One of the featured speakers this afternoon is Ivan Marovic. “Ivan is one of the founding members of Otpor, the Serbian political student group. Ivan was an engineering student at Belgrade University and one of the student organizers who helped bring down Slobodan Milosovic. He was one of the most public of the organization’s members, speaking often at rallies and marches. He was drafted into the Yugoslav military forces a few days before the September 24 election and served with the equivalent of the coast guard in Belgrade. Ivan has since been involved in exporting student democratic movements around central Europe and was a key player in Ukraine’s Orange Revolution. Ivan recently partnered with a US company called BreakAway Games, that teaches players how to use strategic non-violent resistance to force regime change.” Breakaway Games is to be launched in January next year, the idea came about because of high demand from activists from other countries who wanted to improve their advocacy strategies. Among the scenarios that will be available in the game include: bringing down a dictator, fighting corruption; and fighting discrimination. Users will also be able to add their on scenarios online.
I think could be a potentially useful tool to learn from but I also wonder how easy it will be to translate the lessons from the game into the real world.