Croquet 2 Play

Real diplomacy from the virtual world | CNET News.com
Eric Brown and Asi Burak think a strategy game, of all things, could help forge a new level of understanding between Israelis and Palestinians.

Their game, known as “Peacemaker,” is all about tearing down decades-old walls of mistrust between the two peoples, all the while turning one of the best-understood video game dynamics on its head. In the game, players assume leadership responsibilities on both sides of the conflict as they face real-life issues, such as diplomatic negotiations and military attacks, that divide the camps.

“The public often sees press on all the negative aspects of games. This is a fight, in a way, for better games.”
–Jean Miller, project manager, Public Diplomacy and Virtual Worlds competition

“It’s a strategy game that’s typical in form,” said Eric Brown, a graduate student in interactive educational design at Carnegie-Mellon University, “except we inverted the model, so it’s not a war game. The point is to make peace with the other side.”

What Croquet’s model brings to this conversation is the possibility that individuals and small groups can choose to establish and pursue world changing agendas independently of large entities - be they governments or corporations. Instead of a handful of huge IPO’s emerging from this wave Imagine instead hundreds of OpenIPOs and thousands of very prosperous privately held entities that choose to evolve more self-sustaining and wholistic community ecosystems.