I've changed the look of my game

Changed it to vector graphics. Looks better and feels a little smoother now. Although the endings still have slight audio issues, the game itself works fine and has no glitches (that I've seen anyway), and you can't 'cheat' anymore by aiming offscreen. Now I just need to print out a few things into my sketchbook.

lighthouse

Pretty cool! I liked the 3d thing, should have had a jump scene though, it got a little dull, but it was awesomely made. The move-me booth seemed cool, should have had a moshing option though! Limited, but still cool technology... seems like ritual humiliation putting up on the internet though! But seriously talking, good technology. I didn't put in headphones for the films so I can't really judge.

my anti-shooter..

is done! Might adjust stuff like font but that's about it = )

my anti shoot em up game

I already have an anti shoot em up prototype working.. I decided to make a simple flash shooting game, except the aim is to avoid the targets. I'm basing it on Johnny Cash's 'I hung my head' lyrics directly, with the idea of him shooting his brother; only doing it in a somewhat comical way. Your rifle is damaged and out of control, constantly firing, and your job is to avoid shooting your brother and your father. The aim is to score a perfect 0 points; if you hit your father you lose points, leaning towards one set of bad rankings, while if you hit your brother your score rises, leading to another set of bad rankings. The higher the score whether it be + or -, the worse Johnny Cash yells at you at the end. While this scoring potentially means you could even out your score by hitting a different target, that would be far too tricky to balance to actually be done to any degree of efficiency, expelling risks of cheating for that perfect 0. Hitting Johnny cash's CD cover also raises your score by a significant amount.
At the moment you can cheat by simply aiming the mouse offscreen, and I don't know if there's a way to fix this. At the moment targets appear very fast and hectically, making them tricky to avoid, but there are still safe spots on screen to point the gun; something I must fix. I also should find the Johnny Cash 'I hung my head' song to add to it, at the moment I have Tom Green's 'I'm gonna throw the piggy off the hill' playing in the background. I'm certainly keeping the constant 'don't shoot Jebb!' and 'gosh you can't shoot poppa!' warnings I recorded, however.
As it is, I'm using poorly done images of actual people as the targets, although I may trace over them with vector graphics eventually to try and reduce lag; however, I like the cheap look fo it as it stands, its more humourous this way. I'm also fond of having Benny Hill music play at the end along with an angry image of johnny cash; although I need to find out how to edit the code to get a different ending to play when you succeed at the game.
The way I see it there are only really three ways to make an anti shoot-em-up. The first is: any genre that isn't a shoot-em-up, which doesn't rly count. Second, make a shoot-em-up where you fire non-violent ammunition. And third, make a shoot-em-up where avoiding the targets is necessary; I thought the third was the best course of action. I aim to finish the game using just flash and sound recorder, although if another program turns out to be more useful, I'll switch to it.

articles defending or attacking video games

attacking:
http://mentalhealth.about.com/cs/familyresources/a/vidgameviolence.htm
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/02/24/tech/gamecore/main676446.shtml
http://www.selfhelpmagazine.com/articles/teens/violentvideos.html

defending:
http://www.gamerevolution.com/features/violence_and_videogames
http://www.economist.com/displayStory.cfm?Story_id=4247084
http://www.helium.com/tm/158052/until-recently-active-synonymous

Personally..

I think people overreact to isolated cases of killings which appear to be linked to violent video games. These murderers clearly had something wrong with them to begin with; and would have found inspiration elsewhere for murders if not in videogames. The fact that the victim was playing the game in the manhunt case, as opposed to the murderer, is proof of how reactionary the media can be; without investigating properly, the issue of violent video games is certain to attract the attention of outraged parents.
In the case of these parents: it seems any excuse is sufficient for them to point the finger of blame elsewhere, rather than look at how they themselves bring up their children. It's quite hypocritical to complain about violent games being played by their children when they're the ones who buy the games for them, despite the big '18' certificate on such games. And regardless, any child will say they find the killing fun, just as how any child will at the same time point out it ins't the same as killing in real life. It's pretend killing, no different to playing cowboys and indians. And even if a game provides inspiration for one or two real life killings by some deranged psychopaths, is that justification for denying millions of sane people that game? And is it justification to attack the whole media of video games? I don't know about you, but I don't think so.
That said, I do agree that there is a limit to explicit content in a game. There is a difference between violence in a game to go alongside the game's theme, and having violence itself as the whole theme of the game. Nevertheless, even if the level of violence is grossly distasteful, I do not believe that necessarily influences people to kill. I'd say it's more inclination to switch the game off; relentless violence with no break would become tedious.
Then again I can't claim my opinions as absolute; everyone reacts differently to things.. and I'm not exactly a fan of most shooting games. They're fun for a little while, but shooting things quickly loses its appeal for me, so perhaps gamers who get more immersed in them are more likely to be influenced by them? Hmm, I'm not so sure, seeing as when I was younger (supposedly making me more impressionable) I enjoyed these games alot more, yet did not ever get the inclination to shoot someone in real life. But everyone's different, so thinking reasonably perhaps there should be a limit; nevertheless, the fact that everyone is different is all the more proof that parents should think carefully about how they bring up their own children, rather than simply finding a scapegoat in the form of video games.

Controversial video games

The first and probably most recent example of a very controversial game is Manhunt 2; the first game in years to actually be banned. The BBFC rejected it for classification due to the game's relentless killing, as it encourages players to perform kills in the most brutal and savage ways possible. Rockstar are hardly strangers to the world of controversy; bringing me to my other controversial game examples. the original Manhunt came under much scrutiny because of the killing of 14 year old Stefan Pakeerah, which was allegedly inspired by the game. An opdd case considering, it later emerged, that the victim was the one who'd played the game, not the killer. Nonetheless the fact that its vast amount of brutal killings was insufficient for a ban, yet it was for the sequel, brings questions as to either how extreme the level of explicit content is in the sequel, or as to the BBFC's classification; did they ban the game possibly due to controversy surrounding the previous game? There were calls for the original manhunt to be banned; indeed, it was banned in new zealand among other places. The BBFC claims the ban in manhunt 2 is due to the game's 'unremitting bleakness and callousness of tone'. However in recent interviews some of their reasoning seems a little questionable. In fact BBFC's press office manager Sue Clark's own admission of its findings is curious to say the least: "The interactivity element of it, one of the things we found, which we weren't really expecting, was that people felt that the interactivity slightly distanced them from the game. What with having to press buttons, you are more likely to be aware that you're playing a game." Of course, that somewhat contradicts the Board's self-admitted tendency to "bump the rating up to a higher category" in certain instances where videogames are concerned, while massively exploitative films such as Wolf Creek and Hostel navigate the classification process unscathed. This suggests some serious inconsistencies in the way games and films are rated alongside each other. The problem games face, which don't necessarily apply to film, is that it's much more difficult to make tweaks and changes to a videogame than it is to remove two or three seconds or several frames from a film. "It's a much more complex issue and in the case of Manhunt 2, as in the case of 'Terrorists, Killers and other Whackos', the amount that you'd have had to have changed or removed would have not made it a viable work which is why it was rejected." Yet if the interactivity suuposedly distances you from the game, is this logical to begin with?
The last controversial game I will look at is Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas; due largely to the 'hot coffee' mod, which allowed players to access a sex scene that should have been altogether removed form the game. The rest of the game, as with the otehr GTA games, was hardly immune to controvery as well; with the car stealing, vandalising, drive-by shootings (now possible on a bycicle!) and whatnot. It seems Rockstar has a taste for controversy with their games; most likely because it undeniably attracts attention. But are they going too far? Or are people overreacting to violence in video games?