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.