by Jessica Reed
If you are in a Jack Bauer mood (but want to help resolve the Middle East conflict instead of miraculously saving the United States from terrorist threats by killing as many Russians as possible), then you might be interested in downloading and playing this: Peacemaker, self-described as a role-playing "video game to promote peace".
What's in it for the player? You control role-based action in different categories: politics, security and constructions. You are interacting with many correspondents (Israeli PM, Palestinian president, their respective populations, the United States, etc), from which you have to gain their approval. You try to make fair and balanced assessments of critical situations.
I haven't tried it yet but I see it as an interesting educating initiative, who could even be used in schools. If set up on the Internet, it would be fascinating to see this game at play with multiple participants (maybe with different perspectives on the Middle East issue). I am sure that some of the openDemocracy forums' participants would enjoy the experiment.
(thanks to Kanishk at Madrid11.net for the link)
