"Peacemaker" – for Serious Gamers Only : Associated Press

PITTSBURGH (AP) - Mar. 31, 2006 - A Palestinian suicide bomber blows up a bus, leaving the newly elected Israeli prime minister to puzzle over a response.

The complex choices facing leaders in the Middle East have long confounded observers. But two graduate students at Carnegie Mellon University are hoping their video game based on the conflict will help players find solutions - and raise capital for their new company.

Asi Burak and Eric Brown, along with a team of other students, have spent more than a year building PeaceMaker, a computer game that attempts to simulate the violence and political turbulence of the Israeli-Palestinian struggle.

My son was on the development team but accepted a position with another game producer in January.

Both he and I hope that there's a market for videogames that are not merely "shooters" but offer some other entertainment value.