Lebanon: Resolving conflict through a… video game?

By The SFCG Lebanon Team

What’s the first thing that comes to your mind when video games such as Call of Duty, Bullet Storm and MadWorld are mentioned? Most people would probably say violence, guns and conflict.

Search is looking to change all of that.

At Search, we are always looking for innovative ways to promote conflict transformation and peacebuilding. We know from experience that popular culture is a powerful way of conveying messages such as acceptance of the “other” and tolerance without causing people to lose interest.

Our aim with our new video game, Cedaria: Blackout, is to provide the youth in the Middle East a platform to learn and practice how to mediate conflict, solve community problems collaboratively, and understand the perspectives of the “other”.

At a time of escalating violence in the region, we believe that gaming is an effective and innovative tool to reach out to young people and promote non-violent behavior without being boring or patronizing.

This idea is supported by studies showing that skills learned while playing video games are transferable to real life situations. If in a virtual world players can explore options that go beyond socially accepted norms, they will be more inclined to replicate similar behaviors in their everyday life.

Lebanon and the Middle East

Living in the Middle East, one can’t help but wonder why there aren’t more initiatives similar to this one. People of all ages own smartphones and use them to play video games. A colleague once mentioned that during the civil war, he and his cousins were spending time playing video games and this became their most lasting memory from that period of their life. That’s when we knew we had to turn our idea into reality!

With traditional peacebuilding activities we tend to focus on the same target group, but a video game would allow us to reach a new audience. In the pre-production process, we

conducted a survey that highlighted how Lebanese youth spend several hours every day playing video games, reinforcing the notion that video games can be effective in youths’ daily lives. Video games also allow people from different backgrounds and sectarian groups to interact.

As a peacebuilding organization our expertise in creating a video game was limited. In order to make sure we could develop a truly entertaining video game, we teamed up with highly innovative game developers. Some of them had worked on violent games such as Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry, but found our project a breath of fresh air.

So what does it look like?

 

We wanted to ensure that the game was both educational and entertaining. We did so by combining:

• Dialogue designed with the constant feedback of our very own conflict resolution specialists to ensure we teach youth the necessary skills through experience and practice
• Game scenarios giving players the freedom to choose between cooperative and non-cooperative behavior  in which they experience the consequences of their choices.
• Steampunk style that gives the characters an edgy look and allows us to explore certain dynamics that are characteristic of the Middle East without breaking the “suspension of disbelief.”
• Middle Eastern elements so that the players can identify with the game setting.

How to help us!

Search received funding from the Royal Netherlands Embassy in Beirut to develop the video game. However, in order to complete the game in line with the original vision we need additional funding. To this end we launched a crowd funding campaign on Kickstarter.

 

If you want to help us with this INNOVATIVE project in the Middle East you can do so by:

1. Donating to our project. It’s really simple:

– Go to Kickstarter.

– Click on “BACK THIS PROJECT” and register your profile.

– Choose the amount of your donation.

 

2. Helping us spread the word!

– Like our Facebook page and share it with your friends.

– Follow us on Twitter and tweet us to your followers.

– Watch us on YouTube.

– Read on our blog for updates.

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SFCG Lebanon team believes that entertaining tools are the best way to engage youth for peace. They have implementing projects with youth in Lebanon since 2008 already producing two TV series to spread messages of tolerance and acceptance of “the other” while promoting a united Lebanese identity beyond sectarian lines.