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THE 3-D aerial view on the computer screen shows the capital of Infeliz, an imaginary country ruled by a dictatorship for 20 years. As leader of a public opposition group, you must choose from a list of actions to further the cause of freedom. Violence is not an option. You will test strategies on picking the best setting for a protest, recruiting members and winning the police to your side.
At a time when headlines are blaring reports of insurgent attacks and bombs, the new video game is designed to teach the potential for non-violence.
Set for release next month, it is the latest initiative by the International Centre on Non-violent Conflict, a small non-profit group that supplies books, runs training workshops and circulates documentaries that show how some non-violent movements have toppled authoritarian regimes.
The Washington-based centre's efforts have been credited with a crucial role in one such successful struggle.
In the former Soviet state of Georgia, dissidents led a popular uprising that unseated the authoritarian ruler there in 2003. Explaining their victory, one of the Georgian opposition leaders said they had been inspired by a film produced by the centre on the overthrow of Slobodan Milosevic in 2000.
Spreading the word about tactics and strategies for rising up against tyrants is just what Peter Ackerman, a businessman-scholar, was aiming for when he founded the centre years ago.
He had researched the non-violent principles of Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi for his doctoral dissertation for the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts, in the 1970s.
He then took a turn into the financial world and emerged after 14 years with a fortune large enough to underwrite his centre.
"We take no money from any government or corporation," Mr Ackerman said, adding that self-funding has the advantage of ending any discussion about whether the group might be doing the Bush Administration's bidding.
Cox Newspapers