Middle East Video Games: Exploring Social Issues

The Middle East and North Africa is currently the focus of huge protests and riots over the structure of the government, in many different countries. Egypt, Libya, Bahrain, Yemen, Tunisia, and many other countries in this part of the world have experienced wide-spread anti-government discontent within the last month. One key source of long-term conflict in the Middle East is the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian territories. While many games offer looks at the US Military side of conflicts in the Middle Easy (Call of Duty, Armed Assault, Kuma War, etc), few have taken hard looks at the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Check out these top rated video games exploring one of the longest-running conflicts in the world.

Peace Maker
Game Website

Peace Maker, from Impact Games, takes a novel look at the Israeli-Palestanian conflict in the Middle East. This game uses a SidMeir style view (top down of the entire game map) with players choosing to either play the role of a Israeli prime minister or Palestinian president. Players are tasked with arriving at peace with the opposing side, through diplomacy, military intervention and so on. Adding to the immense immersiveness of the game is interspersed video footage, photographs and more, taken from real-life events in the Middle East. Peace Maker is available for Mac or PC and comes in three different languages-English, Hebrew and Arabic. You can watch the trailer for Peace Maker on YouTube.

The story behind the development of Peace Maker is fascinating as well. The team consists of conglomeration Israelis, Americans and Palestinians. Asi Burak (check out his personal website), the game creator, was inspired by the old Electronic Arts ad (circa 1983?) that asked "Can a Computer Make You Cry?" Peace Maker has received international acclaim for its approach to the issues at hand and its educational and fun game play.

Global Conflict: Palestine
Game Website

Produced by Serious Games, a developer with a track record for quality education games, Global Conflicts allows gamers to take the persona of a reporter in a conflict zone. These include drug cartel conflicts in Mexico, various South American paramilitary operations, sweatshops in Bangladesh, child soldiers in Uganda, and, of course, the conflict between Israel and Palestinians.

Much of the focus for Global Conflict: Palestine is on the border crossings. The need to these to protect from terrorist attacks (which is demonstrated in the game) and the problems they create for local populace is illustrated in game, all in first person, 3d. Players take on the role of a reporter traveling to this area. They interview different characters, military and civilian, trying to gain the trust of others to write the best story on the subject.

I played Global Conflict and was impressed with the array of dialogue, options and relative difficulty in game play. It does a decent job of presenting the issues at hand and the challenges people face living in the Israel-Palestinian Territories conflict. The interviews with the in-game NPCs feel alive and well-written. It's definitely a game worth checking out if you are interested in learning about issues related to this long-going conflict in the Middle East.