Gaming for Peace

Last April I shared a post titled “Racist games teach wrong values” which attracted a relatively large number of comments (at least for my blog) from a very diverse group of people with different perspectives on violent games which target particular ethnic groups. In the post I recommended championing games like Peacemaker, which seeks to promote world peace through gaming. Peacemaker is now available as a $20 downloadable game for Windows and Macintosh computers. The website describes the game as:

a video game simulation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: a tool that can be used to promote dialog and understanding among Israelis, Palestinians and interested people around the world.

A demo and trailer of the game are available on the main site, and a Peacemaker blog is available which provides more background information and updates about the game and project. On the subject of the game being commercial, Eric Brown states:

We did have a long debate on whether to be for-profit or non-profit. The issues that drove our decision can be summed up fairly simply with the reality that it was easier and faster to find funding for the profit venture. There is a growing trend for social entrepreneurs, self sustaining models with positive missions, ie positive changes through for-profit ventures ( even this years Nobel Peace Prize Winner Mouhammad Yunus ). We also chose to remain unaffiliated through investment or sponsors. We fought for a long time to maintain the mission of our company and were very sensitive to bias concerns. We continuously saw the opportunity that if we are financially successful we could influence the gaming industry as a whole to understand that this type of mature content is not only in demand but a financial opportunity. To lead by example and to help populate the space with more titles like ours. We still work with and maintain great relationships with several foundations and non-profits for providing the game in places where funding is a problem and for creating wider awareness and support for communities and educators to engage people through the game experience.

$20 is a reasonable price, and I think the philosophy and goals of the project’s leaders are right on target. I hope they are successful and DO influence the gaming market so more titles like this will become available. I’m going to purchase the game later this month and give it a spin.

Bernie Dodge talked at length a few weeks ago at the MacWorld K-12 Market Symposium about the importance of learning from video games as we craft learning experiences and opportunities for students in the 21st century. (A podcast of his session is also available.) I think teachers as well as students should give themselves permission to play the Peacemaker game and discuss ways this specific game and other games with a similar philosophy can be used to help students learn content knowledge, AND gain a deeper understanding of a vital subject that requires affective as well as cognitive connections to grasp: World Peace.

In addition to checking out the official project blog, the project’s press page includes links to a variety of reviews from Wired, the New York Times, and other sources that are worth checking out. After I actually give the game a spin I’ll post some thoughts and my own review here.

Technorati Tags: games, globalvoices, peace, peacemaker

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