Our PaxBots have scoured the web far and wide and have found lots of great free games. Peace Heroes, Empathy, Bullying, Life Skills, Casual Games, and Environment are just some of the subjects the games are organized under. Finally one place to go to play great nonviolent games! www.peacegrooves.com

Video games can function as important educational tools. But can they go a step further and promote social awareness and change? This question has given rise to the Games for Change movement within the Serious Games Initiative.

The Serious Games Initiative was founded in 2002 at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars in Washington DC. The Serious Games Initiative focuses on the use of video games to explore challenges within the public sector. It is interested in helping to “forge productive links between the electronic game industry and projects involving the use of games in education, training, health, and public policy” (“Serious games initiative”, 2006) and is a merging of two paradigms; the entertainment paradigm from the commercial games industry and the education paradigm that focuses on training and learning (Ellis et al., 2006). According to David Rejewski, Director of the Serious Games Initiative, “games are one tool that may help immensely in building long-term thinking skills among not only government officials but the general public at-large” (“Serious games initiative”, 2006).

The initiative is not only concerned with creating better tools for education and training but also with using games to help create a better world. In 2004, the Initiative launched Games for Change (G4C) to focus specifically on the use of games for social change. Games for Change is “the primary community of practice for those interested in making digital games about the most pressing issues of our day, from poverty to race and the environment”(“Games for change”, 2006). The goal is to raise awareness which hopefully will lead to behavioral change.

So then the question becomes: within the G4C initiative, can we create games that bring about peace?

PeaceGrooves is seeking original games with nonviolent game play, inspired by peace and/or historical peace figures, and/or espousing nonviolent principles. Game types can include but are not limited to video games, board games, map/ book games, card games, etc.

Sponsored by PeaceGrooves and PJSN. Read Official Rules Here. More Info and Registration at http://peacegrooves.com/Got%20Groove.htm

DEADLINES: Initial Registration: December 31, 2009 (see below). Final Submission: September 30, 2010. Winner Notification: December 31, 2010.

ELIGIBILITY: Legal residents of the 50 United States (including the District of Columbia) age 13 to 18. Entrants under the age of 18 must have permission from their parents or legal guardians to participate. Participation in the YPGCC constitutes entrant’s full and unconditional agreement to and acceptance of these Official Rules & Regulations.

HOW TO ENTER: Entering the YPGCC is a two step process, Initial Registration and Final Demo Submission. First, you may enter the YPGCC starting July 1, 2009 at 9am (EST) by filling out and submitting the initial Registration Form below. Follow the directions on the main YPGCC page, fill out the entry form in its entirety and click on the button to submit the entry form. After your registration you will receive a welcome email with your Game Title, Description of Game, Contact Info and information for submitting your Final Demo Submission. PLEASE keep this email. Anytime after you have registered until the deadline, you may submit your Final Demo Submission using the exact Game Title, Game Description and Contact Info of your Initial Registration. Once you have submitted your Final Demo Submission, you may not amend or edit your game so please make sure you have completed as much as you are going to before you submit. You may submit as many games as you wish but they must be separate and different game ideas. Each one will require a separate registration. You may enter the YPGCC as many times as you like but you must submit a separate registration form and demo submission for each entry or game.

What is a Game Demo? Game Demo should be a playable version of the game with enough of the game complete to give an idea of game play. Game demos can include a brief working version of a video game, basic cards for a card game, basic layout for a board game, etc. The more design and artistically complete a game is, the more likely it will be chosen as a winner due to playability and judges’ ability to see how the game will be once it is complete. It is in your best interest to have your Final Demo Submission be as complete as possible.

Prizes include a laptop, mp3 player, and/or cash!

In my previous post, The New Virtual Babysitter, I mentioned my concern with the arrival of portable game systems and whether parents should be buying such systems for their children. One thing to add here is that at a recent conference I attended a leading expert on children with Attachment Issues stated unequivocally that these children especially should not have portable game systems because it is addictive for them. (I would also caution parents to buy a system that either does not have wifi capability or has major controls to protect children from online predators and porn).

I was also impressed with the following article by a lifelong gamer now parent as he struggles with the decision whether to buy his child a game sytem. Here is the article “Should Kids Play Games?”

Here is a peaceful take on the game of Four Square. Instead of the typical square divided in an equal 4 parts, use the pattern of the Peace Sign (below).

The game can be played the same way (rules here). It should be interesting to find out whether the larger spaces or smaller ones have the advantage.

Have a ball!

MMOs offer an incredible opportunity for healing ministry.

My brother is a big MMO player. Following a recent PG workshop, he was discussing a typical experience. Often, the action is a side note to the ongoing conversation via chat or Ventrilo. Players talk about their lives and can even go off into private chat rooms to discuss difficult situations they are in at home or at work. MMOs are about connection and community. The adventure is often secondary.

I had a thought. A chaplain is someone who listens. And God knows, all of us need a listening ear. How about a team of MMO chaplains? People with training who register for an MMO not to proselytize but simply to offer a listening ear to those in need. Some folks might decide to womp on you, but for the most part, I think folks would appreciate the service.

So, you being called to be an MMOC?

Does a game oversimplify and diminish suffering? This is an ongoing discussion in the Serious Games Initiative about whether games can tackle tragic issues and it is one that should continue. Some historical tragedies such as the Holocaust have not been addressed for this precise reason. If one does choose to create a game that gets folks to think, will doing so change behavior in the player?

Darfur is Dying (www.darfurisfying.com), a game created as a result of an MTV-sponsored contest, aims to bring awareness to the genocide taking place in the Darfur region of Sudan. Around 700,000 people played the game in the first month and many of these participated in the political action segment of the website (Thompson, 2006). Strengths of the game are ease of play, reality, and link to political action (the player can send an email to their political representative among other things). Weaknesses include difficult goals, cartoonish-quality graphics, and short game length.

As mentioned above, the game offers players an opportunity to advocate for the people of Darfur. You can also help by participating in the Sudan Campaign sponsored by MCC US online.

Play the game. Visit the website. Learn. Help. You can make a difference.

What we are creating is a new paradigm, a new mythology. Or in actuality an ancient paradigm applied to modernity. We subscribe to the belief that conflict is a part of life, but violent resolution to conflict does not have to be.

We challenge those who are in the business of creating media to stop producing games, videos and what not that perpetuate the myth that violence solves problems, real or virtual. Talk about an old, worn out myth. As Roszack said “People try nonviolence for a week, and when it ‘doesn’t work’ they go back to violence which hasn’t worked for centuries.”

Use your imagination to create nonviolent media which will impact the imaginations of the young to believe and act another way. It is time for a peace paradigm.

Originally posted November 21, 2005

Come mothers and fathers throughout the land. Why do you not criticize or attempt to understand why your sons (especially, your sons) and your daughters are beyond your command? Forget TV, a new babysitter has come to toyland. The GameBoy. It seems lately that I have seen boy after boy with the little box in hand mesmerized by the images on the screen. Even in church where it seems that parents have decided that this is one way to keep the kids occupied. And quiet. By all means, quiet. Add to this the GB’s virtual cousin, the computer and its myriad spawn, the Internet, IM, email, games, etc., and there is a plethora of screens for children to lose themselves in. And TV remains.

Based on Nielsen ratings, the following information was found here. Number of minutes per week that parents spend in meaningful conversation with their children:3.5. Number of minutes per week that the average child watches television: 1,680. Percentage of day care centers that use TV during a typical day: 70. Percentage of parents who would like to limit their children’s TV watching: 73. Percentage of 4-6 year-olds who, when asked to choose between watching TV and spending time with their fathers, preferred television: 54. Hours per year the average American youth spends in school: 900 hours. Hours per year the average American youth watches television: 1500.

(And from http://kidshealth.org/parent/positive/family/tv_affects_child.html)
Most children plug into the world of television long before they enter school: 70% of child-care centers use TV during a typical day. In a year, the average child spends 900 hours in school and nearly 1,023 hours in front of a TV. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), kids in the United States watch about 4 hours of TV a day – even though the AAP guidelines say children older than 2 should watch no more than 1 to 2 hours a day of quality programming. And, according to the guidelines, children under age 2 should have no “screen time” (TV, DVDs or videotapes, computers, or video games) at all. (This includes Baby Einstein). During the first 2 years, a critical time for brain development, TV can get in the way of exploring, learning, and spending time interacting and playing with parents and others, which helps young children develop the skills they need to grow cognitively, physically, socially, and emotionally.

Do not get me wrong or box me in as a Luddite. I still believe (I think) that Technology is good, but it must be held very gently. Very, very gently, like an asp. Pixels are no substitute for human interaction, the virtual for the real of face, feelings, and flesh. And we wonder why our youth are becoming increasingly anti-social?

And I have not yet touched upon the overwhelming violence that permeates whatever screens our children are being lost in. That subject is forthcoming.

For now, let us not be deceived by the siren song that calls from the screen. If our children are raised by the virtual, than virtual they will be. I choose to imagine another world, the one that is real, with love and pain, not found on Reality TV. It is the world of you and me, with ALL of its complexity. Selah.
Originally posted November 15, 2005

Okay, so it’s the end times and it’s up to you save the world. How do you do it? Well, you pray, worship, and fight the forces of the Anti-Christ. The game is Left Behind: Eternal Forces, based on the best-selling Left Behind Series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins.