Virtual Peace: Swords to Ploughshares

In the newly renovated subterranean level of Duke's Perkins library, it is gametime--literally. And virtually, too. Students of Dr. Natalia Mirovitskaya'sPolicy Analysis for Development course have gathered in a hi-tech classroom,where they will spend the next few hours engaged in Virtual Peace: Swords toPloughshares. A HASTAC/MacArthur Digital Media and Learning competition winner, Virtual Peace is a simulation-game in which players deliver emergency humanitarianaid to a scene of disaster.

Butfirst a comment about language. "Game" suggests skill, strategy, rules, andlearning. Just as often, it suggests Pong, Bingo, checkers and fun, the lattera word not often seen in the context of education. Virtual Peace, however,includes the best of all definitions plus the latest in digital technology, blowingtraditional memes of gaming wide open. For those who regularly slip intofantastical roles inside massive multi-players games like World of Warcraft,Virtual Peace makes instant sense. And yet, the two virtual realities could notbe more dissimilar--in Virtual Peace, dungeons and monsters are replaced bynatural disasters and a quest for humanitarian aid. Here, we find skill, strategy, rules andlearning seamlessly paired with role-playing in a virtual reality, and allthis in the name of education and international development.

Today,students enter a Virtual Peace scenario featuring Hurricane Mitch, a storm thatdevastated Nicaragua and Honduras in1998. It is surprisingly hot in the classroom, a result, perhaps, of so manybodies and even more computers powering the simulation. Dr. Mirovitskaya, one of Virtual Peace's project leaders, notesthe heat when she addresses the class, pointing out that disaster situationsoften lack niceties such as air-conditioning. It's a comment that gets nodsfrom the students and murmurs of agreement--some have already worked inconditions that were less than ideal, including Rotary Peace Fellows from the Duke-UNC Rotary Centerfor International Studies in Peace and Conflict Resolution. For tonight's gamescenario, the heat is uncannily fitting.

Forseveral minutes, footage of Hurricane Mitch plays simultaneously on rows offlatscreen computers, a stark reminder that human suffering is antithetical to theconcept of play. Tonight's humanitarian aid training simulator will givestudents an opportunity to immerse themselves in situations that are nearlyimpossible to prepare for. Kacie Wallace, Senior Research Scholar at Duke'sInformation Science and Information Studies (ISIS) and a Virtual Peace project leader, helped design the scenarios,write the scripts, and create the avatar roles based on real people and real NGOsthat delivered emergency aid to post-Mitch Honduras and Nicaragua.

Wallace,who currently teaches a class at Duke in Conflict Resolution and Film, explainsthat professors can use "curveballs," messages they send to individual studentsduring the game, altering the dynamics of the scenario with unexpected crises.As students attempt to work among a variety of government and non-governmentagencies from around the world, these unpredictable moments can create powerfullearning experiences that will better prepare them for working in the field.

Butthe game is only one part of the immersive experience, explained Dr. Tim Lenoir,Duke Jenkins Chair of New Technologies and Society and a Virtual Peace project leader. Professors can tagcertain moments in the game and re-visit them during after-action reviews, anda complementary website provides context for Hurricane Mitch, describes NGOsinvolved in the disaster, and offers a social network for classmates. Add tothis the ability to archive the games and Virtual Peace appears primed tobecome a staple training tool for the international development community.

Lenoir watches students fromthe back of the classroom, helping to make sure that the simulation runssmoothly. While the students take a few moments to log in, he explains to methat Virtual Peace can be played simultaneously by people located all over theworld, an important feature given the international scope of the project. It isreally this moment that confirms how cool Virtual Peace is, a word I reserveonly for things that have a true wow factor. There are cross-cultural issues inmost international crises, and being able to role-play in a high-stakesscenario with global players takes this game-simulation to a whole new level.

Jerry Heneghan, anotherVirtual Peace project leader, is CEO and founder of Virtual Heroes, a companywhose motto is "play, learn, become." A quick look at VirtualHeroes.com revealsprevious work with virtual realities, and a theme emerges: America's Armyand HumanSim represent environments that are too risky, too expensive, or too unpredictableto immerse people and train them in real life. Heneghan is on hand, workingwith his team to solve any last-minute glitches as Virtual Peace gets ready,literally and virtually, for the world stage.

By the time I gather my thingsto head home, the students and professors are well into the game, role-playing asrepresentatives of the world's great aid agencies, from Oxfam to UNICEF to theWorld Health Organization, each immersed in post-Hurricane Mitch disasterrelief. Over the next few weeks, they will revisit their experience together,re-playing moments where human action and decision changed thecourse of the game, for better or worse. Students will post observations,questions, answers and insights to their social network, thinking through thegame affordances as a means to solving some of our most pressing humanconditions. I can picture them now, seated at their computers with headsets on, wearing their game face and solving the world's problems.

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For more information: Virtual Peace (http://virtualpeace.org),the humanitarian assistance training simulation. Brought to you throughthe generous support of the MacArthur Foundation and HASTAC. VirtualPeace was created by Duke's Tim Lenoir (full project team: http://virtualpeace.org/people.php)in collaboration with Virtual Heroes, Duke-UNC Rotary Center, Duke'sComputer Science Department, and Duke Information Science + InformationStudies (ISIS).

Click here to see a video of Virtual Peace.