Serious Gaming: Can you bring peace to the middle east?

dauer · 05-13-2007, 03:44 AM

This is something I heard about a while ago, but only recently purchased. So far it seems like it's an excellent project. In the game, you choose to be either the Israeli Prime Minister or the Palestinian President and have to do your best to work out peace. It incorporates real news stories and footage, and is playable in english, arabic, or hebrew. There's also a free demo as well as a trailer available on the website. The game itself is 19.95 USD.

https://www.peacemakergame.com/

Another serious game is this flash one that deals with the problems in Darfur.

http://www.darfurisdying.com/

There's also Food Force by the UN which unfortunately I have not been able to get running yet, which is also free.

http://www.food-force.com/

What do you think of these types of games? Have you ever tried something like it?

Dauer

I found a list of serious games here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Serious_Games

wil · 05-13-2007, 05:53 AM

I've never seen these...and I'm not a gamer...but if they are any good they should be dropped in parachutes around the world..and made available for online gaming...

dauer · 05-13-2007, 04:51 PM

Wil,

darfurisdying is an online game. I did see a request by someone at the peacemaker site that the game be developed in a way to make it possible to do a two player version, and maybe eventually get it playable online as multiplayer. One of the things I like about peacemaker, besides that it's non-linear and well-developed, is they actually consulted people with a vested interest on both sides of the conflict. They even have a picture on their site of Dani Yatom playing. It's gotten press in Haaretz and on Al Jazeera. Unfortunately I don't understand arabic and they don't have a translation of the Al Jazeera broadcast up yet:

YouTube - PeaceMaker on Al-Jazeera

If you mean that the program should be free, they have some legitimate reasons for going for-profit:

Community » Why PeaceMaker costs money? :: PeaceMaker - Play the News. Solve the Puzzle.

Dauer

Pathless · 05-14-2007, 06:04 AM

There should be many many more games like this. There used to be quite a few educational computer games back in the '80s--and in general just a better variety. It seems like now all the games are focused on killing, violence, driving fast, hunting, or--and even these seem to be dwindling--puzzle games.

Has Spore come out yet? That at least seemed somewhat educational and fun, and to give free reign to the imagination.

TV is the same way: so much potential for creative, educational, and even problem-solving applications, wasted on marketing, stupid sit-coms, nationalistic dramas, skewed sexuality, and violence.

We need more independent, community-minded producers in both software development and television. Movies too!

Peace,
Pathless

dauer · 05-14-2007, 04:13 PM

Is Spore that evolution game by the makers of the sims? That looks fantastic. There was a game called evo sorta -- but not at all -- along the same lines for snes that was really neat. It didn't exactly follow history but it was a lot of fun. I read about Spore first in Wired magazine. Given the creators, I have high hopes for it. I never played them but in the later versions of The Sims, Sims aged and could have children, and each successive generation took on some of the physicial traits and behavioral characteristics from each parent.

I also played another more educational game when I was younger, actually a few now that I think about it. Civ II was in a sense educational, and all the sim games like simcity and simtower. And then there was a game about being a group of cave people. A volcano destroyed your home and you have to travel. And Oregon Trail. And there was a game where you played, I think as JFK, except you survive the shooting in Dallas. And you have to deal with all of the issues of the day. Where have all the edutainment games gooooooooone?

Dauer

Pathless · 05-14-2007, 07:36 PM

Yeah, that's the Spore I was talking about. And Oregon Trail was on my mind when I posted last as well. As far as Civilization goes, I played one or two games in that series but was turned off because it always boiled down to wiping out the other nations/tribes so that the player could become Supreme. Too much competition, not enough cooperation.

Peace,
P

Prober · 05-14-2007, 07:50 PM

"Peacemaker" looks really cool. I'll have to bring my tower to work, got dial-up at home

.

Pathless · 10-24-2007, 09:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dauer

This is something I heard about a while ago, but only recently purchased. So far it seems like it's an excellent project. In the game, you choose to be either the Israeli Prime Minister or the Palestinian President and have to do your best to work out peace. It incorporates real news stories and footage, and is playable in english, arabic, or hebrew. There's also a free demo as well as a trailer available on the website. The game itself is 19.95 USD.

https://www.peacemakergame.com/

I downloaded the demo of this game. It's informative in its presentation of the conflict between Israel and Palestine. I don't know as much about the history and complexities of the conflict as I would like, and I was able to learn a bit from the in-game timeline.

In light of the recent "Anti-Semitism?" thread, I thought it'd be a good idea to bump this game for awareness/educational value. If I had $20 to spare, I'd buy a copy. The demo only lets you play 8 turns into the game, which isn't nearly enough to make any kind of progress.

bob x · 10-24-2007, 10:12 PM

You think you make any more progress after 800 turns?

flowperson · 10-25-2007, 08:58 PM

Okay, now here's something that nakes sense to me...anyone else have a thought or two ?

flow....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7061641.stm

Pathless · 10-26-2007, 09:00 PM

Global Conflict: Palestine

Here's another Israel/Palestine edu-game. In it, you play the role of a reporter gathering info for news stories about the daily happenings in the region. You can choose what paper you want to write for--Palestinian, Israeli, or International--and are expected to tailor stories to the audience of the paper you choose. At the same time, the player is encouraged to gather as much diverse information as possible, in order to broaden the context. There's a free demo that has one playable "mission."

|| GLOBAL CONFLICTS: PALESTINE ||

Pathless · 10-27-2007, 04:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by flowperson

Okay, now here's something that nakes sense to me...anyone else have a thought or two ?

flow....

BBC NEWS | Technology | Virtual worlds threaten 'values'

You may find this interesting. I think it's relevant to the questions raised in that article:

Water Cooler Games - About

Also:

The Education Arcade --their game Revolution looks very interesting.