Peacemaker

_PeaceMaker_ is a “serious game” dedicated to the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict. Playing as either the Israeli Prime Minister or the Palestinian
President, the player must try to bring peace to the area by balancing the
concerns of both his own people and the world community.

Through action menus around a reference map of the region, the player can
chose from the actions available for the side he’s playing. Both sides have
actions available in the categories: Security, Political and Construction.

Security options for the Israeli include giving orders to the police and the
armed forces, changing curfews or releasing political prisoners, demolishing
buildings, ordering missile strikes or assassinating political leaders. The
Palestinian security options also include border control issues, and dealing
with militants internally.

Political options for both sides include giving speeches, having meetings with
the involved factions and world leaders, handling trade agreements, worker
permits and making cultural initiatives. Playing the Palestinian side, the
player may also push for control of holy sites or declare an independent
Palestinian state.

Construction options include health care, education and reconstruction.
Playing the Palestinian side, there are options for agricultural, industrial
and commercial construction and for control of airspace, coast lines, water
supplies and tourism issues. The Israeli options in this category include
dealing with settlements and making decisions about the security fence and
refugee affairs.

The gameplay consists of choosing sensible actions in response to events in
the game and changes in the political climate. These are expressed to the
player as a set of statistics on how popular his ‘leader’ is with different
factions of his own people as well as with other countries and organizations
such as the Arab world and United Nations. Each of these factions’ political
power, fears, goals and possible actions are also listed, so as a player you
have a chance of knowing how they will react to your different actions.

Each action will influence the player’s popularity with the different
factions, which will then again influence what actions will be available or
likely to succeed on the next turn. Successfully played, the player will be
able to solve problems diplomatically as they appear on each step of the road
to peace.

The game can be played at three difficulty levels: a calm, a tense or a
violent political situation respectively.

The game is designed on the assumption that winning is achieved by a two state
solution. It offers a way of experiencing the conflict from both sides, with a
fair degree of accuracy.