In answer to many people’s comments and support issues we are pleased to provide our customers with this new functionality. The patch below will work for anyone purchasing a copy of PeaceMaker that does not already have integrated this new functionality. We understand everyones desire to be able to have flexibility with software they purchase and we are glad to finally provide that. This should also make it easier for educational institutions that are continuously re-imaging their computer labs.
New Patch: Deactivation and Reactivation Functionality
We have recently added new functionality to allow our users to deactivate and reactivate copies of PeaceMaker in order to move them from computer to computer. Please be sure to use the deactivation tool before uninstalling. If you own the online version (v1.068 and earlier) or the CD version (physical copy) feel free to install this patch for PC or Mac. You do not need this patch if you own a later version of PeaceMaker. DO NOT use this patch if you have the Peres Center version.
Dear Play the News Community,
On behalf of ImpactGames we would like to thank you all for your participation in our Beta community. We have reached a point in the progression of this product where we will be ceasing to produce new content for the site. We will not be opening, locking, or closing any of the current content. For now we will be leaving the site frozen in time for demonstration purposes and to support our fundraising, content partner acquisition, and future development needs.
In the last few months we have created 126 games on a wide range of subject matter. The process has educated us personally, and hopefully those of you in our community, on many issues. Some of the games we created were on issues we read about every day, while some were on meaningful subjects that are generally buried in the margins of the mainstream press. The discussions around the games have been very thoughtful and revealing to us as developers and individuals. We believe that the way we have packaged current events represents a fresh way for people to consume headline news, and provides greater context and engagement on complex issues and even lighter entertainment. We are confident that the future “new and improved” incarnation of the platform will serve as a real alternative or addition to traditional media.
We are planning to take this time, free from the intense development cycle required to continuously produce new content, to analyze all of your thoughtful feedback in order to create an even better experience. We are opening a new thread in our forum where we welcome you to submit any and all thoughts and ideas about the experience, share user testimonials, and present any leads you think we should explore.
We hope to revive the community in the near future and will preserve all of your user data for integration into our next edition. We thank you again for taking the time to pioneer a new user experience with us. Your feedback and ongoing participation has been integral in exploring this new form of communication, game, and community.
Eric and Asi,
Co-Founders - ImpactGames
I recently was invited to write something for the Huffington Post and thought it would be a great venue to continue my thoughts on the subject raised in Why PeaceMaker costs money?
If you found the previous discussion interesting please have a look at this new post. Again it was difficult not to go into the many facets of my thoughts on this subject, especially in a short post, but I brought up some other issues that are interesting to me. As always I would love to hear your thoughts on the subject.
I have been meaning to write this for a while now in response to several emails and postings. I am finally going to throw my first round of comments into the ring to respond to the overall idea that we should be giving away the game for free, why we are a for-profit, and finally why we are charging for the game.
To the comments we get that “I won’t purchase a game that should be free”, or along the lines of “how is a game that is meant to reach people charging money”, on a personal level it has always struck me as odd that thing associated with “peace” should only live in the non-profit or free segment of society. Another comment that we were always asked was “what is your business model”. This implies that because the game is about conflict resolution or “peace” that the standard models don’t apply. It is about spending where your values or interests lie, if your interest is in games why not a game that has received reviews from an established game designer such as “is fun, challenging, tense at times, and extremely well presented”? If you’re interested in the issues then we also equate the experience with a documentary. We address a social issue in an interesting way. I could go on and on for experiences that people pay for that are similar at a base level to what we are doing.
We did have a long debate on whether to be for-profit or non-profit. The issues that drove our decision can be summed up fairly simply with the reality that it was easier and faster to find funding for the profit venture. There is a growing trend for social entrepreneurs, self sustaining models with positive missions, ie positive changes through for-profit ventures ( even this years Nobel Peace Prize Winner Mouhammad Yunus ). We also chose to remain unaffiliated through investment or sponsors. We fought for a long time to maintain the mission of our company and were very sensitive to bias concerns. We continuously saw the opportunity that if we are financially successful we could influence the gaming industry as a whole to understand that this type of mature content is not only in demand but a financial opportunity. To lead by example and to help populate the space with more titles like ours. We still work with and maintain great relationships with several foundations and non-profits for providing the game in places where funding is a problem and for creating wider awareness and support for communities and educators to engage people through the game experience.
We feel we chose a price point that is fairly low for what we have invested in the project, and hopefully not a barrier for too many people. You could also insert a whole argument here on perceived value of something you purchase versus something that is free ( I am not going to extrapolate on that argument except to say this drove some of our decision on the final price ). The main objective is to earn enough money to be able to update this title, expand its community interaction, and to address other topics we have in the que. The primary drive has never been for personal financial gain.
I could and will continue to expand on this, as this is only some of the thinking and issues we have addressed. I attempted to keep this short but was unable to get the basics out without going on a little bit of a soapbox rant.
Hi everyone,
The moment we’ve all been waiting for has arrived. After more than 2 years of production, the PeaceMaker game is available for online download. We are eagerly anticipating your feedback and comments, and we would like to thank all of you for the continuous interest, encouragement and mainly - patience.
Some more good news- PeaceMaker advanced to Finalist in Ashoka’s Changemakers competition (11 out of 158 peace initiatives from all over the world). The final stage is open for public voting - we would love to get your support.
Sincerely,
The PeaceMaker team
As our launch approaches we are making some changes to improve our systems. One of the changes will be to relocate our blog. We are very interested in what you have to say and do not want to risk losing any registrations or comments in the transition. Due to this we will be locking the blog for registration and comments until we are sure the transfer is completed. If you would like to post something please check back in the very near future (a day or two).
As you might have seen on our homepage - we have announced our release for February 2007. We are excited to finally be putting our product in the public’s hands. The final version of the game has gotten very positive reviews from a range of beta-testers. Thanks to everyone for your encouragement and patience, we promise you all - it’s a matter of days.
We were invited to present our game at the National Conference of the World Affairs Councils of America (Feb 1st). The conference runs from Feb 1st to 4th featuring discussions on the Middle-East with figures such as Secretary of State Rice, Suzanne Mubarak and Ambassador Dennis Ross. This will be the first of many roll-out events and should be a great venue for expanding the awareness for and getting feedback on our game.
We had the honor of being on a panel associated with the Gandhi Institutes 100 year anniversary of Mahatma’s first public commitment to non-violent resistance ( 9/11/1906 ). It was an amazing event attended by a variety of people. Arun Gandhi, Mahatma’s grandson, and founder of the institute witnessed our efforts and offered us this quote in endorsement of what we are trying to do:
Since the time I spent with my Grandfather, Mahatma Gandhi, I have had the opportunity to observe many efforts by individuals from many countries to promote peace. In my opinion Peacemaker is ground breaking in both its conception and execution. This exceptionally creative and relevant video game will further concepts of conflict resolution and peacemaking and bring important new audiences into the fold. Congratulations to the Peacemaker team!
Arun Gandhi, Founder, MK Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence
It is humbling to think that our efforts are being recognized by people representing groups that we respect for the work they are doing. I am choosing to respond to this and post it not only because it is a great quote but because it is a glimpse into the types of moments that keep us motivated. One of the driving forces behind pushing ahead with this project and starting our company was the interest and support of all different types of people from around the world. On a day when you are having doubts it is invaluable to receive an email like the following:
“I’d just like to express my gratitude for you doing this kind of video-game. It’s really exactly what you need to make people understand the situation in the Middle East from a totally new perspective - in a objective and neutral way. Both in the entire world, and especially the two involved countries themselves. Fantastic job, KEEP IT UP!!! 
It really made me happy to see your passion for this subject.”
I just grabbed this one randomly, but it represents the tone of many of the inquiries. I just want to thank everyone who has written to us giving us motivation and support in what we are doing.
In an effort to increase communication with our community of interest and future customers and supporters we have decided to launch a blog. We get lots of emails and in many cases respond to a lot of the same questions and comments. We have been working on this project for some time now and have had many interesting conversations with many people. We hope sharing some of these conversations and inviting others to join in will further expand our efforts.
We hope that this blog will allow us to share a lot of information about what we are trying to do and our motivation for doing it. Asi Burak and I will post our thoughts about the business, the development of PeaceMaker, and issues surrounding our efforts. From time to time we will also be inviting people from various circles to comment on PeaceMaker and different aspects our goals.
I hope you will find our thoughts revealing and informative. We invite comment and feedback from any and all. Due to the nature of some of the subject matter we are requiring people to sign in to be able to post. We do not plan on censoring unless truly necessary however we also ask that you be sensitive in your posts and keep the postings constructive.