peoplepowergame.com

People Power is about politics, about strategy and about social change. As a leader of a popular movement you fight against tough adversaries who control the police, the army and bureaucracy, even the media. The only weapon in your hand is your strategic skill and ingenuity.

A unique interactive teaching tool in the field of nonviolent conflict, People Power was produced for The International Center on Nonviolent Conflict (ICNC) by York Zimmerman Inc.

People Power is built on nonviolent strategies and tactics used successfully in conflicts around the world. The game simulates nonviolent struggles to win freedom and secure human rights against a variety of adversaries, including dictators, occupiers, corrupt regimes, and to achieve political and human rights for minorities and women. The game models real-world experience, allowing players to devise strategies, apply tactics and see the results.

In creating People Power, our development team incorporated the hundreds of ideas and suggestions sent from users around the world who’d played our first game, A Force More Powerful.

About the Game

• Audience – People Power is a learning tool for people who want to use nonviolent action in their own struggles for rights and freedom. The game also serves as a simulation model for academic studies of civil resistance, and an educational tool for civil society groups and anyone who wants to learn more about the power and strategic applications of civil resistance.
• Game Play – People Power is a single-player, turn-based game in which the player takes on the role of strategist in a nonviolent movement against a variety of adversaries in pre-packaged scenarios. As the player takes charge of the movement’s materials and human resources, recruits new members and builds alliances, the player also learns the necessity of strategic planning and the skills involved in choosing goals and tactics. The adversary is controlled by the game’s artificial intelligence.
• Complex models of social interaction make up the game engine, incorporating political and economic factors, ethnicity, religion, media and communications, and resource availability, among others.
• Community - People Power is more than a game. It’s an opportunity to join a community of others who want to learn about civil resistance and nonviolent strategies. Users are encouraged to design their own scenarios and post them on the scenario page, available to the whole community. With this first edition, you are invited to participate in our 'Open Beta' phase of development. Play the game, then send us your comments, suggestions, and criticism. You will become part of the team, working to improve the game and make it more useful to more players. On our Forum, you can exchange ideas with other players and scenario writers.

This game is recommended for players age 14 and older, and is currently available in English. We will release versions of the game and scenarios in Arabic, Farsi, Russian and Spanish in the next 6 months.

The Game Developers

People Power is the product of a three-year collaboration of experts on civil resistance and nonviolent strategy. The International Center on Nonviolent Conflict encourages and disseminates information on civilian-based, non-military strategies to establish and defend democracy and human rights worldwide. York Zimmerman Inc. is an independent film and video production company located in Washington, D.C. that produces documentaries about people and ideas that change the world. Veterans of recent successful nonviolent campaigns consulted actively in the design and development, including Ivan Marovic, a founder of Otpor!, the Serbian resistance movement that played a critical role in the defeat of Slobodan Milosevic. Political scientists, sociologists, and economists also provided advice.

System Requirements

• The game is compatible with Windows XP (SP2 or later), Vista (all), and Windows 7; MacIntosh 10.4.11 (or later) and Linux. On all systems, Adobe AIR (version 2.0 or later) must be installed before installing the game.
• Game Resolution: The minimum supported screen resolution is 1024 x 768.
• Netbook Users: The minimum vertical resolution is incompatible with most "netbook" computers. The game will not be displayed properly and will be unplayable on most netbooks.
• PC, minimum: Pentium 3, 1GHz or faster processor, 512MB RAM. 300MB free on HD
• PC recommended: Pentium 4, 2GHz or faster, 1GB RAM. 300MB free on HD.
• MAC: Intel Core™ Duo1.83GHz or faster; PowerPC® G4 1GHz or faster, 512MB RAM. 300MB free on HD.