Norwegians are finding it increasingly difficult talking to each other.

In a survey conducted by the Nobel Peace Center, nearly half of the respondents said that they had lost touch with family or friends due to lack of good dialogue. And 64 percent had seen simple disagreement escalate into conflict. This shift towards polarization, although not as prevalent as in other societies, is highly worrying.

At the same time, some of the world's worst and bloodiest conflicts are resolved through dialogue. It is counted among the most valued tools of Nobel Peace Prize winners. The Nobel Peace Center wanted to show how the principles of dialogue that yield results at the negotiating table are just as effective at the dinner table.

Our solution was to invite audiences across Norway (and beyond) to participate in an interactive dinner conversation. The player guides the direction that a discussion between mother and daughter takes, centered around LGBTQIA+ issues and generational differences.

Through the branching narrative, the player arrives at one of seven endings that all underline the message:

What you say means a lot.

The interactive element gives players hands-on practical experience with dialogue. The message is then strengthened by a landing page following each playthrough, where an expert on dialogue explains which choices worked well, which didn't, and why.

The page also provides additional resources for learning more.

The story was written as a collaboration between an inhouse team and two external playwrights. This was then broken into pieces and prototyped in tools like Twine.

By centering the piece on dialogue, we touch on one of the core values communicated by the Nobel Peace Center.

Production itself was reminiscent of shooting a regular drama, with some exceptions.

For the building blocks of the story to fit together in multiple ways, the actors and director were faced with the additional hurdle of having to balance the tone of the performance to fit different situations simultaneously. This is similar to challenges voice actors in video games regularly have to deal with.

The interactive film and associated materials were given their own web presence under the nobelpeacecenter.org domain, accessible on all types of devices through regular web browsers.

Although the film is available globally, our campaign focused on Norway. It was rolled out through the social media channels of the Nobel Peace Center and via posters on the Oslo subway. We also received editorial coverage on national television via God Morgen Norge on TV 2. During the first month, we had around 180.000 user sessions in a country with a population of 5.55 million people total.

Although the campaign is over, the dinner conversation has a long tail. It is now a permanent part of the Nobel Peace Center exhibition, which receives 200.000 visitors every year.