The Abraham Accords’ Newest Yield: Video Games
The Abraham Accords’ Newest Yield: Video Games
The Abraham Accords’ Newest Yield: Video Games
By Mike Wagenheim
May 17, 2021
Summary
US, Israel, Bahrain, UAE youth to combine in development exchange program to create video games with a social message.
The US State Department is set to help 2,700 students in the United States, Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain engage in a virtual student exchange program centered on the development and creation of social impact video games.
Game Exchange is being led by the New York-based nonprofit Games for Change, also known as G4C, whose mission is to support the creation of video games with a social message.
"We've been developing a relationship with the Department of State over the last few months. They've begun to recognize how games can be used for diplomacy, Games for Change President Susanna Pollack told The Media Line.".
"We ran a program for Ukrainian game developers on social impact games a few months ago and we were made aware of this opportunity to create a virtual exchange program and use games as a platform to bring young people together and design games around social impact issues," she said.
"We've been teaching young people how to make social impact games for the past six years. What's new about this program is that we are now for the first time going to add to that learning opportunity and actually have young people from these different countries come together and collaborate on making games around social impact issues. So, it's a great opportunity to build on what we know is an effective tool for learning and create this cross-cultural collaborative process that brings these students together," said Pollack.
The Games for Change program will allow us to continue supporting young people as they build new relationships throughout the region to use gaming as a tool for promoting greater tolerance and peaceful coexistence.
Games for Change decided on neutral, noncontroversial, palatable topics for game development for Game Exchange, opting to make games about the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, which provides a range of issues that are of global importance and which kids can identify with, and issues through which dialogue can be created.
Making engaging video games based on topics like poverty and climate change can be a challenge.
"The Games for Change program will allow us to continue supporting young people as they build new relationships throughout the region to use gaming as a tool for promoting greater tolerance and peaceful coexistence," Wishman said.
Reference
Wagenheim, M. (2021, May 17). The Abraham ACCORDS' NEWEST Yield: Video games. The Media Line. https://themedialine.org/life-lines/the-abraham-accords-newest-yield-video-games/.