Report Highlights Serious Take On Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

A new report by Wired news has highlighted a pair of games designed to deliver a political message and deal with the real-world issues surrounding an ongoing conflict in the Middle East. The first, Serious Games Interactive's Global Conflicts: Palestine, is a game about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. According to Serious Games Source's recent interview with company CEO Simon Egenfeldt-Nielsen, Global Conflicts: Palestine “is about succeeding as a freelance journalist that has just arrived to Israel. You have to get good stories by exploring the game universe. To get the stories you need to locate the right sources, build up trust and make the right choices.” According to the Wired report, the perspective of a reporter was chosen in in order to give the character “flexibility,” as a journalist is able to see the conflict from a variety of different angles. However, while the opportunity exists to remain neutral in the reporting of the conflict in the game, Egenfeldt-Nielsen mentioned in the earlier interview that this becomes increasingly difficult as the game progresses, and “you are likely to be sucked into the conflict.” Also touched on in the Wired report is ImpactGames' PeaceMaker, a game which was recently announced as the winner of the Reinventing Public Diplomacy through Games Contest in May, and which has been covered in depth by Serious Games Source as well. PeaceMaker 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. Both games share a similar goal in showing the complexities surrounding this ongoing conflict, as well as possibly offering some form of possible hope of resolution. "You get to see that things can get better," commented ImpactGames' Asi Burak in the report. "Even if it's only 10 percent or 5 percent better, it's still an improvement." For more, including additional quotes from representatives from both development companies, read the full report.