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Fighting Tyrants, Real and Virtual

Thursday, December 22, 2005
By Reena Jana
 
Designed to train activists, A Force More Powerful is a strategy game involving nonviolent conflict and civil disobedience.

Imagine a computer-game villain based on a combination of some of history's most brutal dictators -- say, Slobodan Milosevic and Augusto Pinochet rolled into one.  A Force More Powerful, a strategy game set for February release, pits players against a character with the traits of such notoriously oppressive and violent rulers.  The catch: Gamers can use only brains, not brawn, to overthrow their foes. A Force More Powerful is designed as the first PC game with nonviolent conflict -- like peace marches and labor strikes -- as its ultimate goal.

"We didn't set out to reform the game industry or make a statement against violent computer games," says Steve York, the Washington, D.C.-based documentary filmmaker who initiated the project.  "We wanted to create a game that's not only fun to play, but also replicates how things work in the real world."  York emphasizes that nonviolent conflict shouldn't be confused with conflict resolution.  "Our subject is waging conflict, not resolving it.  Conflict and violence are not the same thing -- conflict without violence is a real option."

CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE.  Developed by York's production company, York Zimmerman, and the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict (ICNC), and designed by Hunt Valley, Md.-based Breakaway Games, A Force More Powerful consists of 10 fictional scenarios, such as forcing a government to hold free elections, freeing a dissident from prison, or promoting the cause of organized labor.  The narratives are based on true grassroots movements in Chile, Denmark, India, the Philippines, Poland, and other countries -- including the U.S.

Though devoid of flashy 3D animation a la Call of Duty, the game features intricately detailed urban landscapes in which players stage acts of civil disobedience.  Players progress by analyzing and selecting fictional characters to join their cause.  Then they choose from a list of 84 possible acts of protest to execute.

The game's artificial-intelligence (AI) engine decides whether to arrest, shoot, or ignore the protesters.  A player's progress is measured by the number of characters who join or abandon the movement -- and whether the oppressive regime is overturned.  The game also boasts scenario-editor software that allows customization, such as plugging in elements like scanned maps of real countries or cities, or importing photographs and biographical data of actual people.

"LEARNING BY DOING."  Although A Force More Powerful is primarily intended for real-life activist training, York believes it could find popularity as an innovative strategy game.  According to the latest statistics from industry researcher NPD Group, strategy games generated $249 million in revenue in the 12 months prior to November, 2005. While this is a dip from the $274 million generated in 2004, the Entertainment Software Assn.'s most recent published statistics state that 27% of all PC games sold are strategy titles, representing the largest sales across all categories of PC games.  By comparison, shooters make up only 16% of the PC-game market.

A Force More Powerful has its roots in a three-hour PBS documentary series of the same name, produced by York Zimmerman and broadcast in 2000.  The film's creative team followed up with a book, published in 2000, and a second documentary on the ousting of Slobodan Milosevic, called Bringing Down a Dictator.  They also founded the ICNC, which is based in Washington.

"The films were never intended to be used for training activists, but audience members informed us they were used that way," says York. "We thought there must be another tool that would be more effective.  The best method is learning by doing, and a video game lets people engage in actual conflict or struggle," York adds.  So York Zimmerman began developing the game in 2002.

VIRTUAL DESPOTS.  One challenge was to design a game capable of simulating complex social interaction.  "That meant coming up with a game engine based on economic, social, and political factors," York says.  He went out and bought turn-based strategy games like Age of Empires and Tropico, which feature historical battles and drawn-out scenarios, to see how long, slow processes had translated to the computer screen.  York Zimmerman then hired Breakaway Games, the company that developed Tropico, as well as a number of "serious games," such as emergency-response simulations used by schools and hospitals.

Another challenge was to come up with governmental nemeses that were believable.  Having made films about a variety of dictators, York Zimmerman compiled data from its research.  "We came up with a pretty comprehensive catalog of dictator behaviors, based on how they impose rules or how they react to opposition against their reigns," York says.

In order to inject the game with a sense of authenticity, York brought on Ivan Marovic -- one of the founders of Serbian student movement Optor, which helped to topple Milosevic in the 1990s -- as a "design associate."  Marovic has been a self-described gamer for 20 years, since he was a 12-year-old with a Commodore 64.  He now works as a consultant for pro-democracy groups around the world.

SMALL VICTORIES.  Marovic solved two vital game-design issues.  The first was how to bring the aspect of emotion into game play.  "I added the ideas of fear and enthusiasm," says Marovic.  "I learned from experience that if enthusiasm is low, people are not willing to join a movement."

He adds, "Support doesn't mean much if fear is high.  If they think there will be violence, protesters will stay at home.  I wanted to bring these ideas into the game."

Marovic suggested that the designers could increase enthusiasm by offering players small victories on the path to the final objective.  For example, a player can organize a protest in front of a civic building and recruit more allies, so enthusiasm -- measurable by the number of new recruits -- goes up.  The AI engine playing the role of the oppressive regime usually plays on fear and starts arresting or killing protesters at the next event.  Protesters then can retaliate and gain enthusiasm by staging a candlelight vigil for the victims.

"A REAL BRAIN CRACKER." The other game-design problem that Marovic addressed was making sure the AI was believably irrational.  "At first, the AI was pretty good and could give you a hard time, but it was more logical than most dictators," he says.  "So we added irrational things, like a ruler wasting money even if he is a greedy kleptocrat," says Marovic.

"You don't want dictator AI without traits that are irrational," he says.  "Otherwise, the game play is too mechanistic.  Now it's a real brain cracker."  And Marovic, the gamer and grassroots activist, would know.