PeaceMaker (game)
Encyclopedia
PeaceMaker is a video game developed by ImpactGames, and published in February 2007 for Windows
and Mac OS
. It is a government simulation game which simulates the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
. Labelled as a serious game
, it is often pitched as "a video game to promote peace".
The game was originally a university project started in 2005 by a small team from the Carnegie Mellon University
. After graduating, two of the members founded a game development company in order to finish the project.
Peacemaker players can choose to represent either the leader of Israel
or the Palestinian Authority. They have to deal with events presented using real world pictures and footage. They have to react and make social, political, and military decisions that their position entails within a gameplay system similar to turn-based strategy
. The goal of the game is to solve the conflict with the two-state solution
.
PeaceMaker was well received by both the gaming and general press and won several awards. Critics praised its gameplay and the accuracy of the conflict representation. It is seen as an important game for the serious game movement and is becoming a flagship of the genre. Its educational value allows for a better understanding of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and promotes peace.
. The player choose to be either the Prime Minister of Israel
or the President of the Palestinian National Authority
, and must resolve the conflict peacefully. The game interface includes a map, like Civilization
, showing the Gaza Strip
, the Galilee
, the West Bank
and the north of the Negev
. After each turn, the events of the week are pointed on the map. By clicking on it, the player views a news report, with real-world pictures and footage, of a demonstration or a bomb attack.
Each week, the player makes a decision regarding security, construction or politics. He may seek the advice of two advisers with differing opposite views. The Palestinian President is helped by a national and a foreign adviser. The Israeli Prime Minister has the views of a hawk
, advocating
repressive measures, and a dove
, willing to help the Palestinians. The player has access to panel of decision, such as making a speech, negotiating with other leaders or staging military operations. Reflecting the asymmetric
conflict, the two leaders cannot make the same decisions. The Israeli Prime Minister has major financial and military power, and can for example order missile strikes or a curfew. The Palestinian President is much more helpless, and has to ask the third-party help for most of his actions.
A key-point of the game is that the actions of the players do not always have the expected outcome. For example, an Israeli proposal for medical aid shortly after an air strike will be turned down, and will detoriate even further the relation with the Palestinians.
The player actions provoke immediate reactions, such as public protest or political critics. They also influence several long-term variables, classified into two categories. The first is the approval of the policy of the player by different groups and leaders. The second covers economical, social or political indicators. Their values are displayed on the screen as thermometers.
Each leader must take into account the approval of his counterpart, of both people, of the United Nations, the United States
and the Arab world
. The Palestinian President also has to deal with the Fatah
and Hamas
; and the Israeli Prime Minister with the Yesha Council
(representing the settlers) and all the Palestinian militant organisations (such as the Islamic Jihad
, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades
and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades
).
The player has access to polls, which represent the different indicators. Each leader is informed of his leadership
and the quality of his relations with the other party. On the Palestinian side, the polls cover the authority of the President, the opinion of the man of the street towards Israel, economic health and national independence. On the Israeli side, they
reflect the insecurity, the suppression, and the Israeli compassion towards the Palestinians.
The opinions of the different parties are summarised by two counters displayed on the screen. Ranging from -100 to 100, they measure the approval of two groups. In the role of the Prime Minister of Israel, those two groups are the Israeli and Palestinian people ; in the role of Palestinian President, of its citizens and the international community
. The game starts with both counters at zero. Any of them dropping too low cause the game over
: either the leader is removed from office, or the new Intifada
begins. When both counters are up to the maximum, the conflict is solved by the two-state solution
.
in Pittsburgh, a course mixing fine arts and computing. American Eric Brown and former Israeli officer Asi Burak are producers of the game. Tim Sweeney is the lead game designer, working with Olive Lin, writer Victoria Webb et composer Ross Popoff. Eric Keylor and Lin are the programmers. The team is supervised by two professors of the university.
To prototype the game design
, the team uses board game
s. They help to "model the stakeholders in the conflict". They are then converted into a dice game
which can be coded. The logic engine
and the artificial intelligence
are developed in Java
. The graphical user interface
uses Adobe Flash
and QuickTime
. The different graphic elements are made by Patrick Bannan. He uses the software 3ds Max, Adobe Photoshop
and Adobe Illustrator
, starting with 3D modeling
, texture mapping
and lightning.
A prototype of the game is presented at the Game Developers Conference
in 2005. Given the excellent reception, Brown and Burak decide to complete the project, in order to distribute it to the general public and educators. After graduating, they founded the studio ImpactGames. They plan to produce other games of the same kind. Their objective is to “impact society and promote change through interactive media”. They also want to change the industry, by “making something that compares to the role documentaries play in the movie industry”. In order to make an unbiased game, they want the contribution of Palestinians ; two join the team.
Initially, the developers do not want to “define the end-solution”, in order to avoid controversy. Victory was then defined by the lowering of violence. Early players reaction show the necessity of “a more meaningful outcome”. With the input of experts from both sides and the United States, they chose the two-state solution
. It is mainly because of the support of the United Nations Security Council resolution
, the roadmap for peace and the Arab peace initiative
.
This choice one of the design assumptions made by the developers. Game designer Tim Sweeney, although he admits they are debatable, claims his right to define the scope of the work. He considers that they do not favour any side, but rather peace. The developers assume that both sides want peace, that the player can make a difference, but does not have total control of its side, and that peace can be achieved through small, concrete actions.
The first stable version of PeaceMaker was released on 1 February 2005, downloadable from the company website. A box version was published on Amazon.com
four months later. The game is playable in English
, Hebrew and Arab
, to “strengthen the multiple point-of-views”. The game is sold for twenty dollars. ImpactGames was criticised for this, from people considering that such a game should be free of charge. This had been a major debate at the beginning of the development. Eric Brown explains that being for-profit allowed to find investors more easily. Moreover, they want to make an example of commercially viable game within the industry.
, Ernest W. Adams states that the game is “fun and challenging”, and holds a deep level of subtlety. He compares it to Balance of Power, a simulation of geopolitics during the Cold War
, published by Chris Crawford
in 1985. Adams claims that while Balance of Power can be summarised as a zero-sum game, PeaceMaker is “a richer and more difficult challenge”.
Eurogamer
’s Oliver Clare notes a few minors game design
flaws, which he attributes to “Impact Games' inexperience with interface design”. According to him, “the narrow theme” limits the replay value
and appeal of the game. He stresses out that the game shows no bias, and holds an “amazingly positive educational potential”. Clare claims he suffered viewing all the tragedies in the game, and that the first time he won the game, tears came to his eyes : “For a few poignant moments you get an inkling of what peaceful co-existence in the Middle East might actually feel like, what it might mean”. Judy Siegel-Itzkovich from The Jerusalem Post
has a similar opinion, stating that the game is “immersive” and that “learning the background of this endless dispute could be very educational”. Her colleague Calev Ben-David was impressed by the graphics and texts. He also appreciates the winning condition : according to him, setting a time limit would have been unrealistic.
Critics agree that the game model is relevant. Alexander Gambotto-Burke from The Guardian
describes it as “an astonishingly sophisticated simulation of the Israel/Palestine conflict”. In a column published in July 2009, Steven Poole
claims that the game “provides a roughly accurate model of the political and security options on both sides of an actual conflict”, and that it was rightly praised. Poole points out the game most educative side is that the intentions of the player do not always lead to the expected outcome. According to him, PeaceMaker makes the player understand that “even people who do have power cannot control everything, and they, too, can be at the mercy of events”. The Globe and Mail
’s Marc MacKinnon agrees, stating that “it gives players a feel for the impossibility of Mahmoud Abbas
and Ehud Olmert
’s jobs”.
In July 2007, PeaceMaker is the most sold second PC game of the week in North America on Amazon.com
. The website mentions a “suddenly high level of demand”, that Asi Burak attributes to an interview at the National Public Radio the same month. As of February 2008, the game has sold copies worldwide.
, was highly creative in the early 80s. Low production costs and accessibility of computer programming allowed a great level of freedom for the authors. After the video game crash of 1983, Nintendo
revives the industry in 1985 and sets strict rules regarding the production. Only companies approved by Nintendo can develop on the NES
. Following manufacturers would have similar policies. During the 90s, money become an increasing part of the industry. Games become more and more expensive to produce, making risk-taking difficult.
The rise of Internet allows alternative distribution channels, such as freeware
s downloading and through platforms such as Steam, and later Xbox Live Arcade
, PlayStation Network or WiiWare
. New mainstream developments tools, like Flash
, allow a democratization of game production. These elements give rise to new dynamics in the industry, such as fangame
, independent game
and serious game
. This last category refers to games tackling serious issues like war, global warming
or gerrymandering
. In the 2000s, theses game receive more coverage by both gaming and general press. They have however bad reputation because of widely criticised gameplay and game design flaws.
PeaceMakerhas become a flagship of the serious game, and a major step for the acknowledgement of the genre. In 2006, it took the award in a competition organized by the University of Southern California
, entitled “Reinventing public diplomacy
through games”. It won the “ Best Transformation Game” award in 2007. This prize rewards “the best game which engages players on a deep and meaningful level around an important social issue, whose aims and outcomes are no less than to foster a powerful intellectual or behavioural transformation in it users”. It is awarded by the association Games for Change
, whose mission is to promote “games that engage contemporary social issues in meaningful ways to foster a more just, equitable and tolerant society”. Suzanne Seggerman
, co-founder of the association, stated in 2009 that just like Darfur is Dying
, Food Force
and Ayiti: The Cost of Life, PeaceMaker was just such a game, “having had an impact”.
PeaceMaker is described by its creators as “a video game to teach peace”, and is primarily intended for Israeli and Palestinian students. In November 2007, the Peres Center for Peace
funded the distribution of copies in Israel and Palestine. copies are sent to the subscribers of the Israeli daily Haaretz
, to subscribers to the Palestinian daily Al-Quds
. The remaining are distributed in high-schools of both sides. This action is made in conjunction with the Annapolis conference
, during which all parties agree on the two-state solution
. Shortly after the Centre set up the “PeaceMaker Educational Program”. It consists in using the game in Israeli and Palestinian schools, and to lead a supervised debate with the students. Over fifty workshops were held in 2008, involving students from two states. This total amounts to students in September 2009.
The game is divided into three steps. The player has firstly access to information about the vent and its context, using timelines and maps. Then, he can play successively as the different protagonists of the event. He is asked to make a decision, following what he thinks the stakeholder should do. Finally, the player predicts shich decision the protagonist will make. When the player comes again later, he is informed of the decisions that were made in the real world. Play the News is built around a community, where every player has a profile. He may read statistics on the accuracy of his predictions and the tendency of his opinions (mainstream or fringe within the community).
Shortly after the launch, Ian Bogost
describes Play the News as “very casual”, and fears that it can be summarised as simple quizzes. He claims that the game has some potential to engage people with news, “by making them think about what will happen next and by creating a natural reason to read stories one otherwise might not”. The game won in May 2009 the first “Knight News Game Awards”, awarded by the association Games for Change
. It rewards “news game”, games that “enhances people's ability to make decisions in a democracy”.
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
and Mac OS
Mac OS
Mac OS is a series of graphical user interface-based operating systems developed by Apple Inc. for their Macintosh line of computer systems. The Macintosh user experience is credited with popularizing the graphical user interface...
. It is a government simulation game which simulates the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
Israeli-Palestinian conflict
The Israeli–Palestinian conflict is the ongoing conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. The conflict is wide-ranging, and the term is also used in reference to the earlier phases of the same conflict, between Jewish and Zionist yishuv and the Arab population living in Palestine under Ottoman or...
. Labelled as a serious game
Serious game
A serious game is a game designed for a primary purpose other than pure entertainment. The "serious" adjective is generally prepended to refer to products used by industries like defense, education, scientific exploration, health care, emergency management, city planning, engineering, religion,...
, it is often pitched as "a video game to promote peace".
The game was originally a university project started in 2005 by a small team from the Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States....
. After graduating, two of the members founded a game development company in order to finish the project.
Peacemaker players can choose to represent either the leader of Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
or the Palestinian Authority. They have to deal with events presented using real world pictures and footage. They have to react and make social, political, and military decisions that their position entails within a gameplay system similar to turn-based strategy
Turn-based strategy
A turn-based strategy game is a strategy game where players take turns when playing...
. The goal of the game is to solve the conflict with the two-state solution
Two-state solution
The two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the consensus solution that is currently under discussion by the key parties to the conflict, most recently at the Annapolis Conference in November 2007...
.
PeaceMaker was well received by both the gaming and general press and won several awards. Critics praised its gameplay and the accuracy of the conflict representation. It is seen as an important game for the serious game movement and is becoming a flagship of the genre. Its educational value allows for a better understanding of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and promotes peace.
Gameplay
PeaceMaker is a government simulation game that incorporates elements of turn-based strategyTurn-based strategy
A turn-based strategy game is a strategy game where players take turns when playing...
. The player choose to be either the Prime Minister of Israel
Prime Minister of Israel
The Prime Minister of Israel is the head of the Israeli government and the most powerful political figure in Israel . The prime minister is the country's chief executive. The official residence of the prime minister, Beit Rosh Hamemshala is in Jerusalem...
or the President of the Palestinian National Authority
President of the Palestinian National Authority
The President of the Palestinian National Authority is the highest-ranking political position in the Palestinian National Authority ....
, and must resolve the conflict peacefully. The game interface includes a map, like Civilization
Civilization
Civilization is a sometimes controversial term that has been used in several related ways. Primarily, the term has been used to refer to the material and instrumental side of human cultures that are complex in terms of technology, science, and division of labor. Such civilizations are generally...
, showing the Gaza Strip
Gaza Strip
thumb|Gaza city skylineThe Gaza Strip lies on the Eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. The Strip borders Egypt on the southwest and Israel on the south, east and north. It is about long, and between 6 and 12 kilometres wide, with a total area of...
, the Galilee
Galilee
Galilee , is a large region in northern Israel which overlaps with much of the administrative North District of the country. Traditionally divided into Upper Galilee , Lower Galilee , and Western Galilee , extending from Dan to the north, at the base of Mount Hermon, along Mount Lebanon to the...
, the West Bank
West Bank
The West Bank ) of the Jordan River is the landlocked geographical eastern part of the Palestinian territories located in Western Asia. To the west, north, and south, the West Bank shares borders with the state of Israel. To the east, across the Jordan River, lies the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan...
and the north of the Negev
Negev
The Negev is a desert and semidesert region of southern Israel. The Arabs, including the native Bedouin population of the region, refer to the desert as al-Naqab. The origin of the word Neghebh is from the Hebrew root denoting 'dry'...
. After each turn, the events of the week are pointed on the map. By clicking on it, the player views a news report, with real-world pictures and footage, of a demonstration or a bomb attack.
Each week, the player makes a decision regarding security, construction or politics. He may seek the advice of two advisers with differing opposite views. The Palestinian President is helped by a national and a foreign adviser. The Israeli Prime Minister has the views of a hawk
Hawk
The term hawk can be used in several ways:* In strict usage in Australia and Africa, to mean any of the species in the subfamily Accipitrinae, which comprises the genera Accipiter, Micronisus, Melierax, Urotriorchis and Megatriorchis. The large and widespread Accipiter genus includes goshawks,...
, advocating
repressive measures, and a dove
Dove
Pigeons and doves constitute the bird family Columbidae within the order Columbiformes, which include some 300 species of near passerines. In general terms "dove" and "pigeon" are used somewhat interchangeably...
, willing to help the Palestinians. The player has access to panel of decision, such as making a speech, negotiating with other leaders or staging military operations. Reflecting the asymmetric
Asymmetric warfare
Asymmetric warfare is war between belligerents whose relative military power differs significantly, or whose strategy or tactics differ significantly....
conflict, the two leaders cannot make the same decisions. The Israeli Prime Minister has major financial and military power, and can for example order missile strikes or a curfew. The Palestinian President is much more helpless, and has to ask the third-party help for most of his actions.
A key-point of the game is that the actions of the players do not always have the expected outcome. For example, an Israeli proposal for medical aid shortly after an air strike will be turned down, and will detoriate even further the relation with the Palestinians.
The player actions provoke immediate reactions, such as public protest or political critics. They also influence several long-term variables, classified into two categories. The first is the approval of the policy of the player by different groups and leaders. The second covers economical, social or political indicators. Their values are displayed on the screen as thermometers.
Each leader must take into account the approval of his counterpart, of both people, of the United Nations, the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and the Arab world
Arab world
The Arab world refers to Arabic-speaking states, territories and populations in North Africa, Western Asia and elsewhere.The standard definition of the Arab world comprises the 22 states and territories of the Arab League stretching from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Arabian Sea in the...
. The Palestinian President also has to deal with the Fatah
Fatah
Fataḥ is a major Palestinian political party and the largest faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization , a multi-party confederation. In Palestinian politics it is on the left-wing of the spectrum; it is mainly nationalist, although not predominantly socialist. Its official goals are found...
and Hamas
Hamas
Hamas is the Palestinian Sunni Islamic or Islamist political party that governs the Gaza Strip. Hamas also has a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades...
; and the Israeli Prime Minister with the Yesha Council
Yesha Council
The Yesha Council is an umbrella organization of municipal councils of Jewish settlements in the West Bank , known by the Hebrew acronym Yesha.The Chairman of the Yesha Council is Dani Dayan, elected in July 2007...
(representing the settlers) and all the Palestinian militant organisations (such as the Islamic Jihad
Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine
The Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine known in the West as simply Palestinian Islamic Jihad , is a small Palestinian militant organization. The group has been labelled as a terrorist group by the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Japan, Canada, Australia and Israel...
, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades
Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades
The Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades is the military wing of the Palestinian Islamist fundamentalist socio-political organisation Hamas. Created in 1992, under the direction of Yahya Ayyash, the primary objective of the group was to build a coherent military organisation to support the goals of...
and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades
Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades
The al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades is a coalition of Palestinian nationalist militias in the West Bank. The group's name refers to the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem...
).
The player has access to polls, which represent the different indicators. Each leader is informed of his leadership
Leadership
Leadership has been described as the “process of social influence in which one person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task". Other in-depth definitions of leadership have also emerged.-Theories:...
and the quality of his relations with the other party. On the Palestinian side, the polls cover the authority of the President, the opinion of the man of the street towards Israel, economic health and national independence. On the Israeli side, they
reflect the insecurity, the suppression, and the Israeli compassion towards the Palestinians.
The opinions of the different parties are summarised by two counters displayed on the screen. Ranging from -100 to 100, they measure the approval of two groups. In the role of the Prime Minister of Israel, those two groups are the Israeli and Palestinian people ; in the role of Palestinian President, of its citizens and the international community
International community
The international community is a term used in international relations to refer to all peoples, cultures and governments of the world or to a group of them. The term is used to imply the existence of common duties and obligations between them...
. The game starts with both counters at zero. Any of them dropping too low cause the game over
Game over
Game Over is a message in video games which signals that the game has ended, often due to a negative outcome - although the phrase sometimes follows the end credits after successful completion of a game...
: either the leader is removed from office, or the new Intifada
Intifada
Intifada is an Arabic word which literally means "shaking off", though it is usually translated into English as "uprising" or "resistance" or "rebellion". , not to be confused with the Arabic plural ...
begins. When both counters are up to the maximum, the conflict is solved by the two-state solution
Two-state solution
The two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the consensus solution that is currently under discussion by the key parties to the conflict, most recently at the Annapolis Conference in November 2007...
.
Development
PeaceMaker started as a university project in 2005. It was carried out by a small team of students of the Master of Entertainment Technology at the Carnegie Mellon UniversityCarnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States....
in Pittsburgh, a course mixing fine arts and computing. American Eric Brown and former Israeli officer Asi Burak are producers of the game. Tim Sweeney is the lead game designer, working with Olive Lin, writer Victoria Webb et composer Ross Popoff. Eric Keylor and Lin are the programmers. The team is supervised by two professors of the university.
To prototype the game design
Game design
Game design, a subset of game development, is the process of designing the content and rules of a game in the pre-production stage and design of gameplay, environment, storyline, and characters during production stage. The term is also used to describe both the game design embodied in a game as...
, the team uses board game
Board game
A board game is a game which involves counters or pieces being moved on a pre-marked surface or "board", according to a set of rules. Games may be based on pure strategy, chance or a mixture of the two, and usually have a goal which a player aims to achieve...
s. They help to "model the stakeholders in the conflict". They are then converted into a dice game
Dice game
Dice games are games that use or incorporate a die as their sole or central component, usually as a random device.-Collectible dice games:Patterned after the success of collectible card games, a number of collectible dice games have been published...
which can be coded. The logic engine
Logic programming
Logic programming is, in its broadest sense, the use of mathematical logic for computer programming. In this view of logic programming, which can be traced at least as far back as John McCarthy's [1958] advice-taker proposal, logic is used as a purely declarative representation language, and a...
and the artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
are developed in Java
Java (programming language)
Java is a programming language originally developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems and released in 1995 as a core component of Sun Microsystems' Java platform. The language derives much of its syntax from C and C++ but has a simpler object model and fewer low-level facilities...
. The graphical user interface
Graphical user interface
In computing, a graphical user interface is a type of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices with images rather than text commands. GUIs can be used in computers, hand-held devices such as MP3 players, portable media players or gaming devices, household appliances and...
uses Adobe Flash
Adobe Flash
Adobe Flash is a multimedia platform used to add animation, video, and interactivity to web pages. Flash is frequently used for advertisements, games and flash animations for broadcast...
and QuickTime
QuickTime
QuickTime is an extensible proprietary multimedia framework developed by Apple Inc., capable of handling various formats of digital video, picture, sound, panoramic images, and interactivity. The classic version of QuickTime is available for Windows XP and later, as well as Mac OS X Leopard and...
. The different graphic elements are made by Patrick Bannan. He uses the software 3ds Max, Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop is a graphics editing program developed and published by Adobe Systems Incorporated.Adobe's 2003 "Creative Suite" rebranding led to Adobe Photoshop 8's renaming to Adobe Photoshop CS. Thus, Adobe Photoshop CS5 is the 12th major release of Adobe Photoshop...
and Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Illustrator is a vector graphics editor developed and marketed by Adobe Systems. Illustrator is similar in scope, intended market, and functionality to its competitors, CorelDraw, Xara Designer Pro and Macromedia FreeHand....
, starting with 3D modeling
3D modeling
In 3D computer graphics, 3D modeling is the process of developing a mathematical representation of any three-dimensional surface of object via specialized software. The product is called a 3D model...
, texture mapping
Texture mapping
Texture mapping is a method for adding detail, surface texture , or color to a computer-generated graphic or 3D model. Its application to 3D graphics was pioneered by Dr Edwin Catmull in his Ph.D. thesis of 1974.-Texture mapping:...
and lightning.
A prototype of the game is presented at the Game Developers Conference
Game Developers Conference
The Game Developers Conference is the largest annual gathering of professional video game developers, focusing on learning, inspiration, and networking...
in 2005. Given the excellent reception, Brown and Burak decide to complete the project, in order to distribute it to the general public and educators. After graduating, they founded the studio ImpactGames. They plan to produce other games of the same kind. Their objective is to “impact society and promote change through interactive media”. They also want to change the industry, by “making something that compares to the role documentaries play in the movie industry”. In order to make an unbiased game, they want the contribution of Palestinians ; two join the team.
Initially, the developers do not want to “define the end-solution”, in order to avoid controversy. Victory was then defined by the lowering of violence. Early players reaction show the necessity of “a more meaningful outcome”. With the input of experts from both sides and the United States, they chose the two-state solution
Two-state solution
The two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the consensus solution that is currently under discussion by the key parties to the conflict, most recently at the Annapolis Conference in November 2007...
. It is mainly because of the support of the United Nations Security Council resolution
United Nations Security Council Resolution
A United Nations Security Council resolution is a UN resolution adopted by the fifteen members of the Security Council; the UN body charged with "primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security"....
, the roadmap for peace and the Arab peace initiative
Arab Peace Initiative
The Beirut Summit was a meeting of the Arab League in Beirut, Lebanon in March 2002 to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The meeting became especially noteworthy for the adoption, by the Arab states attending, of a proposal offering a comprehensive peace between the Arab countries and...
.
This choice one of the design assumptions made by the developers. Game designer Tim Sweeney, although he admits they are debatable, claims his right to define the scope of the work. He considers that they do not favour any side, but rather peace. The developers assume that both sides want peace, that the player can make a difference, but does not have total control of its side, and that peace can be achieved through small, concrete actions.
The first stable version of PeaceMaker was released on 1 February 2005, downloadable from the company website. A box version was published on Amazon.com
Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...
four months later. The game is playable in English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, Hebrew and Arab
Arab
Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...
, to “strengthen the multiple point-of-views”. The game is sold for twenty dollars. ImpactGames was criticised for this, from people considering that such a game should be free of charge. This had been a major debate at the beginning of the development. Eric Brown explains that being for-profit allowed to find investors more easily. Moreover, they want to make an example of commercially viable game within the industry.
Reception
PeaceMaker received positive reviews from both the gaming and general press. In an article published in GamasutraGamasutra
Gamasutra is a website founded in 1997 for video game developers. It is owned and operated by UBM TechWeb , a division of United Business Media, and acts as the online sister publication to the print magazine Game Developer...
, Ernest W. Adams states that the game is “fun and challenging”, and holds a deep level of subtlety. He compares it to Balance of Power, a simulation of geopolitics during the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
, published by Chris Crawford
Chris Crawford (game designer)
Christopher Crawford is a computer game designer and writer noted for creating a number of important games in the 1980s, founding The Journal of Computer Game Design, and organizing the Computer Game Developers' Conference.- Biography :...
in 1985. Adams claims that while Balance of Power can be summarised as a zero-sum game, PeaceMaker is “a richer and more difficult challenge”.
Eurogamer
Eurogamer
Eurogamer is a Brighton-based website focused on video games news, reviews, previews and interviews. It is operated by Eurogamer Network Ltd., which was formed in 1999 by brothers Rupert and Nick Loman. Eurogamer has grown to become one of the most important European-based websites focused on...
’s Oliver Clare notes a few minors game design
Game design
Game design, a subset of game development, is the process of designing the content and rules of a game in the pre-production stage and design of gameplay, environment, storyline, and characters during production stage. The term is also used to describe both the game design embodied in a game as...
flaws, which he attributes to “Impact Games' inexperience with interface design”. According to him, “the narrow theme” limits the replay value
Replay value
Replay value or replayability is a term found in combination with video games, but it may be also used to describe other kinds of games, movies, music, or theater plays. In video games, the term replay value is used to describe the entertainment value of playing a game more than once...
and appeal of the game. He stresses out that the game shows no bias, and holds an “amazingly positive educational potential”. Clare claims he suffered viewing all the tragedies in the game, and that the first time he won the game, tears came to his eyes : “For a few poignant moments you get an inkling of what peaceful co-existence in the Middle East might actually feel like, what it might mean”. Judy Siegel-Itzkovich from The Jerusalem Post
The Jerusalem Post
The Jerusalem Post is an Israeli daily English-language broadsheet newspaper, founded on December 1, 1932 by Gershon Agron as The Palestine Post. The daily readership numbers do not approach those of the major Hebrew newspapers....
has a similar opinion, stating that the game is “immersive” and that “learning the background of this endless dispute could be very educational”. Her colleague Calev Ben-David was impressed by the graphics and texts. He also appreciates the winning condition : according to him, setting a time limit would have been unrealistic.
Critics agree that the game model is relevant. Alexander Gambotto-Burke from The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
describes it as “an astonishingly sophisticated simulation of the Israel/Palestine conflict”. In a column published in July 2009, Steven Poole
Steven Poole
-Biography:Poole studied English at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and has subsequently written for publications including The Independent, The Guardian, The Times Literary Supplement, The Sunday Times, and the New Statesman...
claims that the game “provides a roughly accurate model of the political and security options on both sides of an actual conflict”, and that it was rightly praised. Poole points out the game most educative side is that the intentions of the player do not always lead to the expected outcome. According to him, PeaceMaker makes the player understand that “even people who do have power cannot control everything, and they, too, can be at the mercy of events”. The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail is a nationally distributed Canadian newspaper, based in Toronto and printed in six cities across the country. With a weekly readership of approximately 1 million, it is Canada's largest-circulation national newspaper and second-largest daily newspaper after the Toronto Star...
’s Marc MacKinnon agrees, stating that “it gives players a feel for the impossibility of Mahmoud Abbas
Mahmoud Abbas
Mahmoud Abbas , also known by the kunya Abu Mazen , has been the Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organisation since 11 November 2004 and became President of the Palestinian National Authority on 15 January 2005 on the Fatah ticket.Elected to serve until 9 January 2009, he unilaterally...
and Ehud Olmert
Ehud Olmert
Ehud Olmert is an Israeli politician and lawyer. He served as Prime Minister of Israel from 2006 to 2009, as a Cabinet Minister from 1988 to 1992 and from 2003 to 2006, and as Mayor of Jerusalem from 1993 to 2003....
’s jobs”.
In July 2007, PeaceMaker is the most sold second PC game of the week in North America on Amazon.com
Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...
. The website mentions a “suddenly high level of demand”, that Asi Burak attributes to an interview at the National Public Radio the same month. As of February 2008, the game has sold copies worldwide.
Impact
The video game industry, born in 1972 with PongPong
Pong is one of the earliest arcade video games, and is a tennis sports game featuring simple two-dimensional graphics. While other arcade video games such as Computer Space came before it, Pong was one of the first video games to reach mainstream popularity...
, was highly creative in the early 80s. Low production costs and accessibility of computer programming allowed a great level of freedom for the authors. After the video game crash of 1983, Nintendo
Nintendo
is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....
revives the industry in 1985 and sets strict rules regarding the production. Only companies approved by Nintendo can develop on the NES
Nintendo Entertainment System
The Nintendo Entertainment System is an 8-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America during 1985, in Europe during 1986 and Australia in 1987...
. Following manufacturers would have similar policies. During the 90s, money become an increasing part of the industry. Games become more and more expensive to produce, making risk-taking difficult.
The rise of Internet allows alternative distribution channels, such as freeware
Freeware
Freeware is computer software that is available for use at no cost or for an optional fee, but usually with one or more restricted usage rights. Freeware is in contrast to commercial software, which is typically sold for profit, but might be distributed for a business or commercial purpose in the...
s downloading and through platforms such as Steam, and later Xbox Live Arcade
Xbox Live Arcade
Xbox Live Arcade is a type of video game download distribution available primarily in a section of the Xbox Live Marketplace, Microsoft's digital distribution network for the Xbox 360, that focuses on smaller downloadable games from both major publishers and independent game developers...
, PlayStation Network or WiiWare
WiiWare
WiiWare is a service that allows Wii users to download games and applications specifically designed and developed for the Wii video game console made by Nintendo. These games and applications can only be purchased and downloaded from the Wii Shop Channel under the WiiWare section...
. New mainstream developments tools, like Flash
Adobe Flash
Adobe Flash is a multimedia platform used to add animation, video, and interactivity to web pages. Flash is frequently used for advertisements, games and flash animations for broadcast...
, allow a democratization of game production. These elements give rise to new dynamics in the industry, such as fangame
Fangame
Fangames are video games made by fans based on one or more established video games. Many fangames attempt to clone the original game's design, gameplay and characters, but it is equally common for fans to develop a unique game using another only as a template...
, independent game
Independent video game development
Independent video game development is the process of creating video games without the financial support of a video game publisher. While large firms can create independent games, they are usually designed by an individual or a small team of as many as ten people, depending on the complexity of the...
and serious game
Serious game
A serious game is a game designed for a primary purpose other than pure entertainment. The "serious" adjective is generally prepended to refer to products used by industries like defense, education, scientific exploration, health care, emergency management, city planning, engineering, religion,...
. This last category refers to games tackling serious issues like war, global warming
Global warming
Global warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected continuation. In the last 100 years, Earth's average surface temperature increased by about with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades...
or gerrymandering
Gerrymandering
In the process of setting electoral districts, gerrymandering is a practice that attempts to establish a political advantage for a particular party or group by manipulating geographic boundaries to create partisan, incumbent-protected districts...
. In the 2000s, theses game receive more coverage by both gaming and general press. They have however bad reputation because of widely criticised gameplay and game design flaws.
PeaceMakerhas become a flagship of the serious game, and a major step for the acknowledgement of the genre. In 2006, it took the award in a competition organized by the University of Southern California
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
, entitled “Reinventing public diplomacy
Public diplomacy
In international relations, public diplomacy or people's diplomacy, broadly speaking, is the communication with foreign publics to establish a dialogue designed to inform and influence. There is no one definition of Public Diplomacy, and may be easier described than easily defined as definitions...
through games”. It won the “ Best Transformation Game” award in 2007. This prize rewards “the best game which engages players on a deep and meaningful level around an important social issue, whose aims and outcomes are no less than to foster a powerful intellectual or behavioural transformation in it users”. It is awarded by the association Games for Change
Games for Change
Games for Change is a movement and community of practice dedicated to using digital games for social change. An individual game may also be referred to as a "game for change" if it is produced by this community or shares its ideals...
, whose mission is to promote “games that engage contemporary social issues in meaningful ways to foster a more just, equitable and tolerant society”. Suzanne Seggerman
Suzanne Seggerman
Suzanne Seggerman is co-founder and former president of Games for Change , a non-profit organization founded in 2004 focused on the use of video games for social change. G4C holds an every summer at Parsons The New School for Design and have a listserv, a website, and other programming related to...
, co-founder of the association, stated in 2009 that just like Darfur is Dying
Darfur is Dying
Darfur is Dying is a flash-based browser game about the crisis in Darfur, western Sudan. The game won the Darfur Digital Activist Contest sponsored by mtvU. Released in April 2006, more than 800,000 people had played by September...
, Food Force
Food Force
Food Force is an Educational game published by the United Nations World Food Programme in 2005. Due to its content, it is considered a serious game . Players take on missions to distribute food in a famine-affected country and to help it to recover and become self-sufficient again...
and Ayiti: The Cost of Life, PeaceMaker was just such a game, “having had an impact”.
Peres Center for Peace
The Peres Center for Peace located in Tel Aviv-Jaffa, Israel, is an independent, non-profit, non-partisan, non-governmental organization founded in 1996 by Nobel Peace Laureate and current President of Israel Shimon Peres, with the aim of furthering his vision in which people of the Middle East...
funded the distribution of copies in Israel and Palestine. copies are sent to the subscribers of the Israeli daily Haaretz
Haaretz
Haaretz is Israel's oldest daily newspaper. It was founded in 1918 and is now published in both Hebrew and English in Berliner format. The English edition is published and sold together with the International Herald Tribune. Both Hebrew and English editions can be read on the Internet...
, to subscribers to the Palestinian daily Al-Quds
Al-Quds (newspaper)
Al-Quds is a Palestinian Arabic language daily newspaper, based in Jerusalem. It is published in broadsheet format. It is the largest circulation daily newspaper in the Palestinian territories. It was founded in 1951 by Mahmoud Abu-Zalaf, who served as its editor-in-chief until his death in 2005...
. The remaining are distributed in high-schools of both sides. This action is made in conjunction with the Annapolis conference
Annapolis Conference
-Attendees:U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice organized and hosted the conference. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, and U.S. President George W. Bush attended the meeting...
, during which all parties agree on the two-state solution
Two-state solution
The two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the consensus solution that is currently under discussion by the key parties to the conflict, most recently at the Annapolis Conference in November 2007...
. Shortly after the Centre set up the “PeaceMaker Educational Program”. It consists in using the game in Israeli and Palestinian schools, and to lead a supervised debate with the students. Over fifty workshops were held in 2008, involving students from two states. This total amounts to students in September 2009.
Legacy
ImpactGames launches in February 2008 the program Play the News. It is a web-based platform used to publish mini-games based on the news. The idea is that interactivity allows a better understanding of an event, rather than passive reading. A game is designed to be played from ten to twenty minutes, and to be developed in a day.The game is divided into three steps. The player has firstly access to information about the vent and its context, using timelines and maps. Then, he can play successively as the different protagonists of the event. He is asked to make a decision, following what he thinks the stakeholder should do. Finally, the player predicts shich decision the protagonist will make. When the player comes again later, he is informed of the decisions that were made in the real world. Play the News is built around a community, where every player has a profile. He may read statistics on the accuracy of his predictions and the tendency of his opinions (mainstream or fringe within the community).
Shortly after the launch, Ian Bogost
Ian Bogost
Ian Bogost is a video game designer, critic and researcher. He is a professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology and a founding partner at Persuasive Games...
describes Play the News as “very casual”, and fears that it can be summarised as simple quizzes. He claims that the game has some potential to engage people with news, “by making them think about what will happen next and by creating a natural reason to read stories one otherwise might not”. The game won in May 2009 the first “Knight News Game Awards”, awarded by the association Games for Change
Games for Change
Games for Change is a movement and community of practice dedicated to using digital games for social change. An individual game may also be referred to as a "game for change" if it is produced by this community or shares its ideals...
. It rewards “news game”, games that “enhances people's ability to make decisions in a democracy”.