Simon Egenfeldt-Nielsen is the CEO of Serious Games Interactive, the developer of  Global Conflict: Palestine, that deals with the conflict of the Isreal - Palestinian Conflict.

Please give us a short overview on Global Conflict: Palestine. What is the story behind it? (Gameplay and Development)
The idea for the game lies quite a few years back when I was doing research and wanted to find a way to develop a new kind of computer games that had a serious agenda - I thought that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was well suited to show the promise of this area.

In regard to the game’s story. Well, the game is basically about a rookie journalist that arrives in the tormented Jerusalem to cover the conflict. While covering the conflict he increasingly comes to see the complexity and dilemmas of the conflict.

What made it more "suited" then say the Iraq Conflict?

Well, they were several issues. First of all we felt that there were two sides that had a long history of conflict that we were (unfortunately) quite sure wasn’t going away anytime soon - remember games usually takes quite a well to get developed.
Second, we had some personal interest in that conflict although not really personally involved. We also felt that it was really important. Also, at that time the Iraq conflict was not that ’hot’. Also, gameplay wise we had some ideas for the Palestine game and knowledge that gave us a headstart compared to most other conflicts,

While developing the game, did you ever find yourself or the staff having to push your own Ideals or thoughts about the conflict aside ?

I guess to some degree. You tend to get quite involved and influenced by the particular area, perspective or view you are examining and pursuing at a certain time, so you have to be careful that doesn’t consume you. The idea is really that you have to engage with a certain perspective and provide that to the player so they will access it as directly as possible without any filters... the players makes up their own mind - if we let our own agendas control things then their is really no point to it all


One of the things, I keep reading is you mentioning to teach or learning, how do you feel this will teach, or what are you trying to get across through this game?

Well, I guess there is really different layers from our point of view. First of all players will get a good understanding of the conflicts in terms of actors, issues and problems. They will also get a more emotional involvement than a lot of other media, just browsing through the morning news on television or newspaper hardly compares to playing and engaging with people for hours in a game

Second, you have something like general themes that are not specific to this conflict but hightlighed by it - this would things like terrorism, human rights and the media role’s in conflcit like this - being a journalist you run into these things constantly because they are part of the stories you write.

Third, you actually get an understanding for how the media work, the structure of an article, the role sources play and the bias of media.
Fourth, you will actually be forced to consider an issue from different perspectives and recognize that people have difrerent agendas when you talk to them. so there is really a lot of stuff in there beyond pure entertainment

Would you say or see you and your staff being  pioneers in this new "genre"?
Yes, I think and hope so.. the area of serious games is yet to find its form, but if we look to other media like movies, television, radio and books there is a lot of potential inspiration.

Could you see this genre moving into consoles at some point or have you thought of this already?
Well, I think we are already seeing indications of this. I just visited UbiSoft and they are taking this very seriously (no joke intended) - they are developing several titles with the heading positive gaming.. that aim to provide a different gaming experience
they are mostly looking at Wii and DS as they are the most approachable and have larger room for experiments than Xbox/360 and PS 2/3.  I guess our genre being adventure/RPG is not that appropriate for console but obviously one can approach serious games with different concepts that draw on more console appropriate genres

I was speaking with someone about this game last night, and they asked if this could turn into An online multiplayer game, but I thought it wouldn’t have the same effect and would loose its message, what are your thoughts?
Well, we did think about but as a first game it is a bit of a technical challenge and our technology didn’t support it at the onset. However, game wise there are some interesting ideas where people could play different roles, but it is really trikky to get to work as the story, timing and narrative plays quite a large role - this is always hard to get to work.

So where do you see this genre going from here, other conflicts, etc.?

Certainly, unfortunately there is quite a few to choose from. We are already working on the next one which will be Global Conflicts: Latin America where there is also a good deal of interesting and relevant issues that is well suited for our genre form - we will probably take three countries - Guatemala, Bolivia and Mexico or Columbia. Like modern slavery, violent election nights, coca farmers, popular uprising and multibillion companies influencing smaller states

Is there a conflict that you or others may not want to "touch"?

I guess that depends on people personal preferences and the way of doing it - I think if you do it will respect and insight it should be possible - however, we try to keep a few years distance to the events to give it a bit of time to heal

For a person who has just got this game and is ready to play, but a little weary about the content, what do you say to them?

Congratulations, this is a completely new gaming experience that will require you to think and play different.. it will be different from anything you have tried previously, but rest a assured that we have done our utmost to keep things balanced.

Do you think that someone’s preconceived ideas about this ’conflict" could be changed by this game?

I think and hope so... of course it requires that you have a somewhat open mind, but yes I think so, because at different times you are talking, engaging and interacting with people on a personal level and understand why they act as they do... so if you favour one side or the other, I think you will be challenged, because things are really complicated

We appreciate your time, is there anything else you would like to tell our readers about the game, or your company before we go?

No, just that this is also a chance for people that don’t really play a lot of games to get a chance to explore games - they may be curious but not really turned on by more classic settings like shooting, orcs and space marines.


I want to state that at the time of this interview, we had not seen or played the game, just the trailer. After we play the game we have already scheduled another sit down with him. We will post a review within the next several days.