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rennorthernlights · 6 months

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My Thoughts on Palestine.

I am 22 years old. Born in Texas to a Christian family. I was raised in a church that is a god-fearing, hellfire, and damnation type of church. Growing up I was put in my church’s school and they taught me everything about the Bible. But I didn’t always listen in fact I would question everything since I had a curious mind. Sometimes they answered my questions and sometimes they didn’t. I was active in the church and tried to listen to sermons. I wanted to be a good Christian girl and listen.

There is one sermon that I remember. It was during the 9/11 memorial that my church had and my Pastor was speaking about 9/11 and then it turned to speaking about Muslims. I remember I was drawing, I know “good Christian girl”. I got a lil bored but I remember this. I was 6 years old, my pastor on the pulpit saying “The only way to save a Muslim is to give them a Bible or shoot them in the head.” I remember the other men in the church yelling “Amen! Amen!” I didn’t know what that meant until I got older.

I was raised with a strong hatred for Muslims. All Muslims. Any Muslims. “Remember 9/11, remember what they did.” Is what my father said like as if they personally attacked my family even though we lived in a suburban area in Houston, Texas. I hated anything to do with Muslims and the Muslim religion. When I was old enough to understand what was happening in Afghanistan, I was about 14 years old, I remember a student alongside me said “We should just blow up all the Muslims there.” And I thought “but what about the kids?” I didn’t say anything I just nodded my head and agreed with the student.

I got Instagram against my parents wishes. Scrolling through countless videos and then I saw some Muslims on there. Men, woman, and children. Just like me only different in religion. I still hated them but I wanted to learn about them. I still hated them but I wanted to understand them. I still hated them… I still hated them because I was taught to hate them. That little seed of “Why do I hate them?” Was growing.

Eventually I left that church when I was 16 years old which lead to me no longer be a Christian. Mind you not because I couldn’t stand what they believed about Muslims or because of the hypocrisy of my church. No I was no longer a Christian because I was bitter about my family divorcing.

Being on my own without the church breathing down my neck and telling me what I should or should not believe left me confused. So I started going on Instagram more and more and you know what got me to start thinking without the lenses of the church? Abortion and a woman’s right to choose. Argued a lot with my family until eventually my siblings started siding with me. It took a VERY long time for me to make my own choice, to make my own decisions of what I should believe. And that’s what has lead me to this point about Palestine.

Growing up in that church my Principal/Teacher/Pastor’s wife, yes she was all three, would talk about Israel. Talked about it so much that it came almost synonymous with America. I never once heard her or anyone talk about Palestine. In fact the only memory I have of Palestine is a video I saw on Instagram when I was about 17 years old. That little boy, maybe 13 or 15 years old also looked like his birthday, said on the mic “I give my life to Palestine.” And I thought “Palestine? What’s that?” I didn’t know what or who they were talking about so it went into the back of my mind. Never thought about it again.

Until October 7th, 2023, I was up late watching tiktok and I saw this picture with the Skyfall song by Adele playing. It showed a picture of the Iron Dome intercepting a missile. So immediately I go “Israel is under attack!” And I’ll be honest I didn’t care. Just another thing that didn’t matter in my life because I’m in Texas. A million miles away from the comfort of my home and warm bed, I could easily just swipe away or turn off. Until I saw the videos of Palestinian men, woman, and children.

I watched those videos and in my head I’m going “But they started it?” Because that’s what I was taught. “They’re Muslims trying to exterminate the Jews.” My thoughts echoing the words of my pastor, my teacher, my church, my dad. I’ll admit that a part of me was cheering for the Israel people, that I was condoning what was happening. I thought that Hamas was this powerful group and that Israel was weak because that’s what I was taught. Israel is this little country and defenseless, that’s what I was taught all my life. To pray for Israel’s peace and safety, that’s what I always did. It what I was taught to do.

The videos I saw though proved otherwise. Israel isn’t weak, Israel isn’t defenseless, Israel isn’t poor, Israel is… Israel is bombing civilians. Israel is bombing churches. Israel is bombing places that are supposed to be safe.

It’s like the wool was forcibly taken from my eyes. Like a person gripping my hair and making me look. At first I didn’t want to see. I was content in what I was taught. I was safe with not knowing. But I couldn’t do that anymore. I couldn’t just look and forget. I couldn’t. My turning point was my little brother, 13 years old and mind you hasn’t been raised in the church like I was. His worldview is his own because he was allowed to make his own views without the influence of the church. We were talking about it and this 13 year old kid starts talking about Palestine. And at first I was against it, at first I argued with him but he wasn’t backing down. And I thought “He’s caring about this so much. Why?”

So I read as much as I could on Palestine. I’ve been reading articles and watching videos. I’ve been trying to understand. It was hard, the hatred I had for Muslims and the love I had for Israel made it hard. I second guessed everything and tried to find the moment where I could go “Ah ha! See the Muslims and Palestine is lying!” But I couldn’t. I couldn’t find it.

My tiktok fyp was showing me videos of the men, woman, and children left and right. Again it was like the hand was gripping my hair and making me look. In time I didn’t fight it anymore. I stayed and I looked. Video after video, reel after reel, I watched. A silent witness until I couldn’t be silent anymore. I follow tiktok and Instagram accounts to keep up to date. I’m trying to cram as much knowledge in my head so I can speak out about this to my friends that I was raised with. To argue with my dad about this because he’s only parroting what his pastor is saying.

2 weeks I’ve been learning. 2 weeks I’ve been doing the bare minimum of educating myself on this.

Did you know that I thought Israel’s state was there for at least 200 years? Did you know that I had no idea about the open air prison of Gaza until 2 weeks ago? Did you know that I have been loyal to a state that didn’t even know my name only because I was raised to be loyal to them?

I’m ashamed. I’m ashamed of myself. I’m ashamed that I, who prides herself on learning history and facts did not know about Palestine. I’m ashamed that when I saw that video when I was 17 years old that I did not look into what Palestine is. I’m ashamed of my church. I’m ashamed of the state that I was so loyal to even though they wouldn’t even care about me. I’m ashamed that all I can do is speak and post.

But more than anything, I bare witness. I bare witness to the men, woman, and children that are suffering. I am their witness. I will speak out. I will post. I will comment. I will share. Because that is the very least that I can do.

To the Palestinians, I am so sorry that I hated you without even knowing you. That I saw you as Muslim and hated you because of it. I’m so sorry.

To the Muslims, I am so sorry that I hated you and your religion. I hated you without even thinking why? Without stopping and thinking why do I hate you when you’ve done nothing to me? I’m so sorry. I can never not be sorry.

I can never be sorry enough. I’m no saint. I’m no good person. But I will try to be good. I will try and do better. I will educate myself and help when I am able to. I will speak out. I will be another voice. Another shoulder to lean on. I’m sorry and I will do my part to help.

#palestine #free palestine #muslim #christianity #raisedchristian #figuring things out #speaking out #im sorry #palestinians #free gaza

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alexsmitposts · 5 years

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World Teetering on the Brink says Federal Reserve and EU Commission “Don’t worry about the mule, just load the wagon.” – an old Southern American saying We had an unusual double header last week with the Federal Reserve and the EU commission making two apparently uncoordinated statements, but that could not have come at a better time. I will start with Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell testifying before the House Financial Services Committee. He sent a signal that indicated the first interest rate cut was just around the corner in the longest expansion that the US has ever had before a major correction. The most important line of his testimony for me was: “The bottom line for me is that the uncertainties around global growth and trade continue to weigh on the outlook… additionally, inflation continues to be muted.” The stock market hiccupped up a few points, hardly worth a mention, but interest rates moved up quickly on the news. On the other side of the pond, the EU Commission was giving its economic tale of uncertainty. The annual growth forecast was dropping from 1.9% in 2018 to 1.4% in 2019, and “firming” up in 2020 at 1.6%. But left out of that uptick projection was the elephant in the living room, BREXIT. Everyone knows that a hard Brexit will have a much bigger negative impact on the EU and Britain as opposed to a soft Brexit; and no one, including the Brits, know what Britain is going to do. It has its own Deep State that likes to make those decisions. That was one of the “uncertainties” that Fed Chairman Powell had been referencing, as there are many. Are we nearing a tipping point where one bad misstep could bring the house of cards all tumbling down? My ancestors on my mother’s side were Southerners, a people with a large inventory of colorful expressions which I learned as a child. One of my favorites as a young boy was “don’t worry about the mule, just load the wagon”. It was a saying created to tease Southerners about their laid back attitude, and what some considered their lack of concern about worrying about tomorrow. Trump had been savaging Fed Chairman Powell for his rate increases, for fear they would trigger the stock market correction that everyone knows has to come at some point. Trump would prefer it happen after his reelection, or course. But that represents the short term focus that politicians can have that does not serve the long term interests of the country – the people’s country, not the Deep State country. The EU Commission must have been channeling Chairman Powell, as the key line in their forecast statement was: “The outlook for trade and investment continues to be clouded by protectionism and uncertainty”. I would certainly agree to that, and take it much further. The success of the EU integration itself is clouded in uncertainty. I am not picking on the EU here, nor taking a cheap shot at the 2nd largest economy in the world after the US. Last summer, Columbia University historian Adam Tooze published his tome on the big financial crash in the US that sent a tidal wave around the world. Noah Smith reviewed the book in April of this year, just raving about how it was a one-book read of everything you needed to know about the disaster that touched so many lives. Smith says, “…the victory of the referendum to leave the EU, which now threatens to inflict permanent harm on the U.K., was precipitated in part by the failure of EU institutions to deal with the sovereign-debt crisis in the early 2010s… European integration had been a fragile project from the beginning. Unlike the U.S., the EU was linguistically fragmented, with many centuries of history of political conflict.” All of this chaos weaves into my view that the mentality of “don’t worry about the mule, just load the wagon” is alive and well on the international scale now. We have a similar don’t worry attitude like we had before the big crash with the added caveat of a major war in the Mideast adding to the chaos. While climate change is heating up the world, a growing number of species are under stress and disappearing. Similarly, the international economic community can only handle so many simmering and small scale wars, political and sanctions chaos, along with endless threats emanating from the White House reality tv show star, before the economic outlook can turn very bad for everybody with one major mis-step. The conflict list is long and growing. The Palestinians were offered banishment to the Egyptian desert as “The Deal of the Century”. The people of Afghanistan are looking at 20 years of US invasion conflict in that country; and the Taliban “seeks peace”, shows up for negotiations, but still insists on attacking military, civilian and even election installations during the talks. The US-NATO Ukrainian coup blew up in the Deep State’s face, and the perpetrators did not snatch Russia’s critical Black Sea base as one of the prizes. The sanctions on Russia did not pave the path for the US-backed Russian opposition to take over, as the Russian people do not want US election interference in their country. The US and Trump roam the planet like a raging bull, with Twitter as its lash and a rider who repeats himself endlessly while attempting to speak without saying much, and then changes his mind the next day. Deals are made, and then broken; treaties are canceled; and the good ship America fires cannon volleys of sanctions at both allies and Cold War opponents, while the US national debt continues to rise with no end in sight. The UN is treated like a doormat, a bad joke, an organization that could not even pressure a desert tribal clan-run country to end its war crime conflict in Yemen. The military forces of Western countries are deployed not to defend western interests, but to enforce them at the barrel of a gun, as we saw with the British hijacking of the Iranian leased oil tanker at Gibraltar. Secretary of State Pompeo was caught on video telling a crowd that “when I was at the CIA, we lied, cheated and stole, and had training classes on how to do it,” and the audience laughed. And mind you, this is during peace time. False flag attacks have become a major intelligence agency art form, with little Israel running with the big boys in terms of what it can pull off and get away with. We find ourselves with the US wanting to push permanent coalition deployment war ship to protect international shipping, thinking it can block all of Iran’s oil exports to bring it to its knees and to the negotiating table and force it to accept a “bad deal”. But this is not a defensive move at all, but an offensive one to blockade Iran’s ports, forcing it to respond, and getting the regime change war the US and Israel have always wanted in Iran. Iran has promised, rightfully so, that if its oil exports are blocked, then so will those of every other country in the Persian Gulf, sending oil prices through the roof and triggering a financial crash. I will close with a quote from an NEO – Joseph Thomas wonderful article on July 7th, US vs China: Smartphone Wars. “Whether it is attempts by the US to undermine confidence in a nation’s economy, smear a nation’s tourism industry, attempts to reverse the global success of companies like Huawei or even sabotage energy deals made by the US’ own allies with nations Washington considers adversaries, what amounts to highly dangerous American-led economic warfare remains a critical threat to global peace and stability.” On a brighter note, the Brits seem to be over their LSD-type trip where they seized the Iranian oil tanker, and are looking for a face-saving way out of the mess. Some sanity still survives in London.

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dameronalone · 7 years

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journalist au

aka the au no one asked for

there’s this city idk where called Empire City

the major news company is Empire City Herald

their rival is the smaller Alliance News Daily

Cassian Andor is the freakin best journalist Alliance News Daily has ever seen

like he exploits all the business men and politicians

yeah, he’s good

his trusty, yet snarky intern cameraman is named Kay

Jyn Erso is this free-lance photojournalist trained by Saw Gerrara former Alliance News reporter

he killed

literally

she’s got a website called EscapetoReality.net

she’s brutally honest

Empire City Herald doesn’t like her or Alliance News one bit

Papa Erso works for the City Herald

So Alliance News learns of a tech support guy from the City Herald who went to Saw Gerrara with a message from him

Cassian Andor is sent to retrieve Jyn

Alliance News wants her to work for them find Saw Gerrara

she is dragged in kicking and screaming

no one had ever heard of her crazy martial arts skills

but she’s kinda forced to get on Cassian’s plane

Cassian Alliance News tracks down Gerrara in Israel

“where’d you get that gun?” “found it” “i find that answer vague and unconvincing”

so they show up

Kay who knows how to fly a plane stays behind

they wander Tel Aviv, Israel for maybe half an hour when Jyn bumps into a blind Chinese monk and his guardian

he spouts nonsense to her before Cass drags her away when suddenly

oh no a terrorist attack

they shoot at the people shooting at them

there are the Israeli rebels and the Palestinian attackers, well the Israelis attacked first, but that’s unimportant

Jyn darts out in all the crossfire to save a little girl, but has to take cover behind a truck

Cass shoots an Israeli rebel to keep him from blowing up the truck

so they get away from the main fighting, but then a group of Palestinians see them and try to attack them

Jyn takes out all seven of them, while Cassian looks on with heart eyes

she whirls around and shoots a guy with a headscarf covering his face, that looked a lot like the one Kay was wearing

speak of the devil

Kay comes around the corner, pulling the scarf down to bare his face, looking indignant

“did you know that was not me?” “...of course”

they run into the blind monk and his guardian husband

literally

they’re rounded up by the Israeli rebels and taken to Gerarra

Jyn is brought to him, while the boys are carted off to a cell

they meet the tech support guy, says his name is Bodhi

Jyn get a poor quality video from her father, says that not only the City Herald, but the entire City Council is in on this plot to get rid of Senator Mothma

like really get rid of her

but she can stop them if she hurries

but then Palestinians attack Gerarra big house base

Cass picks the lock and grabs Jyn, so is still shaken up from seeing her father, who she hadn’t been in contact with since she was like nine

they dash onto Kay’s plane with the tech support, the blind monk named Chirrut, and his husband Baze

Bodhi knows where her father is

he’s in Zurich, Switzerland

and Jyn needs to get to Papa

so off they fly

so here’s part 1 part 2 will be along shortly

and I’ll probably flush it out into a real story on ao3, but this is all for now

#rogue one #rebelcaptain #therebelcaptainnetwork #au #rebelcaptain fic #rebelcaptain au #star wars #journalist au #writers-geek-realm

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cellerityweb · 6 years

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Serious Games Indeed – Raising Awarenes, Changing the World

Games have the power to entertain us and make us forget our everyday routines, if only for a moment. They also have the power to change our mindset as well as the world … even if only a little.

Tick Tock, Tick Tock

A girl is lying in bed, all dressed in white. Her pale skin shivers occasionally. Her lips are red as roses. I comb what little is left of her smooth black long hair as she looks at me and whispers: »I love you, don’t worry.« Irit, my sister, died of cancer at age 10.

Tick Tock, Tick Tock

I’m in elementary school. It’s the fifth grade. I’m walking by my class and suddenly I hear a loud brawling sound. I turn around the corner by an old classroom structure that’s made of bricks, cracked asbestos and iron – only to see my good frail friend getting beaten all bloodied and gasping for air. I shout out »Stop this!« with all my might. They stop for a second to look at me and return to the beating. I decide to act. I break a wooden branch with sharp thorns and wave it in the air, whipping the two bigger boys to tears. My friend looks at me, covered with dirt and blood and whispers: »I’m ok man, don’t worry.«Zeev, my good friend, died at sea, caught in a whirlpool he couldn’t evade, age 26.

Tick Tock, Tick Tock

I’m standing on a steep hill in the South of Lebanon. The outskirts of Bint Jbeil. I gaze upon troops firing bullets at each other. A tank is heading deeper into the road surrounding the village, only to move on top of a powerful landmine. A heavy hand touches my shoulder, startling, holding it tight. A bearded reserve soldier, named Rami, whom I just met an hour ago, an observer in the intelligence core, is being accompanied by his squad behind him. We joke for a minute about how all of this is just like a scene from »Age of Empires« game – »We will win this game bro, don’t worry«. They go over the hill to the other side for their mission. 30 minutes later, a Katyusha rocket hits them directly. Rami, age 30. Killed while serving his country.

Having experienced the ugly face of war first-hand, Tsahi is on a mission – with video games now being his weapon of choice.

My Road for a Gaming Chalice Begins

14 years ago, I was on the verge of leaving my job as a Cyber Security Expert. I loved my job but something in my day-to-day routine was missing. I felt I was missing my true calling and knew that I wanted to do something far more influential. I wanted to change the world with my knowledge. My passion can be blazing hot when I truly put my mind to it. I decided to be a game developer, and with that, my life changed completely.

My first job was as a game programmer at probably the best TV channel for children in Israel, called »HOP!«. How appropriate it was, as my games carried this very sense of hope that I wished to plant in every single one of the titles game I made. Each one carried a fracture of my wounded but slowly healing soul. Soon enough, I became the CTO of the company and carried multiple campaigns for children with disabilities, phobias or just children who wished to know more of the world and learn through playing. After hundreds of games and campaigns, I finally started to work on projects with Sesame Workshop and it was love on first sight.

As a delegate visiting foreign planets, the player’s focus in ‘Quandary’ lies on ethnical decision-making.

Other brands soon followed, including amongst others: »Carebears«, »Strawberry Shortcake«, »Garfield«, »Pocoyo«, »«Justin Time«, »Maya the Bee«, »The Smurfs«, »Fireman Sam« and »Lazytown«. Every moment of my time was filled with color and sweetness. But I wanted more. I moved from company to company, trying to find my own salvation as a sleepless paladin roaming the land on a quest for the Holy Grail, to create a game that not only teaches but also educates, and makes you truly understand someone or something completely different. I established a game studio from scratch for »BabyFirstTV«, creating hundreds of games for toddlers to teach basic English, math, colors and sounds. I led a huge project for Compedia, one of Israel’s eldest Edu games companies, where I taught Hebrew to children abroad. I worked in Tabtale as their game designer, and created games as a freelancer for BBC, PBS Kids, Nickelodeon, Disney, Cartoon Network and countless others. But what I was looking for was much deeper. I was looking for a place to help me create serious games.

Serious Games – Why so Serious?

By definition, a serious game is a game whose objective is not solely or purely entertainment, but which is also meant to teach, and raise awareness for the said topic, and in many cases to shock and provoke thoughts. I never liked that name, however, I agree that it is one of the names that are most suitable for the cause, and at the very least, differentiates it from other pure entertainment games. But what makes a good serious game?

‘Bury My Love’ is a story about Nour, a Syrian migrant who is trying to find her way to Europe.

The first time I was playing »This War of Mine« by 11bit Studios, I was hesitant. I knew already that this is not going to be a pleasant experience for me. I understood this is about war, and war is filled with pain and casualties. But I never thought that I would find myself completely frozen after playing the game for two hours. I lost my first team member – I lost Katia and immediately stopped playing and needed some fresh air. It took me four additional times to start again and play the game to the very end.

What I found quite unique about This War of Mine, is that it was extremely realistic, and would not make any discounts for the player. You need to be responsible, but every decision you make is hard and you know it will affect someone. You play people who have a face, a history, a name and personality. This is more than just a bunch of pixels on the ground bleeding the same way as all the other bodies. This is, or was, Katia. And it was because of me. And because of them.

Damn these wars.

After that version they released another expansion, »The Little Ones«, which was even harder to play. I’m the father of Tamar, my almost 6-year-old daughter, and I can’t even imagine spending time with her under such harsh conditions. It’s a fact that I will defend her under any circumstance. But in this game, I, as the player, saw how my method of playing changed. I walked the thin line between risking too much while also getting more food and supplies for two people. Facing the questions from the children in the game, this was wicked and hard to read and respond.

One other game that was giving me a punch in the stomach was »Valiant Hearts: The Great War« by Ubisoft Montpelier. The game is a puzzle-based game with four chapters, that is inspired by letters written during World War I and has several characters who help a young German soldier find his love in this story about survival, sacrifice and friendship. The story is woven through all characters and their grave sacrifices, courage, values of comradeship and love. Emotionally, it had such a huge effect on me, even weeks after I played the game. The game reminded me of my grandfather’s stories and that I was be able to visualize his stories through the eyes of the characters, making them more reliable and memorable.

‘The Enemy’ is a VR experience created by former war photographer Karim ben Khelifa.

Additional games that left a huge impression on me: »1000 Days of Syria« is a text-based game that is played from three different points of view, using three very different characters. In »Nanu Planet«, you play Parchi, an explorer that was separated from his love Puchi. You guide him through puzzles and riddles, in order to find each other through the use of metaphors and allegories, telling the player the story of a divided Korea, its history and reasons for separation. »Bury me, my Love« is a narrative-driven interactive fiction about Nour, a Syrian migrant who’s trying to find her way to Europe. »Insight Spark – Journey to the Fire Mountain« is a digital adventure describing two tribes – the mountain men and the forest men – who are hostile towards each other. The players select their avatar from the forest men tribe, and define traits that effect the outer visibility – not inner! – and its powers. When a dark force aims to take over their world, they embark on a journey to find a magic gem to save the world. When the game starts, the players are rewarded for behaving according to their tribe rules and culture, which makes the rivalry between the two tribes remain. As the game progresses, the rules change and the players are rewarded for thinking outside the box through, breaking through different stigmas and thereby encouraging social interaction with other groups and cooperation. And then there’s »Quandary« which provides a thorough playing of a delegation to a new planet, a framework for how to approach ethical decision-making without telling players what to think.

But not all serious games – or games for change, as the marvelous Asi Burak named his association – are painful and harsh. Some aim at creating hope, connecting people and changing how we treat each other, no matter our differences.

Games for Peace – And What’s Next?

Living in Israel was never easy or simple. This place, that some may say is holy or unique by its history and relationship with the surrounding countries, had always been a complex Pandora’s box, and no one wants to really open it wide and look it straight in the eye. Israelis and Palestinians – they look the same, eat the same food and almost speak the same language. But for the love of it, we can’t stop quarreling about land, rights, future plans and who is stronger, or who has suffered more. My generation wants peace. Not just a lip service but a true companionship. Not with the extremists. This is never a good thing, not in religion, not in politics and not in any field of life – extremism is dangerous. My generation plays games. We see this as a way of life, especially those of us who work in the gaming industry. We use games to help us shop, navigate, compete, learn and live in an easier way. So why not deal with conflicts using games as well?

‘1000 Days of Syria’ is a text-driven narrative played from three different points of view.

Four year ago, I joined the board of an interesting nonprofit association, called »Games for Peace«, where the idea was simple but very clever: we would make Israeli and Palestinian children meet in a computer game. We used the Minecraft engine as a basis for our platform. Then we let the children build together, defeat obstacles as a team and learn to get to know each other. No one knows if the other side is Jewish or Muslim, since we show all messages to each side in their own language (yeah, we made that as well). Eventually, after playing together for several months, they met in the real world and their bonds have strengthened. This model has been tested in several other places around the world, and is now nominated for two awards and entered the final stages of two glamorous competitions. There has been a change in the children’s attitudes towards their conflicted rival! But along the good, there is also the bad. All it takes is one incident of terror, one fight to regress this process backwards. Eventually, if not maintained, the great achievements gained in the game process are lost.

My own take on this was always to think of the long run. Touch the delicate fibers of the conflict, not just the popular, politically correct corners. In order to solve a problem or conflict, both sides need to expel all the rubbish inside in order to confront each other, learn about their false conceptions, start to build a connection with the rival side and start creating together.

Additionally, as we’ve seen at Games for Peace, this is not an isolated environment. The teacher must be part of the process, since sometimes, the great unbelievers are the teachers. And what about the parents? What about when the child gets back home, back into a different reality it has to deal with. So, the parents needs to be in the game, involved as a character with its own objectives. And what about my friends? And my Rabbi? My Imam? Yes, the road is long, but at least we are leaping forward in great bounces, with great courage and open eyes.

Serious Games and AR \ VR

We mostly discussed PC and mobile games, but we can’t ignore a huge revolution growing right under our noses. It’s the most common buzzword nowadays: AR\VR. Some will even dare to say Mixed Reality, but it’s a great way to make your player feel empathy, immerse in a world of imagination or realism, and understand more than ever the consequences of a player’s actions. Having a gamified layer on top of your reality or watching it with added game objects through your mobile phone or Meta Glasses is fantastic, but what other use can it bring to the serious games market? Well, instead of watching monsters popping out of sewer holes or defeating flying saucers, or even checking statistics of buildings around you, one could use it as tool to view real statistics on homeless people. Or how about using your mobile device to see how other people around you would look like after not having eaten, slept or washed themselves for days or possibly weeks? And what about conflicts? Could we simulate bullies at school, being the one having to stand up to them? Can we simulate a battle between two religious rivals only to try to pacify them using our game tools?

Indeed, the options vary, but VR is even mightier. Despite the side effects, one can assume a role of a general in an army, a foot soldier, a drug dealer in the Brazilian favelas, a Palestinian Citizen in Gaza, or an orthodox Jew in Jerusalem, and grow empathy towards that character, with actual emotional response and almost the ability to touch the world. One such good example is the VR experience »The Enemy« by Karim ben Khelifa, who has been a war photographer for many years, and decided to create an emotional experience, where each side is one part of the conflict, trying to understand and grow empathy towards each other by playing the rival character.

Will the future tacticians or soldiers fight their wars only in VR? Or is this a tool that must be embedded into the curriculum as part of a grand peace study, hence building a young generation of sensitive, empathic, non-wearing people?

Serious Games as a Business – But What About Funding?

Let’s face it: making games is awesome, right? Making serious games and social change game experiences is noble. But values can’t help you keep on going. In order to fund your growing game company, serving more players is crucial. Game developers need to think from the get-go about their business model and how their game would be funded. When we speak about serious games, the situation is even more delicate. One needs to explore grants by the European Union, like the »Horizon 2020« program or other governmental grants. But grants are a slow, bureaucratic, require tedious work and the developers need to be prepared in advance. Only a small amount of projects is selected, so this goose won’t lay any golden eggs. Of course, we mustn’t forget crowdfunding, although it shows that only 10% of the funds for serious games are crowdfunded by campaigns on Kickstarter, fig, indiegogo and the likes. It’s necessary to remember that a good campaign requires qualified and dedicated personnel with a good funding back-up to make this a quality run.

The secret lies within mixing possible solutions, addressing governmental as well as private grants such as the »McArthur’s Foundation«or the »Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation«, and combining all of this this with meeting with Angels or VC’s that are into serious games, and trying to think on how this game can fund itself. Is this going to be using the Humble Bundle model, so it could fund charities and drive more traffic to your game? Are you teaming up with a big brand without damaging the game’s image and using their marketing resources and well-known name? As always, the funding of games is difficult and you need a great combination of a good game, a great cause, lots of luck,and a heart that’s in the right place.

Conclusions

The campaign ‘Games for Peace’ had one goal: bringing together Palestinian and Israeli kids by having them play together, without them knowing about each other’s heritage, language or religion.

Life is a wonderful game. It has its own rules, actors, and varied objectives. But in order to keep on living,

we must at the very least have our conflicts under control. We first need to challenge our own inner conflicts and then try to solve bigger ones.

But games are a great tool for facing our greatest fears, whether it is black people, refugees from Syria, homeless people on the streets or people who speak Arabic. We are all born the same way as infants, and as such, our society poisons us slowly with varied misconceptions. Games can be the antidote to that poison and this is true especially for serious games. Let’s try to use our skills to change this world and the people around us. If we can develop a serious game, let’s do it. Not just because it’s popular to say that this is what we do, but to really make a change, touch those meridian points within people that are aching, looking for answers, and crystal clear them. Games are great, but their social element – the ability to compete and to learn from each other – is priceless. Without learning or education, no conflict would be solved. So learn how to create games and make games that matter and don’t be afraid to inflict pain and empathy with it – because it’s the way to a better future!

About the Author:

Tsahi Liberman VP Foreign Affairs, GameIS Headmaster, Titan Game Dev & Design School

Im 42 years old, raised and born in Israel. My entire life revolved around games. Basketball games, Comodor64 games, playing »Golden Axe« and »Rampage«, staying over night to play »Meridian59«, »Ultima Online« and »Everquest« with my friends. I ended up developing games and meeting people I adored, putting a smile on the face of children playing my games, as well as learning about math, languages and science in a fun way. Im father to my 6-year-old daughter Tamar, and husband to Noa, my beloved partner in this life, a gifted illustrator. I love martial arts, extreme sports and making an impact on this world by using games of any kind. Contact: [email protected]

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