Happy New Year! A personal comment for 2007- from time to time we receive emails from people who are confident they have the “perfect plan to solve the Middle-East conflict” and they strongly believe that their solution should be integrated into our video game. With much appreciation to their passion and determination, to me this notion stands in contrast to what we’re trying to convey. I believe more in a bottom-up and systemic change, promoting empathy and tolerance on the individual level over time. In addition, I would argue that the end solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is clear and known, and that there is no magic solution that someone never thought of. Can an “out of the box” creative plan erase decades of personal loss, hatred and mistrust?
In PeaceMaker, one takes a leadership role, and the message is: your power is limited and your authority is challenged. Clicking on the PeaceMaker executable file won’t solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The real change may come by promoting empathy and by accepting the validity of the other side’s perspective. And that takes a lot of time and patience, no shortcuts allowed.