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Playing for Peace: PeaceMaker

November 28th, 2007Eliesheva (Israel/USA)

This is going to be a bit of a cross post, as the original story is located on one of my personal blogs. But it’s too relevant not to share it here, so here we go…

Yesterday, the Peres Center for Peace released a computer game called PeaceMaker. It’s an attempt – made in Arabic, Hebrew and English – to build a creative campaign for understanding an tolerance and even what I might call ‘virtual contact’.

In the game, you choose which side you want to play (Palestinian President, Israeli Prime Minister or other world leader) and you basically go about your term trying to win approval ratings from both Palestinians and Israelis. It’s a game displaying the negotiation process more than a long-term peace process, but hey, that’s reality, isn’t it.

Actually, the game is above superficial and the graphics and depth are impressive. It’s an excellent try, and I’m sorry that the center is charging $19.95 for the game (although, they are a non-profit and provide services for the conflict-ridden populations).

Anyway, to get my full opinion on it, see the original article, including screen shots.

peacemaker

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6 Responses to “Playing for Peace: PeaceMaker”

  1. #1 Esra'a - November 28th, 2007 at 5:47 pm

    Thanks for the post, is this game free?

  2. #2 Dima - November 28th, 2007 at 10:59 pm

    I would like to give more thumbs up to this game!

    I’ve been following this project for a few years already and i think it is very interesting. I don’t know how Peres Center is involved in it, but the last time i checked it was a private company started by Carnegie Mellon graduates (you can get a computer game design degree there, which i think is awesome).

    The game has been around already for over a year I think. You can download a demo (over 200MB) for free, but the game itself cost something like US $20-25 (last time I checked) and Elisheva writes it is 19.95.

    Check out their website, it has all the info. Elisheva’s original post is also informative.

  3. #3 Miriam (Egypt/Israel/USA) - November 29th, 2007 at 12:07 pm

    A lot of peace activists I know enjoy this game and feel it is well thought-out and informative, as well as being fun. Perhaps someone should send a copy to Bush and Condi…

  4. #4 asi - November 29th, 2007 at 12:54 pm

    guys- for accuracy sake: Dima has the facts right, the game is at 19.95$ on the PeaceMaker site but the Peres Center distributed 100,000 copies for free in the Middle-East region. They are also going to run educational workshops in Israeli and Palestinian high schools in the next several months.

  5. #5 Blue! - December 1st, 2007 at 1:14 am

    That’s really awesome, I really love the concept, thanks so much for sharing:-)

  6. #6 elinor(Iran) - December 13th, 2007 at 4:28 am

    This is very wonderful Elisheva :) Meod Yafe :) I wish I could have it here and buy it for my kids here :) perhaps after some time things will change, with all the bad news that media doesn’t cease to broadcast, I am very positive about the peace :)

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