Virtual people power.

• Author: Walker, Jesse
• Position: A Force More Powerful, video game - Brief Article

IF YOU WANT to simulate a military conflict, Breakaway Games is the shop for you: Its products include such titles as Virtual Convoy Trainer, Entropy-Based Warfare, and netSTRIKE. Its most recent release, A Force More Powerful, is rather different. The video game offers IO oppressive scenarios, from foreign occupation to repression of minorities. The object: to organize a nonviolent revolution.

One of the project's sponsors is the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict, which disseminates information on peaceful resistance. (The game will be offered at a discount to activists abroad.) It may seem odd that the center would work with a company that also makes military games, but that isn't unprecedented. Gene Sharp, one of the leading theorists of nonviolent struggle, has said that...