Lual Mayen’s Video Game Could Be the Key to World Peace | Bonobos
Video games have a reputation for being violent because they kinda are. Even the most innocuous franchises involve some degree of destructiveness, whether it’s stomping on anthropomorphic mushrooms or watching cute little critters duke it out like gladiators. While the implications of this form of entertainment remain a source of heated debate—mostly among misguided politicians or concerned parents that are very active in social media groups—one man has made it his life’s mission to produce a video game that promotes peace and positivity. A wild concept, right? His name is Lual Mayen, and he has quite a story to tell.
Mayen is a 24-year-old Sudanese refugee who came to the United States in 2017. He spent 22 of those years in a Ugandan refugee camp after his family fled their country’s devastating civil war, a conflict that displaced more than 2.5 million people. He grew up without electricity and saw his first computer in 2007. That sparked an instant passion.
Mayen’s mother saved up enough money over the course of a few years to buy him his first laptop, an act of unconditional love and support that changed the trajectory of his life. “One of the things that my mother tells me every day is, ‘My only hope for you is to follow the right path of life.’ That’s the only hope,” he says. “She doesn’t have any expectations to go further, because my mother is amazing.”