A Fight without Violence in the Virtual World

Arrested again, Popovic now has a cellmate. Ivan Varomic - a fellow protestor in a student movement - was also caught distributing “subversive” leaflets, an extremely precarious activity to perform in the city center of Grbac.
 

The scene takes place in an imaginary ex-Soviet republic, and Popovic and Varomic are nothing more than characters in a computer game. Composed of bits and bytes, they are however linked to reality. These characters are inspired by real characters from a world of oppressive governments and human rights violations which, unlike the subject of most computer games, are not child's play.

In the game, the characters embody leaders of civil movements and engage in struggles for human rights, civil liberties, peace and other humanitarian efforts, using tactics consecrated by a doctrine of non-violence. It is real world simulated in the virtual.

 
Ivan Varomic is an optimal example of this simulation: his name is an anagram of Ivan Marovic, one of the founders of the Serbian student movement Otpor! (Resistance!), which at the beginning of the decade, was known for non-violent opposition to Slobodan Milosevic’s regime. Marovic, as well as being an activist, is also the developer of the game.

"I joined the team after the work had already started, bringing with me real-world experience," says Marovic, the self-denoted computer-nerd, and game aficionado. "If indeed the game instructs the player how to lead a movement, then I think we came up with a perfect blend," he asserts, referring to the educational goal of the initiative.

Training Tool

 
The game’s website puts forth the central question: "Can a computer game teach how to fight real-world adversaries—dictators, military occupiers and corrupt rulers, using methods that have succeeded in actual conflicts—not with laser rays or AK47s, but with non-military strategies and nonviolent weapons?”

 
“A Force More Powerful was made with the intention to help people understand the role that non-violent action can play in various struggles for rights, justice, freedom and responsibility. And the game is reaching those goals; it has been utilized by a diverse audience – “activists, educators, scholars, journalists, members of NGOs and policymakers," claims Hardy Merriman, Senior Adviser of ICNC.

One example that Merriman mentions is the use of the game in classrooms at universities. Professors attest that students enjoy it because it is a form of "learning by doing." "The appeal of the game is that people can really do anything. They design and test their own strategies, reflect on the results, learn, and then test new strategies," he says.

 
Up With Entertainment!

 
For Marovic, the game also has great potential for entertainment. "We have received feedback to improve some things, but people are generally enthusiastic to play because it is something different.” he argues. "The response we're getting is that the game is stimulating and hard to master," Merriman adds.

The game is made up of 12 different scenes - as well as a tool for the user to create their own scene - each presenting diverse situations, goals and complexities. In one scene, the player controls a group of university students who fight to end corruption in their city.

In another, a group of veterans fight for the end of a long war which has destroyed the country's economy. In "The Weight of Tradition", the player must oppose the government’s policy of ethnic separatism without; however, letting the conflict spread to the reach a violent terrorist activity.

How does it work?

At the initiation of political "battles", the resources - human and material – of the regime are superior to that of the player's. Thus, it is necessary to plan carefully before going into battle. To this end, the game offers the player a tool to analyze the situation, the strengths and weaknesses of the enemy, to prioritize goals and define courses of action. Ignoring this phase means certain defeat, as was demonstrated in the first try by members of Comunidade Segura.

The game is developed as tactics are implemented. There are dozens of potential actions, mostly drawn from the literature of Gene Sharp on non-violent intervention. They are divided into categories of offenses (pickets, vigils, strikes, occupation of public buildings); communication (pamphlets, newspapers); strengthening (recruitment); and defense.

An Innovative Game
 

Ivan Marovic is proud to have participated in the development of an innovative game. "It's very difficult to determine a direct influence, so it seems that the game is the first of its kind," he says. Most strategy games are either violent or work on a scale beyond the reality of individuals, with a theme of world domination.

I think the biggest difference is that in our case, the goal is to win over people and persuade them.  This is a completely different dynamic," he argues. In March 2006, when the Force was launched, most other titles that were reaching the market had violent content.

 
Despite the inevitable comparison, Merriman believes that we should not think of the game as a competitor of violent games. "Those games are for entertainment purposes. AFMP was created to teach real skills, educate and attract an audience. Perhaps it is more appropriate to call it simulation rather than a game," he adds.

From the Comunidad Segura Virtual Library: 
 
Imagens de violência e jogos perigosos, vulgarização da barbárie e projeções de cenas sociais?

 
Read Further:
 

Site do jogo

AForceMorePowerful.org

York Zimmerman Inc. 

Violence, games and art

Digital Bits Technology Column: Non violent video games

Translated by Nathaniel Wolfson