Students
Peacemaker: The two sides of the story
Peacemaking is often attributed to great leaders or as often is the case to wishful thinking. But thanks to ImpactGames becoming a Peacemaker is now possible.
Peacemaker is an interactive game set around the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. All its game elements are rooted in real life situations. In fact, it is so real that it includes pictures and videos from real events occurring on both the Palestinian and the Israeli side. To win the game, the player impersonating either the Palestinian president or the Israeli Primer Minister needs to make peace between the two nations and obtain a Nobel Prize.
The game can be played at three different levels: calm, tense, violent. This certainly appeals to a wider range of audiences and plays an important part in its re-playabilty. The player is first attracted by the neat design of the game and as the game unfolds is further engaged by by the real life images and footage.
As the ARCS model suggests attention is maintained not only by art but by the nature of the decisions the player has to make and their consequences on many intertwined levels. Players are also engaged because the content is based on intriguing real life events, but players with a special interest in the conflict, either because of their geographical location or because of their field of study, will find the game even more relevant to their personal interests and therefore more engaging. The designers understood that and made the game available in English, Arabic, and Hebrew. A high level of satisfaction is reached when the player wins a Nobel and offers peace to the region. Such satisfaction is clearly sensed in one of the players’ responses after winning the game:”I did it, I created peace in Palestine!”
While the game offers Fantasy as players have a chance to be the “others” and experience the situation from their side, what seems to be the most appealing to the players though is one of the biggest motivational elements identified by Malone and Lepper: challenge. The game seems to have a fairly simple objective, but as the real world events have unfortunately proved, it is one of the most challenging political crises that our world has been facing. And as the game builds on these events, the challenge lies indeed in making peace all while keeping everybody happy : your side, the other side, the external political forces involved and of course the media. As one of the Israeli students at Carnegie Mellon puts it, “I played as the Palestinian president, and it was very frustrating; it seemed that no matter what decision i took Israelis kept provoking me.”
Control is another important motivational aspect of this game. The fate of the region lies in the hands of the player and in the type of high-level decisions s/he will make. This is why he is offered a range of military, political, or infrastructural actions.
The game was appraised by both game designers and educators. It won many awards and was even incorporated into the curriculum at Carnegie Mellon University in the Middle Eastern studies program in both Pittsburgh and Doha, Qatar.
While game play stays in the realm of virtual realities, the game seems to present a non-biased point of view and can certainly teach the player about the true nature of the conflict. I wonder if President Obama played this game before winning his Nobel Prize?
November 30th, 2009 at 5:52 pm
As a history teacher, this seems like a really awesome game to teach students about conflict resolution. It does seem like a fairly challenging game, but one that students will easily adapt to and enjoy because it not only visually appealing, but it looks fun and teaches them current and relevant topics in history. Great find Lana!
December 1st, 2009 at 2:03 am
I just downloaded this game and played the tutorial (only 8 turns). I’m amazed at how well designed the game is. It’s difficult, extremely complex, relevant, and easy to navigate. It’s also fun! I found this game very motivating because of the realistic theme (it even includes real news stories and photos from events that have taken place in Israel and Palestine), and the difficulty in making decisions. Sometimes my decisions worked and I wanted to keep going, other times they turned out no so well and I became a little frustrated. While playing it, I couldn’t help but imagine how it must feel to be one of the world leaders involved in this seemingly impossible situation.
December 3rd, 2009 at 6:21 pm
Hi Lana,
First of all…cheers to you for putting up this game!! I feel like writing so much while commenting on your post, but i need to resist myself still i wrote so much. Sorry for that! This is one topic (international relations) that i cannot live without. Your write-up is wonderful Lana!
It provoked me to watch so many videos about this game. International relations is a complex blend of issues which requires different strategies and possibilities to deal as it involves various countries, people their emotions, culture, politics, economics etc etc. After reading your write-up on this game, i am provoked to think about the possibility of making a game in future (don’t know when though)that deals with serious international attention.
As a student of international relations myself since last eight years’ i participated and presented innumerable conferences and simulations and wrote papers related to different topics of international concern like “Israel-Palestine’, ‘Bosnia and Herzegovina’, Afghanistan, India-Pakistan, Kashmir and so on, but never thought that a game could be so motivating to engage students and would stimulate their brain to think from both sides through an electronic media. I feel we need to promote this media to most of the other Universities’ which teach International Relations as a core subject all around the world. Even policy-makers could also think about it seriously to stimulate their minds to take better decisions, although international problems sometimes require ages to come to a solution. So i think playing this game will not give a solution but will enhance the brain muscles to come to a mutual discussion keeping in mind the feelings of both the parties like in this game both the Israeli’s and the Palestinian’s.
I feel this game is a great source for all the students and the teachers of International Relations’ around the world to think of involving similar ideas and relate to different conflict areas around the globe.
December 7th, 2009 at 4:19 pm
Thank you for sharing! What an excellent example of a “serious game” that actually has nobler intentions than just being something fun to play to pass the time. I can really see how this could be used in a social studies or history class to really teach people about this situation. What most of us see is just what’s filtered through the news media and it always seems that our news media seems to be a bit more biased to the Israeli side of things since they’re our direct ally. But this could be used as a tool to teach both sides of the conflict in a way that people might actually remember and grow to care about the situation over there. An awesome way to get people thinking critically about the situation and getting a chance to walk in one another’s shoes virtually.
December 7th, 2009 at 8:22 pm
Hats off to you for finding this game. I haven’t been able to download or play it yet (something about work getting in the way) but I will over the break. This is exactly the kind of game that those of us who have played complicated simulations like Civilization have been hoping for: a real world, complex problem solving simulation that allows the learner to really experience a situation first hand. How better to teach a subject? The only problems would be with internal bias of the game engine since usually one method of problem solving is usually favored. However if the teacher uses the game as a jumping off point to engage students in a conversation the bias would be an issue. Very exciting stuff.
December 8th, 2009 at 5:40 pm
Great review. I’d actually heard about this game, or possibly a similar one – if there is another like this out there, but from your review I think it must be this. Personal politics aside (if that’s possible) educational games that include objective AND historical references (including video) seemingly have huge potential as engaging learning tools. We have sort of included that in our own egame program, blending ethical issues with historical geo-poltical realities, so this is of great interest. Our approach to including this element reference historical events, but current events are obviously interesting learning tools, especially from a “problem solving” standpoint. Hopefully, the next release of this game will upgrade the award system to something a bit more prestigious. Whoops, I did say “politics aside), sorry. Great find.
December 13th, 2009 at 1:45 pm
I would like to thank each one of you for your insightful and gracious comments. I must admit that the minute I came across this game while looking for the November blog entry material, I knew that I wanted to talk about it. Not only does it present one of the most unsolvable conflicts in today’s political world, but from its geographical context it is very relevant to me as a Lebanese citizen, especially that some parts and fractions in Lebanon brush up into the conflict.
I really am glad that all of you see the potential of such a serious game and the place it should occupy in a History, Political Science, International Relations or as is the case at Carnegie Mellon in Middle Eastern Studies.