ImpactGames on PeaceMaker, A Game For Social Change - Jason Dobson

Games aimed at inspiring players to take an interest in social change are something of a hot topic within the serious games space. At the recent Games for Change annual conference held in New York's Parsons The New School for Design, representatives from academic, activist, non-profit organizations were called upon to examine the impact of current games, evaluations planned and the preliminary work to build the field.

One of those games discussed was the ImpactGames-developed title PeaceMaker. The game, which was recently announced as the winner of the Reinventing Public Diplomacy through Games Contest in May, is a single-player game where the player takes on the role of either the Israeli Prime Minister or the Palestinian President and must react to in-game events, from diplomatic negotiations to military attacks, and interact with eight other political leaders and social groups in order to establish a stable resolution to the conflict before his or her term in office ends.

Recently Serious Games Source had the opportunity to speak with Eric Brown, CEO of ImpactGames, and Asi Burak, the company's CCO, regarding their company, as well as PeaceMaker specifically.

Hello, and thanks for taking the time to speak with us today regarding PeaceMaker. Can you give us a little background about the game, and what your involvement has been on the project?

Asi Burak: Eric and I have recently graduated from Carnegie Mellon’s Entertainment Technology Center. PeaceMaker was initiated there by a group of students. The goal of this group was to create a meaningful interactive experience about one of the most serious political conflicts in the world. Our mission was to prove that such an experience could reach new audiences and convey the message of understanding in a fresh way. Due to the international support for the game, Eric Brown and I started the company ImpactGames to insure the completion of the project and to continue the spirit of the project to other social and political issues.

How does the game manage to simulate the political strife and violence surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian struggle?

Eric Brown: We don’t claim to represent all aspects of the conflict. We have tried to represent major issues that will help the player understand the pressures and concerns facing either side of the conflict. Through the inclusion of real world events we try to immerse the player into the conflict. Using what we call “black events” or events that include the loss of life we confront the player with the real world violence. By taking actions in the world the player will get a sense of the range of responses different groups will have to any one action and how complicated it is balance the many different and sometimes conflicting viewpoints.

With the lion's share of strategy games on the market being devoted to ending a conflict through violence, why was it important to you to emphasize the need for a peaceful solution?

Asi: When we started to work on the project and looked around at other video games, we encountered the notion that war is much more challenging and conflict is essential to engage players. Many people we talked to perceived peacemaking as mere negotiations, where a group of diplomats sit at a table for lengthy discussions and sign agreements. We tried to shed light on what we see as the other side of peacemaking – how challenging it is for a leader to gain trust and understanding in the face of constant violence. How difficult it is to execute concessions, while your own population is under stress or feeling despair. In a sense, peacemaking can be more complicated, sophisticated and rewarding than war making, and it is a message that we would like to convey to young adults, the future generation of leaders.

Peace Maker has already been introduced into several classrooms. Did these schools approach you, or was it the other way around?

Eric: Early in our production we sought out groups to test our game with. One of the advisors to our project, Laurie Eisenbergj, was the professor of two courses that integrated the game into the coursework. Those classes, “Arab-American Relations”, and a course more focused on the conflict were chosen because of her involvement in the project. “Arab-American Relations” was teleconference taught between CMU Pittsburgh and CMU-Qatar. However, as people learned about our work, we have been approached by educators in all different fields, at all levels of education, and from different countries looking to use our game in their coursework. We look forward to when we can release the game for all of these educators to use.

What has been the response of players been like so far with regards to the game?

Asi: We got a variety of feedback from stakeholders, as well as people who are not directly related to the conflict, but would like to be more educated about it. In general, the response was very positive. The idea of playing both sides and view the conflict from different perspectives resonated with a lot of people. It affected them both intellectually and emotionally, and in some cases made them think differently about the conflict. In addition, the empowerment, the fact they entered the shoes of the leaders forced in many cases a deeper understanding of issues such as cause and effect, short term vs. long term agenda, and the dynamics of the current conflict as it is portrayed in our game. Naturally, we also heard criticism about matters of accuracy or others sensitivities. Much of this feedback is helping us to tweak the game and its content.

Speaking of sensitivities, one of the struggles faces by serious games developers comes from those who feel that reducing a real-world situation, such as the conflict depicted within PeaceMaker, to a video game trivializes the source material and somehow cheapens the sacrifice of those who have given their lives in the conflict. Have you as the game's developers received any such negative feedback?

Eric: We have read a lot of the criticism people have put forth about a games trivializing content. Obviously this was a major concern to us. One of the goals of attempting this project was to see if it was possible to create a game that addressed serious issues without falling into this pitfall. In the process of creating PeaceMaker we presented the game to many different groups including government officials of both sides of the conflict, groups whose sole mission is dealing with issues around the conflict, and individuals from both sides of the conflict.

In all of these presentations the fear was always how they would react to the idea of what we are doing. In many cases the gut reaction to the idea was very much the affront of a “how could you make a game about this subject”, however once they see the game and understand what we are trying to do the response has been overwhelmingly positive. When they realize we aren’t making a first-person shooter and that we are doing our best to give multiple perspectives through the experience they have responded in many cases by offering to help in the content and construction of our game.

Part of the reason for developing PeaceMaker was so that you would be able to secure the necessary capital for the creation of your new company. Have investors shown interest in PeaceMaker so far?

Asi: Yes. We are lucky to have such attention at early stage and it surely helps us in seeking funds. We already got some initial seed money from investors in Pittsburgh, and we are also in discussions with several foundations that are interested in our work. Currently, we are focusing on those funding sources that are also aligned with our social mission, whether from the peace aspect or the educational-community aspect.

What is the nature of your new company? Will it be devoted to serious game development, or are you venturing into a different area entirely?

Eric: ImpactGames was founded because of the overwhelming response to the PeaceMaker project. We felt that we had to find a way to bring this project to completion and release it to the public and educators. Through the process of figuring out what exactly our company would be and how we could sustain the project we looked beyond just this game. We set the mission: We aspire to impact society and promote change through interactive media. Our goal is to create engaging interactive experiences that explore current real-world issues that affect people’s lives. We want to create other games using the same platform that we have created for PeaceMaker to address other social and political situations where there are multiple perspectives to be represented.

How does a game of PeaceMaker play out? Can you walk me through an example of what a typical turn in the game might be like?

Asi: At first, you will be asked to choose a side – Israeli PM or Palestinian President. Then a difficulty level- calm, tense or violent. Right from the start, an inciting incident will occur. It will confront the player with the violence level in the world, and show him some real news footage of such an event, for example- a military operation in Jenin or a suicide bomb in Jerusalem.

As in a turn-based strategy game, the player carefully chooses how to respond. He can choose from sets of military, political or construction (long-term) actions. Every action will immediately affect all stakeholders, and those are represented in the interface. We chose eight internal and external “actors” such as Hamas, the Israeli/Palestinian public, the US, the UN or the Arab world. These groups are independent in their reactions and agendas. They might act on their own interest and damage the player’s efforts. While the game starts as a zero-sum game, the key to success is to gain momentum and create a win-win scenario.

Where is the development at now with regards to PeaceMaker? When do you expect the game to be completed?

Eric: We have a working prototype that we are able to let people play, teachers to use, and content experts to comment on. Through this we have a list of things we would like to do to enhance and support the experience. We are currently raising funds to address these ideas. Similarly we want more time to work with content experts to incorporate their input into the final release. We are hoping that when we have raised the needed funds and hired the people that we need that we can release the game within 6-9 months.

How are you anticipating that the game will be distributed once it is ready?

Asi: We are planning to make the game available online for download. That way it will be accessible by all at a relatively cheap price, unlike packaged games. It also enables us to distribute updates or expansion packs when the time comes. Currently, we are looking at a mass-market version and an educational version that will include some supplementary materials for the instructor.

Thank you again for taking the time to speak with us today. Is there anything else you would like to add?

Sure- we are always looking for highly talented and passionate people to join our team. We are especially looking for programmers and game designers who are interested to work with us in the longer term. We are hoping to see people coming from the gaming industry with an interest in current events and world affairs.