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.