Survey
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
THE STORY OF “THE PATH” “THE PATH” Board game is a new board game for Muslim Children ages 6 and above. It is a bit like Monopoly, but there is no money or dice in the game. The winner of the game is the player that collects the most ‘Good Deeds’, and raises the most Muslim Children. It is now the best selling “board game” in the Middle East. This article tells the story of the inventor, an American who embraced Islam, and how the game was finally created. We have a famous saying: “Necessity is the mother of invention”. If we really want to look at where any good idea came from, we don’t have to look any further than the need that was there, before the idea came along. THE PATH Board Game, a game designed specifically for Muslim Children, was also invented to fill a need. The inventor of the game, Brother Omar Bill Lowrey, is an American who embraced Islam in 1988, in the USA. Brother Omar grew up in the 1960’s and 1970’s, where board games and card games were the only games to play inside the house. No computer games had been invented yet, no Nintendo and no Playstation were available. He learned chess from his father at age 9, and Bridge (Bridge is the most famous of all card games, played by sophisticated and educated peoples from all Western countries) from his mother at age 13. He played Monopoly, Scrabble, Risk, Stratego and all the other well known board games, including many that were not so well known. When Omar embraced Islam in 1988, alhamdulillah, he already had 3 children from a previous marriage. At that time, they had plenty of outdoor activities to keep them busy. He took his children for BMX bicycle racing each weekend. He taught them how to hunt and fish and swim. At first there wasn’t any real need for board games to play inside the house. Omar later realized that the American society was having a bad effect on his children. They were learning a lot more than just English, Math and Science at school. They were learning bad behavior and wrong concepts about life. Omar felt that the best thing to do was to make Hijra from dar ul kufr, to dar ul Islam. The leave the Non-Muslim countries and move to live in the Muslim countries. To put his children in Muslim schools, let them learn Arabic, memorize the Quran and learn the good manners of the Muslim Children. This path led him to live in many countries and many different situations. After short periods of living in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Jordan and Egypt, the end of that path was finally settling down in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, close to Makkah and Madinah. Omar married again, and at the time of writing this article, he now has 2 wives and 13 children, masha’Allah! According to Omar, this was one of the major factors driving the invention of the game. Let us read what Omar himself says, when asked about the game: “Before Islam, we used to celebrate Christmas and Birthdays. These holidays were all about giving gifts. When we embraced Islam, I was determined to celebrate only the two Eids, but make them big and special for my children. My goal for my eldest children, was to make Eid ul Fitr so special, that they would forget all about earlier non-Muslim Page 1 of 5 holidays that we had celebrated. When Eid ul Fitr comes in my house, I pull out all the stops and everyone gets gifts. Good gifts and great toys. But it didn’t take me that many years to realize that the only toys and games available in the market, are the exact same toys and games that I played when I was a kid! Didn’t the Muslims make any toys designed for their children? Well, I was disappointed to find out that the answer to that question is a big NO!” “Unfortunately, the Muslims go to the toy stores and the book stores and basically they are forced to buy toys and games that were never invented or designed for their children. The problem is that there are many Non-Muslim ideas, and even outright Haram things in many of the games and toys that we find in the market. What choice do we have? We either buy the toys and games available, or our children suffer and feel bad when they see what their friends and relatives play with. Who is to blame for this situation?” “When you stop and think about it, who has more children in this world? The Muslims, that’s who! There is no single country in the world today, where non-Muslims have a higher birth rate than the Muslims do! We are producing more children and raising bigger families. And on top of all that, the Muslims care more about their children when it comes to products that may effect their way of thinking, or change their moral values. So why isn’t there more toys and games designed for Muslims???” Omar goes on to blame the big toy companies and game companies…. “It seems to me that the big toy and game companies of the world have purposely ignored the needs and wants of the Muslim market. Why should they bother to make special toys for us, when we are buying their toys without so much as a complaint. One of the popular games being marketed now in Muslim countries for the video console market, has the player set to task that he/she must destroy the Masjid, before he/she can continue to advance in the game. In almost 50% or more of all war/fighting video games in the market, guess who the enemy is? Muslims or Arabs of course! There are no efforts by any of these companies to remove things offensive or forbidden for Muslims. What ever happened to the Western concept that “The customer is always right”? I realized fairly quickly that we need a company to design and produce games especially for our Muslim children.” Thus came “Delaware Games”. Omar setup the first company, Delaware Games, in the state of Delaware, in the USA. “Delaware is the 1st State of the 50 United States and it has business laws setup to protect the business from gratuitous law suits.” Some people ask why not name the company “Islamic Games” or “Muslim Games” or something like that? Omar says, “We don’t make Islamic games. We make games that are suitable for Muslim children. An Islamic game would be like some kind of quiz game which teaches the Quran or Hadith or something like that. What we need are games that first and foremost are fun to play, but at the same time they don’t have anything bad inside. Then we should look to give the game a look and style that Muslims will feel comfortable and proud about. We need a game company that Muslim parents can trust, but is has a good, modern name. Delaware Games is easy to remember, has a nice sound to it and we hope that Muslim parents will remember in the future.” Page 2 of 5 Then Omar set about the process of designing the first game: “I used to play all our board games with my children, and I took note of what worked and what didn’t work in a board game. What the children liked and what they didn’t like. Starting from there, the first game just slowly evolved from and idea to an actual prototype. We tried many different things, and we changed so many things along the way.” THE PATH went through 3 prototypes, all of which were played again and again to see what worked, and what didn’t. “Most people don’t know that the original game had ‘play money’ inside. Players would receive money based on their career choice, and then would have to pay for their Car, House and Marriage. What we found was, that since it was not the object of the game to collect the most money, the money was just getting in the children’s way and becoming an obstacle. They were having trouble counting all the amounts out to purchase cars and houses! In the end, we just removed the money altogether in the 2nd prototype.” Other changes were made, and families were sought to try the game out inside their homes. “We searched for Muslim families from all different nationalities, and all different levels of society. Our goal was to come up with a game, which all Muslim children would enjoy, regardless of where they are on the financial levels of society or where they are in their level of practicing Islam. We wanted a game that was very professional looking and playable, so that any family could see that this game is as good, or better than the classic Western games like Monopoly. But at the same time, we wanted to make sure that there is nothing Haram or bad in the game, so even families with strict Islamic practices could benefit from the game.” We asked Omar Bill to explain the final version of the game, how it is played, etc. This was his reply: “The game is really easy to play. It doesn’t require the children playing to have any special knowledge about Islam. Any child can play and enjoy the game, from about 5 or 6 years and above. Basically, THE PATH is a game about our life. In this life, we all go to school, get some type of career, drive some type of car, get married sooner or later, have children, get a home, do good deeds, visit other countries and go for shopping trips. In the game, every child will get a different career. There are 24 careers in the game which range from Doctor all the way down to Plumber. Just like in real life, if you start with one career choice that is not good, you can change careers later in life. In the game there are many opportunities to upgrade your career, your cars or your house. What makes the game really fun is that it plays differently each time! There are 32 different cars, 24 different houses, 56 different Good Deeds to collect, 50 different countries to visit, 50 different shopping tiles to shop for and 70 different Muslim names to name your children. Children move around the board using a spinner – NOT dice. On each space they land, they get to collect a new tile, or trade in and old one they don’t want. At the end of the game, just like in real life, the most important thing is not what kind of car you drive, or how big your house is, but how many good deeds you did and how many Muslim children did you raise properly. So the game is really fun to play, and keeps the children happy, while at the same time it reminds them of what do they really want to get out of this life. There is a winner in every game, but there is no real loser in every game. Basically every child is happy at the end of the game and they always want to play again!” Page 3 of 5 When the final prototype had been tested and all the artwork had been completed, it was time to manufacture the game and get it into the Muslim market. Omar continues: “When I researched modern board games, and looked to see where they were made, I was not that surprised to find that the highest quality board games are now made in China. I immediately realized that the company I setup in the USA was now basically useless. The manufacturers are in China and the Market is in the Muslim countries, what good was it to have our company in the USA? I immediately closed the American company, but kept the name for our trademark: DELAWARE GAMES. It has a nice ring to it…. I opened a new company in Hong Kong, DELAWARE GROUP. Now I could make the best quality games in China and send them to any Muslim country in the world!” When it comes to quality, anyone who has seen THE PATH is really impressed with the quality of everything from the box, to the playing board, to the 300+ playing pieces used in the game. “The problem today, if a Muslim makes something for the other Muslims, usually he brings them the cheapest piece of junk on the planet, so he can make the highest profit margin. I realized right from the beginning, that my goal was not just to produce the best board game for Muslim children in the world, but also to produce the highest quality board game. I wanted to make something the Muslims could be proud of! Something that Muslims could play with their children and say, “Yes! A game made by Muslims, for Muslims, and nobody has anything better than us!” After all, if we Muslims care more for our children than anyone else, then shouldn’t we care more about quality and safety than anyone else?” Omar had a prototype made in China, then made a special trip there to straighten out all the quality issues. “When I met with the Chinese, I told them the game had to be the best quality board game ever made. I told them it had to last at least 5 years for any family and to make it tough, because Muslim kids are tough on their toys! Everything I did in China was related to quality and safety. I didn’t care what the cost was, I wanted the best game ever made and I wanted it to make the Muslims proud of ourselves! Our game has better quality and more “in the box” then any of the ‘original’ board games already in the market. Since then I have been asked many times that am I not afraid that someone will copy the game and bring cheap imitations into the market? I always reply that no, I am not afraid. We made the best quality for a reason, and don’t think that the Muslims are so ignorant about quality! Even our children can tell the difference between original and knockoffs. Who would want to embarrass their own children and buy them a cheap imitation just to save a few riyals? There is a basic rule for all products: As long as you don’t charge too much for the original, there will never be a market for an imitation.” Omar then decided that the best market to launch the game would be the Saudi Arabian market. “The Saudi market is a great test for our game. You have all different levels of society and education, combined with a constant influx of foreign nationals coming in for Hajj and Umra. Board games may not be well known in Saudi society, but we will find out how in a short time if the game is acceptable or not.” Omar needed a distributor inside Saudi Arabia. “I met with of the big toy distributors, but they didn’t want to take a chance on the game. They all seemed to think that such a game would require huge amounts of money spent on advertising, or the game would never sell. Everyone was Page 4 of 5 impressed with the quality and the concepts of the game, but no one was willing to commit themselves. Finally, a friend of mine, from the Abdul Jawad family agreed to distribute the game here.” When asked about sales, Omar says: “I think they (Fouzan Abdul Jawad Est.) have done a great job so far making the game available to the public and to the pilgrims here for Hajj and Umra. We now have another distributor in Kuwait and soon we will ship to UAE and Oman, insha’Allah. The game has been doing great, masha’Allah, even with no advertising it is selling and making its way into the society, step by step.” What now, we asked Omar Bill: “Well, one thing that has become quite apparent is that we need a lot more than one game. We need hundreds of good games to keep our children entertained. We live in a society where children, especially girls, are often stuck at home with nothing to do. The weather is very hot, and it is not easy to get out so much. If we don’t come up with more games, children will just watch TV and play video games, which I think all of us can agree is not very beneficial for our children. I encourage all Muslims to invent new games, make them and get them into the market. There is enough room for everyone in the market, and the more games we have available that are designed for our children, the better! If someone has a really good idea, and they want us to publish it, we are willing to help out. Anyone can contact us through our website at www.delawaregrouphk.com We have 5 new games under development right now, which we hope to launch by next year. But it is not nearly enough. We need more ideas, more games and more support.” We asked Sheikh Omar what he will do if he succeeds in this endeavor, what is next? “My big dream is to someday make video games designed for Muslim children. Board games are great, and one of the advantages of board games is that you sit together as a family and interact with each other, just like when we sit down and eat together as a family. But technology is moving faster everyday; we can’t just sit and ignore it. Sooner or later we must produce the latest technology in video games for our children, and show the world that Muslims can make things for themselves!” Page 5 of 5