two roles (the Israeli PM and the Palestinian President) are different in terms of gameplay, core balance and available actions.
"The target audience for PeaceMaker is socially aware adults and children worldwide, gamers and non-gamers alike. PeaceMaker engages global citizens by immersing them in a rich multimedia environment with a sequence of "what if" scenarios and experiences as seen from the Palestinian or Israeli perspective."
PeaceMaker joins games such as Dafur Is Dying and World Without Oil in trying to bring real world issues to the imaginations of gamers. For the most part games such as these have been dismissed by both sides of the argument regarding the value of video gaming: gamers tend to see only the poor quality, while the the anti-games lobbies refuse to register that the medium is being used for anything other than to turn the 'youth' into mindless, gun-toting, gang-raping, police-mudering droids.
Make your own mind up - download PeaceMaker right here.
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Comments
Joji 2 May 2007 13:19
1/2
Want to solve this crisis with land. The answer is pretty simple. Reclaim land from the sea, then everyone is happy.
Asi 5 May 2007 16:11
2/2
As a game developer who tries to make alternative and indie games, without much support from the gaming community, I'd say that luckily there are more than "both sides of the argument". Between the "gamers" and the "anti-game lobbies" there is a whole public of parents, females, casual gamers that their opinion matters. The change will come from there, and the chance to make the interactive media mature and respected.