Below are images of The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe designed by architect Peter Eisenman and engineer Buro Happold. It consists of a 19,000 square metres (4.7 acres) site covered with 2,711 concrete slabs or "stelae", arranged in a grid pattern on a sloping field.
Building began on April 1, 2003 and was finished on December 15, 2004.
The memorial graveyard is situated right in the center of Berlin with a purpose to constantly remind the general public of the evil done to the jews during the war.
From architectural point of view the place is rather dull. Personally, I have nothing against jews, but I don't think it is good idea at all to have a graveyard right in the center of the city (even a symbolic one!). Moreover, I believe that it is detrimental to the city's health, both from spiritual view and a practical one, to have a negative 19,000 square spot in its heart. Nor do I believe that its place and purpose is justifiable in 2011.
Wouldn't it be healthier to use this space to build something that would promote Peace &Love instead of Fear & Hate?
Here's an idea that brings a new meaning to multiplayer war games: To educate the players about real life political views of both conflicting sides and let them decide which cause they want to fight for.
The game emulates the real life conflict conditions in the Middle East between Israel and Palestine. Military and diplomatic actions are played in real time by players from different countries in the world.
How it works:
1. The player joins the army after reading statestments from both warring sides of the conflict. 2. After joining the army the player can choose to participate as a "diplomat" (to work on diplomatic strategies and solutions) , as a "warrior" (to fight in battlefield) or as a "journalist" (to witness the events and to report about them on blogs and social networks). 3. Battles are set daily at fixed time. 4. The army that wins most battlefields gets the highest score. 5. The army's diplomats can use the scores as leverage in negotiations with the opposite army.
The ultimate goal of the game is to achive political status quo and bring peace to the region.
Military and political strategies can be discussed and decided by players on special forums and social networks. War reports are sent around the clock via sms, adding reality. For example:
Palestinian army successfully liberated North of West Gaza.
Sergeant X was killed yesterday in Romalla.
X was graded up as a captain.
X was graded up as chief reporter.
A piramid scheme network:
The player can grade up in the army by recruiting friends as downline "warriors". The same grading principle applies for "diplomats" and "reporters".
Best strategies and tactics from the game will be analized and suggested for possible application in analog world.
All in all, it would be interesting to see if the crowd wisdom can beat real life politicians and generals.
this could be a cool project for private gaming companies like Kuma Games.
This idea was inspired by the following viral campaign for a snack brand. They created 2 armies devided by the taste preferences of two different flavours of the snack. The armies fought eachother using mobile phones technology.
